Considerable effort has been exerted to identify effective instructional methods to teach reading in the early grades. Ideally, these practices would be provided to students by knowledgeable educators. However, many educators lack linguistic knowledge of the English language and essential concepts about early literacy acquisition that predict student reading outcomes. Furthermore, the in-service training needed to fill gaps in educator knowledge is costly and challenging to deliver at scale. Online educator training has the potential to provide a cost-effective, more readily scalable option. However, limited research has explored the efficacy of online training to increase educator knowledge of early grade reading. The current study was conducted to test the effectiveness of online training to improve educators’ knowledge of early grade reading concepts. Educators (N = 86 in the analytic sample) who primarily supported students in grades K-5 were assigned randomly to one of three training conditions: waitlist control, in-person, or online. They all completed a test before and after receiving training that assessed their knowledge of early-grade reading concepts. An ANCOVA that controlled for baseline knowledge revealed that educators who received training either in-person or online had increased knowledge of early grade reading after the training relative to the waitlist control group. Furthermore, educators who received in-person training outperformed educators who received online training. This study suggests that online training provides a viable alternative to in-person in-service training and highlights a need to consider ways of enhancing the impact of online training on educator knowledge.

已经付出了相当大的努力来确定有效的教学方法来教授低年级阅读。理想情况下，这些实践将由知识渊博的教育工作者提供给学生。然而，许多教育工作者缺乏英语语言知识和早期识字习得的​​基本概念，这些概念可以预测学生的阅读成果。此外，填补教育者知识空白所需的在职培训成本高昂且难以大规模提供。在线教育者培训有可能提供一种具有成本效益、更易于扩展的选项。然而，有限的研究探索了在线培训在增加早期阅读知识的教育者知识方面的有效性。目前的研究是为了测试在线培训的有效性，以提高教育者对低年级阅读概念的了解。教育工作者（N = 86 在分析样本中）主要支持 K-5 年级学生的人被随机分配到以下三种培训条件之一：候补名单控制、面对面或在线。他们在接受培训之前和之后都完成了一项测试，以评估他们对早期阅读概念的了解。控制基线知识的 ANCOVA 显示，与等候名单对照组相比，接受面对面或在线培训的教育工作者在培训后增加了早期阅读知识。此外，接受面对面培训的教育工作者的表现优于接受在线培训的教育工作者。这项研究表明，在线培训提供了一种可行的替代面对面在职培训，并强调需要考虑如何增强在线培训对教育者知识的影响。