U.S. teachers’ perceptions of online professional development Seth A. Parsons a, * , Amy C. Hutchison a , Leigh A. Hall b , Allison Ward Parsons a , Samantha T. Ives a , Alicia Bruyning Leggett a a George Mason University, 4400 University Dr, MSN 4B3, Fairfax, VA, 22030, USA b University of Wyoming,1000 E. University Ave, Laramie, WY, 82071, USA highlights  A majority of teacher respondents had participated in online professional development.  A majority of respondents found online professional development experiences helpful.  Respondents who were required to participate in online PD found it less beneficial than those who chose to participate. article info Article history: Received 22 June 2018 Received in revised form 6 March 2019 Accepted 10 March 2019 1. U.S. teachers’ perceptions of online professional development Professional development (PD) is a vital part of teachers' ongoing growth (Fischer et al., 2018; Wei, Darling-Hammond, Andree, Richardson, & Orphanos, 2009). Evolving technologies allow for new and different forms of PD, and online PD is prolif- erating (Bates, Phalen, & Moran, 2016; Fishman et al., 2013). Scholars have argued that online PD has unique and substantial potential to reach teachers across the globe (Dede, Ketelhut, Whitehouse, Breit, & McCloskey, 2009; Robinson, 2008), and in- ternational policy advocates the use of PD as a mechanism for teachers’ continued professional learning (e.g., Jensen, Sonnemann, Roberts-Hull, & Hunter, 2016; U.K. Office for Standards in Education, 2006; U.S. Department of Education, 2010). Teachers have begun to create opportunities for their own informal profes- sional learning through social media, such as Twitter (Carpenter & Krutka, 2015; Colwell & Hutchison, 2018; Maci a & Garcia, 2016). Educators report spending several hours a week in online learning spaces like websites, forums, and social networks (Campana, 2014; Trust, 2017). Despite the growing interest in online platforms as venues for professional learning, little is known about how teachers interpret their online PD experiences, how they do and do not utilize what they learn, and what kinds of experiences they do and do not prefer. Research investigating these questions could provide insight into and guidance for providing PD in online environments, which is especially important given the current movement toward online learning environments. Therefore, we considered the following research questions: 1. What are teachers' reflections on their experiences with online PD? 2. What are teachers' perceptions of different approaches to online PD? 3. How are teachers' reflections on their experiences related to their perceptions of different approaches to online PD? 2. Literature review In this section, we first provide a brief synthesis of the research on effective PD. Then we review the literature on technology- enhanced PD, focusing on online teacher learning. This review will ground what the field currently knows, and does not know, about face-to-face and online PD, which informed the design of the current study and our interpretation of the data. 2.1. Creating effective professional development Decades of research on teacher professional learning has demonstrated that effective PD focuses on specific subject matter * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: sparson5@gmu.edu (S.A. Parsons), ahutchi9@gmu.edu (A.C. Hutchison), lhall16@uwyo.edu (L.A. Hall), award12@gmu.edu (A.W. Parsons), sives2@gmu.edu (S.T. Ives), abruynin@gmu.edu (A.B. Leggett). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Teaching and Teacher Education journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tate https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2019.03.006 0742-051X/© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Teaching and Teacher Education 82 (2019) 33e42