NDNU Brings Video Coaching to Teacher Preparation (via EdTech Innovation Hub)

“The platform helps us analyze and reflect on teacher candidates’ recorded videos that demonstrate their teaching practice, creating richer opportunities for growth.” That’s Kelly Vaughn, Ph.D., Dean of the School of Education at Notre Dame de Namur University (NDNU), describing what changes when supervision moves from in-person, in-the-moment observation to video-anchored coaching cycles.

For superintendents, directors of teaching and learning, and HR leaders who hire from local teacher prep programs, the stake here is candidate readiness. New teachers arrive in district classrooms with whatever observation and feedback experience their preparation program gave them. If that experience was thin (one or two supervisor visits, generic written feedback, little tie to the state’s credentialing standards), district induction has to fill the gap. If the preparation program built structured reflection cycles into supervision, induction starts further along.

NDNU’s pilot with Edthena and the Center for Reaching & Teaching the Whole Child is one example of a teacher prep program tightening that handoff. The recent EdTech Innovation Hub feature on the partnership covers the design choices and what the team is watching for.

The Partnership

NDNU is running an exploratory pilot of Edthena’s VC3 video coaching platform across its teacher preparation programs. The Center for Reaching & Teaching the Whole Child is serving as a research and implementation partner, helping NDNU design the coaching practices that sit on top of the video workflow.

The pilot is guided by the Edthena team and the Center’s frameworks. “We are already beginning to see these positive impacts in our exploratory pilot, guided by the Edthena team and supported by our committed faculty and staff,” Vaughn said.

How It Works

Teacher candidates record their classroom teaching, share the video with university supervisors and cooperating teachers, and work through structured feedback and reflection cycles. The cycle replaces (or augments) the traditional in-person supervisor visit, where feedback often depends on memory and quickly written notes.

University Supervisor Kate Maselli Zimman described what the platform changes about the conversation: it’s “a space where goals, video, and evidence come together intentionally.” The candidate’s own footage becomes the artifact the team works from, rather than a supervisor’s after-the-fact description of what happened in the room.

Dr. Halley Maza, Director of Learning Innovation and Research at the Center for Reaching & Teaching the Whole Child, framed the pedagogical principle behind the partnership: “We believe technology should deepen human connection, not replace it.” The Center’s Anchor Competencies Framework guides how the program integrates reflective practice into coaching cycles.

How It Aligns with California Credentialing

The program is built to align with the Teaching Performance Expectations (TPEs) set by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC). Vaughn noted that VC3 supports tighter alignment between what candidates do, what supervisors see, and what the state expects credentialed teachers to demonstrate.

For district leaders downstream, this matters because candidates from prep programs aligned to TPEs arrive with practice evidence already mapped to the same competencies districts use for evaluation and induction.

What It Means for Teacher Prep Leaders

Consider the contrast with the default path. A candidate who finishes a prep program with one or two in-person supervisor visits and no recorded teaching artifacts arrives at a district unable to point to specific moments of practice and explain what they were trying, what they noticed, and what they would change. District induction has to build both the technical practice and the reflective stance from scratch, and that combined lift typically takes 18 to 24 months before a new teacher is operating with the kind of self-directed practice analysis that experienced teachers do on their own. A candidate who has run multiple video-anchored coaching cycles in a TPE-aligned program arrives already fluent in that loop. The induction conversation can start at “what’s your next focus area” instead of “here’s how to look at your own teaching.”

That’s the bet NDNU’s pilot is designed to demonstrate: that structuring reflective practice into pre-service supervision compresses the runway between credentialing and effective independent practice.

Read the full article, “Notre Dame de Namur University rolls out video coaching for teacher candidates with Edthena.”

To learn how VC3 supports video-based coaching and observation in teacher preparation, visit the VC3 page.