Virtual coaching is emerging as a feasible method of providing ongoing, job-embedded, personalized professional learning to educators. This manuscript details how virtual coaching is different from on-site coaching in education. It describes field-tested strategies and technologies a coach can use to be successful when coaching virtually. There are key steps in the process for fully understanding an educator’s context, the students they support, building relationships, identifying locus of control, setting goals, choosing interventions, implementing change, tracking data, and engaging in reflection that are unique to coaching online. Specific technology tools can help facilitate each of these steps in the process. In this manuscript, we describe technology tools that virtual coaches used in their literacy coaching work. We organize these tools around a virtual coaching model, which was built specifically to coach educators in virtual spaces. We include a description of each phase, the technology that can be used to facilitate progress, a field-based example of its use, the time typically spent in each phase, and sample questions coaches may ask educators to support progression through the phases. In addition, we highlight current research on professional learning and virtual coaching.
