PARTICIPANTS' EXPECTATIONS AND LEARNING NEEDS IN AN ONLINE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE CONCERNING “EMERGENCY REMOTE EDUCATION” DURING THE 2020 COVID-19 LOCKDOWN
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Published:
Jun 17, 2021
Keywords:
Open Online Learning, Webinars, Self-Directed Learning, Professional Development, Self-Assessment, Educational Technology, Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL)
Main Article Content
Abstract
During the lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, several online initiatives have been enacted to provide teachers and educators with the skills needed to face the transition to online learning and teaching. Voluntary attendance of these kinds of initiatives for continuous professional development can be considered as a self-directed learning strategy enabling users to reduce a perceived skill gap. In this work, we explore and describe the expectations and the perceived learning needs of a group of participants who voluntarily decided to attend a webinar series concerning “Emergency Remote Education”, carried out by the European Distance E-learning Network (EDEN). The data collected through a short questionnaire, filled in by 607 participants, show that more than 50% of the respondents self-assessed their level of expertise as high. The results may provide insights into how to design online continuous professional development initiatives which are open to different targets.
Article Details
Section
Articles - Special Issue
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References
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Salmon, G. (2013). E-tivities: The key to active online learning. New York, NY, US: Routledge.
Saks, K., & Leijen, Ä. (2014). Distinguishing self-directed and self-regulated learning and measuring them in the e-learning context. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 112, 190-198.
Sfard, A. (1998). On two metaphors of learning and the dangers of choosing just one. Educational Researcher, 27, 4-13.
Soeiro, A., & Falcão, R. (2013). Assessment of student learning outcomes in engineering education and impact in teaching. ICEE/ICIT 2013.
Softic, S. K., & Bekic, Z. (2008, June). Organizational aspects of supporting e-learning at university level. In ITI 2008-30th International Conference on Information Technology Interfaces (pp. 153-158). IEEE.
Tait, A. (2000). Planning student support for open and distance learning. Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning, 15(3), 287-299.
Teixeira, A. M., & Mota, J. (2014). 3 A proposal for the methodological design of collaborative language MOOCs. In E. Martín-Monje & E. Bárcena (Eds.), Language MOOCs: Providing Learning, Transcending Boundaries (pp. 33-47). Berlin, DE: De Gruyter Open.
Van Eekelen, I. M., Vermunt, J. D., & Boshuizen, H. P. A. (2006). Exploring teachers’ will to learn. Teaching and teacher education, 22(4), 408-423.
Weller, M. (2014). Battle for open: How openness won and why it doesn't feel like victory. London, UK: Ubiquity Press. doi: 10.5334/bam
Wheeler, S., & Wheeler, D. (2009). Using wikis to promote quality learning in teacher training. Learning, Media and Technology, 34(1), 1-10.
Wermke, W. (2011). Continuing professional development in context: teachers' continuing professional development culture in Germany and Sweden. Professional development in education, 37(5), 665-683.
Zimmerman, B. J. (1990). Self-regulated learning and academic achievement: An overview. Educational Psychologist, 25(1), 3-17.
Bates, A. W. (Tony) (2011). Understanding Web 2.0 and its implications for e-learning. In Web 2.0-based e-learning: applying social informatics for tertiary teaching (pp. 21-42). Hershey, PA, US: IGI Global.
Brown, M., Costello, E., Donlon, E., & Giolla-Mhichil, M. N. (2015). A strategic response to MOOCs: How one European university is approaching the challenge. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 16(6). doi: 10.19173/irrodl.v16i6.2151
Butler, D. L., Lauscher, H. N., Jarvis-Selinger, S., & Beckingham, B. (2004). Collaboration and self-regulation in teachers’ professional development. Teaching and Teacher Education, 20(5), 435-455. doi: 10.1016/j.tate.2004.04.003
Cheng, B., Wang, M., Yang, S. J., & Peng, J. (2011). Acceptance of competency-based workplace e-learning systems: Effects of individual and peer learning support. Computers & Education, 57(1), 1317-1333. doi: 10.1016/j.compedu.2011.01.018
Clarke, D., & Hollingsworth, H. (2002). Elaborating a model of teacher professional growth. Teaching and Teacher Education, 18(8), 947-967.
Donitsa-Schmidt, S., & Ramot, R. (2020). Opportunities and challenges: teacher education in Israel in the Covid-19 pandemic. Journal of Education for Teaching, 1-10. doi: 10.1080/02607476.2020.1799708
Edirisingha, P., Nie, M., Pluciennik, M., & Young, R. (2009). Socialisation for learning at a distance in a 3‐D multi‐user virtual environment. British Journal of Educational Technology, 40(3), 458-479. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8535.2009.00962.x
Ehlers, U.-d. (2004). Quality in e-Learning from a Learner’s Perspective. European Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning, May 2004 - Best Paper Award at the Third EDEN Research Workshop 2004, Oldenburg, Germany. doi: 10.4000/dms.2707
Farrell, O., & Seery, A. (2019). “I am not simply learning and regurgitating information, I am also learning about myself”: learning portfolio practice and online distance students. Distance Education, 40(1), 76-97. doi: 10.1080/01587919.2018.1553565
Katz, I. R. (2007). Testing information literacy in digital environments: ETS's iSkills assessment. Information Technology and Libraries, 26(3), 3-12. doi: 10.6017/ital.v26i3.3271
Kelly, H. (2014). A path analysis of educator perceptions of open educational resources using the technology acceptance model. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 15(2), 26-42. doi: 10.19173/irrodl.v15i2.1715
Knowles, M. S. (1975). Self-directed learning: A guide for learners and teachers. New York, NY, US: Association Press. doi: 10.1177/105960117700200220
Knowles, M. S., Holton, E. F., & Swanson, R. A. (2015). The adult learner: The definitive classic in adult education and human resource development. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
Louws, M. L., Meirink, J. A., van Veen, K., & van Driel, J. H. (2017). Teachers' self-directed learning and teaching experience: What, how, and why teachers want to learn. Teaching and Teacher Education, 66, 171-183. doi: 10.1016/j.tate.2017.04.004
Meirink, J. A., Meijer, P. C., & Verloop, N. (2007). A closer look at teachers’ individual learning in collaborative settings. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 13(2), 145-164. doi: 10.1080/13540600601152496
OECD (2019), TALIS 2018 Results (Volume I): Teachers and school leaders as lifelong learners. Paris, FR: TALIS, OECD Publishing. doi: 10.1787/1d0bc92a-en
Olcott Jr, D. (2012). OER perspectives: emerging issues for universities. Distance Education, 33(2) Special Issue: OERs and Social Inclusion, 283-290. doi: 10.1080/01587919.2012.700561
Ossiannilsson, E., & Landgren, L. (2012). Quality in e‐learning–a conceptual framework based on experiences from three international benchmarking projects. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 28(1), 42-51. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2729.2011.00439.x
Poce, A., Amenduni, F., De Medio, C., Valente, M., & Re, M. R. (2019). Adopting augmented reality to engage higher education students in a museum university collection: the experience at Roma Tre University. Information, 10(12), 373. doi: 10.3390/info10120373
Poce, A., Amenduni, F., De Medio, C., & Re, M. R. (2019). Road to critical thinking automatic assessment: a pilot study. Form@Re, 19(3), 60-72. doi: 10.13128/form-7705
Quezada, R. L., Talbot, C., & Quezada-Parker, K. B. (2020). From bricks and mortar to remote teaching: a teacher education programme‘s response to COVID-19. Journal of Education for Teaching, 1-12. doi: 10.1080/02607476.2020.1801330
Ramos, J. (2003, December). Using TF-IDF to determine word relevance in document queries. In Proceedings of the First Instructional Conference on Machine Learning,Vol. 242 (pp. 133-142). Retrieved from https://arxiv.org/pdf/2001.09896.pdf
Rapanta, C., Botturi, L., Goodyear, P., Guàrdia, L., & Koole, M. (2020). Online university teaching during and after the Covid-19 crisis: Refocusing teacher presence and learning activity. Postdigital Science and Education, 2, 923-945. doi: 10.1007/s42438-020-00155-y
Read, T., Poce, A. Blaschke, L. (2020). EDEN initiative: Education in time of a pandemic - why such initiatives are important? [virtual workshop] In EDEN 2020 Annual Conference. Politehnica University of Timisoara (Romania, June 20-25, 2020).
Salmon, G. (2013). E-tivities: The key to active online learning. New York, NY, US: Routledge.
Saks, K., & Leijen, Ä. (2014). Distinguishing self-directed and self-regulated learning and measuring them in the e-learning context. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 112, 190-198.
Sfard, A. (1998). On two metaphors of learning and the dangers of choosing just one. Educational Researcher, 27, 4-13.
Soeiro, A., & Falcão, R. (2013). Assessment of student learning outcomes in engineering education and impact in teaching. ICEE/ICIT 2013.
Softic, S. K., & Bekic, Z. (2008, June). Organizational aspects of supporting e-learning at university level. In ITI 2008-30th International Conference on Information Technology Interfaces (pp. 153-158). IEEE.
Tait, A. (2000). Planning student support for open and distance learning. Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning, 15(3), 287-299.
Teixeira, A. M., & Mota, J. (2014). 3 A proposal for the methodological design of collaborative language MOOCs. In E. Martín-Monje & E. Bárcena (Eds.), Language MOOCs: Providing Learning, Transcending Boundaries (pp. 33-47). Berlin, DE: De Gruyter Open.
Van Eekelen, I. M., Vermunt, J. D., & Boshuizen, H. P. A. (2006). Exploring teachers’ will to learn. Teaching and teacher education, 22(4), 408-423.
Weller, M. (2014). Battle for open: How openness won and why it doesn't feel like victory. London, UK: Ubiquity Press. doi: 10.5334/bam
Wheeler, S., & Wheeler, D. (2009). Using wikis to promote quality learning in teacher training. Learning, Media and Technology, 34(1), 1-10.
Wermke, W. (2011). Continuing professional development in context: teachers' continuing professional development culture in Germany and Sweden. Professional development in education, 37(5), 665-683.
Zimmerman, B. J. (1990). Self-regulated learning and academic achievement: An overview. Educational Psychologist, 25(1), 3-17.