Posted in June 2023

Article written by Bart Rienties, Blazenka Divjak, Michael Eichhorn, Francisco Iniesto, Gillian Saunders-Smits, Barbi Svetec, Alexander Tillmann and Mirza Zizak and published in the International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education as part of the EU-funded project ‘RAPIDE’.

Abstract

Professional development (PD) is a key element for enhancing the quality of academic teaching. An increasing number of PD activities have moved to blended and online formats, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the desire, potential, and need for collaboration among educators to learn from innovative and best practices, several institutions have started to pool their resources and expertise together and have started to implement cross-institutional and cross-national online professional development (OPD). The questions of what type of a (cross-)institutional OPD educators might prefer, and whether educators learn effectively from (and with) peers in such cross-cultural context have not been adequately explored empirically. In this case-study across three European countries, we explored the lived experiences of 86 educators as a result of a cross-institutional OPD. Using a mixed methods design approach our pre-post findings indicated that, on average, participants made substantial gains in knowledge. In addition, several cultural differences were evident in the expectations and lived experiences in ODP, as well as the intention to transfer what had been learned into one’s own practice of action. This study indicates that while substantial economic and pedagogical affordances are provided with cross-institutional OPD, cultural differences in context might impact the extent to which educators implement lessons learned from OPD.

Keywords

Online professional development, Cross-institutional, Cultural, Mixed method, Innovative pedagogy, Higher education

Reference

Rienties, B., Divjak, B., Eichhorn, M., Iniesto, F., Saunders-Smits, G., Svetec, B., Tillmann, A., & Zizak, M. (2023). ONLINE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ACROSS INSTITUTIONS AND BORDERS. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 20(1), 30. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-023-00399-1

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License

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, so long as attribution is given to the creator. The license allows for commercial use.