Hochschulschrift (Dissertation)

Verlag Dr. Kovač, Hamburg, 2011

ISBN: 978-3-8300-5911-0

URL table of contents: http://d-nb.info/1013507606/04

URL summary: http://www.verlagdrkovac.de/3-8300-5911-6.htm

The quality of schools mainly depends on the competence of teachers. Further professional development courses as third and longest period of teacher training play an essential role in maintaining professional skills. In almost every federal state teaching personnel are required to take part in further training courses. A range of courses offered by the State, the churches, and by independent institutions are available.

For about ten years there have been efforts to supplement the available courses by Internet-based offers. Both participants and suppliers consider this positive for various reasons. Professional development courses are frequently organized as Blended Learning or Internet-based courses with a classroom structure (a framed group, fixed start and end, synchronized professional development blocks).
Modularized courses for self-teaching accompanied by a tutor have not been significantly implemented.

To make self-teaching courses part of further teacher professional development, a special online course titled Media Education for Teachers was designed, realized and tested in line with a pilot study. A survey of Bavarian teachers (N = 628) took place in order to determine the basic conditions. The results found that teachers are open-minded towards virtual training courses, that teachers have direct access to computers and the Internet and about wishes of the potential target group concerning technical items, organization and content of Internet-based courses.

The conceptual design of online professional development was based on theory and evidence. During the development phase the quality of the training was tested by means of two studies in troubled areas and optimized. In the school term 2009/2010 the prototype of the online course was tested in a field study and completed with teachers and student teachers from different types of schools (N = 387). The aim was to find out about the usage of participants, the quality of the professional development and the general acceptance of virtual courses. The survey found that teachers use course offerings at any time, mainly on weekends and holidays. Differences within the teacher group can be seen in the intensity of working on the provided tasks, the interests in the different topics and the use of the tutorial guidance.
The participants’ frequent use of the program, feedback on the Internet-based modules, and successful learning efficiency document the quality of the online professional development modules.
The users primarily are media interested and competent teachers who are open for Internet-based training and they explicitly show interest in extending the available course offerings.