Pedagogical values in transition when teaching in digital environments: discoveries from participants’ analysis of an online course

Abstract

This article presents the findings of an evaluation of a mixed-method study carried out amongst higher education institution (HEI) educators’ participating in an Erasmus+ funded project entitled Digital Education and Timely Solutions (DIG-IT). The 25 educators from universities in five European countries (Finland, Malta, Slovenia, Cyprus and Italy) had all graduated from a pre-requisite 9-module Designing, Delivering and Evaluating Online Study-Units Course and for this study completed a 3-module Train-the-Trainer-course. Data triangulated from a summative online survey, focus group discussions and written assignments demonstrated that academic staff benefit from (1) convenient, training designed to help identify their teaching values and pedagogical approach(es), (2) opportunities to discover different technical solutions available to support students’ learning processes and (3) the use of a digital education quality standard framework to critically examine online courses and make continual improvements. The article is relevant across the entire professional development arena because digital education lessons learned and identified best practices are all shared in the hope of contributing to discussions related to changing roles of educators in contemporary information-rich societies.