Engagement Pattern of Course Participants in an Erasmus + Blended Learning Project for Teacher Educators

Abstract

This paper reports engagement pattern of the participants, who are mostly either teacher educators or teacher students, in a cross-national blended learning project, within the context of an EU-funded project. The goal of the project was to support teacher educators' professional development to increase the ability in teachers' technological and pedagogical skills. The method included the collection and interpretation of learning management system usage and the participation pattern in the face-to-face workshops organized to animate the courses. LMS-supported blended learning courses engage the teacher educators mostly when the activities (i.e. online quiz, forum post, peer-group assessment) are applied as part of the faceto-face workshops, some of which are mediated by online video-conferencing. Further study should investigate the underlying factors behind the low online engagement, for instance, preferred level of technology blend and interaction design factors.