Massive open online courses (MOOCs) for professional teacher and teacher educator development: A case of TESSA MOOC in Kenya

Abstract

This study intends to present a bespoke teacher professional development MOOC designed by Teacher Education for Sub-Saharan Africa (TESSA) team that allows MOOCs to become a viable means offering cost-effective, quality professional teacher development. TESSA is a network of teachers and teacher educators, working to improve classroom teaching in Africa. TESSA MOOC is an innovative approach to capacity building for teacher educators and teachers across Africa. The study presents outputs of an evaluation of TESSA MOOC course undertaken by Kenyan teachers and teacher educators. The experiences of the participants were that the TESSA MOOC was a new but interesting, appealing and flexible course. In addition, the participants were able to learn from one another and what they learnt may impact on their pedagogical skills. Key challenges identified include difficulties in downloading of materials due to lack of internet connectivity and use of ICT phobia for learning. MOOCs represent an untapped potential for teacher professional development that can be a cost and resource effective means to deliver quality education to teachers and teacher educators. Therefore, the teachers and teacher educators may need to exploit this learner based TESSA MOOC to build capacity for teaching.