E-Learning in teacher education: course offerings, usage and effects (E-LANE)

What sorts of opportunity will digital media and modern technologies offer for teacher training? Will blended learning, online learning and face-to-face courses have different impacts on teacher training? Which demographic characteristics and pedagogical factors might moderate these effects? These questions will be addressed by the E-LANE project––a collaboration between the researchers from the University of Potsdam and the Leuphana University of Lüneburg.

Over the last decade, digital technologies have become indispensable in our everyday life. This new trend has changed the way we communicate, work and learn. Although e-learning has long been an academic interest in both technology and learning science, very limited research has focused on the usage and outcome of digital technologies during teacher’s professional trainings. The overall goal of the E-LANE project is to help closing this research gap and to identify factors contributing to effective digital-based teacher training offerings.

To achieve this goal, we will first examine the extent to which the current teacher training offerings have incorporated online or blended learning elements. Moreover, we will examine the usage and perceived potential of digital technologies and concepts in in-service-trainings from the point of view of both teachers and teacher educators. Finally, we will evaluate the different effects of online-only, face-to-face and blended learning formats on the effectiveness of teacher trainings. Overall, our aim is to develop a conceptualization for effective teacher training courses, with e-learning being the central focus in improving our teacher’s professional trainings.