MOOCs in teachers’ professional development: examining teacher readiness

Abstract

MOOCs play an important role in teachers’ professional development. However, little is known about teacher readiness to participate in a MOOC and research data is very limited, especially in the Greek context. Thus, the purpose of the present study is the investigation of readiness of primary and secondary public school teachers to participate in MOOCs as a way of professional development. A total of 216 Greek in-service teachers participated in the quantitative study and attitudes towards readiness dimensions were examined. The results revealed that the teachers in general show quite high level of readiness to use MOOCs in the context of their professional development, while some of their individual characteristics seem to affect certain dimensions. In particular, teachers show low awareness of MOOCs level, recognize the benefits of MOOC learning as well as MOOC usefulness in their professional development. Still, further investigation is needed.