The Participation Patterns of Chemistry Teachers in an Online Nanotechnology Course

This study examines chemistry teachers’ distance learning in an online nanotechnology professional development course. Two cohorts comprised of 66 teachers participated in this course in 2016-2017. The Moodle website designed for this course included an information-rich environment based on several technological tools: video lectures, a discussion group, specifically designed, topic-related animations, Padlet board and more. Much of the scientific research on nanotechnology is still ongoing, therefore, a dynamic online environment makes it easier to update the course materials. The goal of this research was to explore how different learners organize the learning process and use the course materials. We first analyzed the course activity reports generated by the Moodle system. These reports included various data on learner activities in the course website (e.g.: when a specific video was opened). With this data, we were able to learn about students` behavior and identify which activities drew more attention than others. Subsequently, we used interviews data to evaluate how learners organize their learning activities and make use of their time. We have three main findings: 1. Group participation stabilizes after the middle of the course. 2. Teachers’ participation is higher in units that are related to high-school curriculum. 3. A few months after completing the course several teachers returned to the course website when preparing their classes. We thus conclude that future online professional development courses should strive to maintain a strong link between their content and the existing curriculum and remain available for teachers long after their completion. The study also highlights an important advantage of analyzing online activity reports – the ability to identify the frequency and timing of material usage and thus its relevancy to the learners.