Abstract:

Teaching staff play a crucial role in ensuring successful student learning experiences in universities. Preparing new academic teaching staff and offering professional development programs for those already working in universities are complex and multifaceted endeavors. As a result, teacher education has become a fundamental issue in the education literature. With the advent of crises such as the COVID-19 outbreak, e-learning has offered many opportunities for teaching staff in universities to continue teaching anytime and anywhere. Furthermore, the use of multiple electronic resources significantly enhances teaching quality. Therefore, the development of teaching staff skills in technology-enhanced learning in universities has become a fundamental part of all professional development programs. This leads us to the important research question: Do teaching staff need more modernized professional development programs on Technology-Enhanced Learning?

This study aims to analyze academic teaching staff’s perceptions of the importance of integrating Technology-Enhanced Learning skills in teaching staff professional development programs to support the teaching and learning process in the classroom. A survey questionnaire was randomly distributed to a total of 65 teaching staff at the Faculty of Education, King Khalid University in Saudi Arabia. The data for this quantitative research were analyzed using SPSS (version 20) software for both descriptive and inferential statistics. The results showed that faculty members require several training programs in all e-learning aspects, such as using educational platforms like Blackboard, Coursera, and Google Classroom. Although professional development training programs for teaching staff played a key role in developing teaching staff skills in technology-based teaching and learning in classrooms, they still need more updated and modernized training in this field. The study provides recommendations and suggestions for further research.

Keywords:

Technology-Enhanced Learning, e-learning, CPD.