Abstract:

The COVID-19 lockdown has had serious implications for most professional fields worldwide. School education appears to be one of the most deeply affected domains as face-to-face teaching and learning had to be replaced by distance practices overnight. Greek educators needed to acquire new skills in very limited time in order to cope with the abrupt changes and adopt new ways of communication and collaboration. Undoubtedly, this transition has led to numerous short- and long-term changes that are bound to affect teachers’ ways of thinking and acting as well as their acquisition of new skills. Greek school teachers were obliged to transfer their work in a digital environment and use tools which they were not familiar with. This was often done without prior knowledge or training, all set in a scenery of uncertainty and fear. The provision of a short, intensive course on the basic principles of distance teaching and learning to all educators serving in Greek schools was the key to the challenging situation described. This paper aims to outline the rapid design and development of a free Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), which has been realized by the Hellenic Open University and the Greek Institute of Educational Policy during the lockdown. The aim of the MOOC was to acquaint all school teachers, regardless of their level of expertise, with the key issues regarding distance school education. The present paper illustrates all the critical points of the design, development and launching of the MOOC. More specifically, it presents the rationale behind the decision, the MOOC’s special profile, the team members’ roles and ways of collaboration, the restrictions and the challenges faced, the topics and the examples included in the curriculum as well as the instructional design applied and the media used. The first results, as extracted from the platform data and the attendees’ responses to the survey after the completion of the course, are also presented and discussed in detail. These findings highlight the need for providing every educator with knowledge of the fundamental principles of Distance Education both at theoretical and at practical level and offers suggestions as to how it can be implemented effectively.

Keywords:

School Distance Education, MOOC, COVID-19.