Abstract:

Although teachers and especially those of Primary and Secondary Education are positively predisposed towards new technologies, it seems that they do not embody them in educational procedure. Thus, in the last few years, the efforts to train teachers so that ICT’s are exploited during their teaching practices have been intensified, given the fact that studies have shown that the continuous training of both Primary and Secondary Education teachers is of pivotal importance.

The primary purpose of the present study is the design, development and realization of a large scale training programme in the framework of a specific open source Learning Management System (LMS) (Open eClass), for both Primary and Secondary Education teachers, using the same LMS, the use of which has adopted from the majority of Greek institutions of Higher Education. The design of programme aims to demonstrate specific characteristics of the specific LMS, such as Ease of use, Ease of Learning, Satisfaction and Usefulness. For this reason, most of subsystems have been used and especially these that offer interaction between users, so that this system is not simply used as a repository of learning material. Of 155 teachers selected, 122 started the programme and 79 completed it successfully. The high success rate indicates that one of the most crucial prerequisites for successful implementation of large scale training programmes with LMS is the need for careful consideration of the underlying pedagogy and the emphasis on the interaction between users.

Keywords:

Teacher training, long distance education, Learning Management System, Open eClass.