The COTE programme: Creating Opportunities for Quality Online Teaching, an Evaluation
Keywords:
Certificate in Online Teaching for Educators (COTE), professional development course, readiness for online teaching, change Path Model, EswatiniAbstract
The Institute of Distance Education’s Certificate in Online Teaching for Educators (COTE) is a fully online six-week professional development programme with four modules focused on online course design, digital materials creation, online instruction (teaching and facilitation) and authentic assessment. This paper evaluates COTE's impact on educators' readiness to teach online as observed by the course facilitators and e-tutors. It explores facilitators’ and e-tutors' perspectives on COTE's efficacy in improving educators' confidence and competencies for online and blended contexts. The Change Path Model (Cawsey, Deszca, & Ingols, 2016) guided our analysis of change adoption readiness through its stages of Awakening, Mobilisation, Acceleration and Institutionalisation. MCQ and open-ended questions were administered via Google Forms to all course facilitators and e-tutors (12 in total) to elicit their views and experiences with COTE. Questions focused on observed confidence improvements, key learning outcomes and implementation readiness among participants. Thematic analysis was undertaken to indicate how COTE aligns with the Change Path Model, developing educator capabilities and propelling readiness. Facilitators noted gains in online course design, materials creation and assessment. Both facilitators and tutors emphasised growth in learner-centred approaches, showing mobilisation. The findings show that COTE successfully awakens, mobilises, accelerates, and begins institutionalising essential online teaching proficiencies, as the Change Path Model outlines. From the facilitators’ perspective, all modules contributed to readiness improvements. While COTE builds baseline proficiencies, ongoing post-graduation support in the form of a COTE online learning community is critical to sustain change. This programme can become a model for preparing educators' engagement in online instruction.
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