The professional development (PD) programmes initiated by the Algerian ministry of higher education for newly recruited teachers: “ICT and Pedagogical Practices” and “Pedagogical Accompaniment” cannot prepare the novice teachers for all the challenges they may face along their career. Accordingly, teachers need to look out for additional training opportunities. One of these opportunities is found in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Nevertheless, research on applying MOOCs for continuous professional development (CPD) with regard to Algeria is overlooked. Hence, this study aims at filling in this gap by exploring Algerian university teachers’ familiarity, disposition, and experiences of using MOOCs for CPD. To reach this end, an online questionnaire is administered and a semi-structured interview is conducted with university teachers. The results of the study evinced that: 1) Teachers have low familiarity and weak interaction with MOOCs in general and, 2) teachers acknowledge the importance of CPD and are aware that the initial training and the teaching experience are not sufficient to maintain career advancement. Yet, 3) they do not have the disposition to engage in a CPD, 4) teachers consider this study as an eye opener on MOOCs and show a positive attitude for leveraging MOOCs for their CPD in the future. In the light of these findings, urgent plans to implement and value the culture of informal CPD are recommended, in addition to creating centres at the level of the universities devoted exclusively to CPD and related research. Most importantly, MOOCs that address the Algerian teachers’ CPD needs should be developed.
Algerian University Teachers’ Disposition and Experiences in Using MOOCs for their Continuous Professional Development
