A dynamic model for distance learning: evaluation of an online course for hospital teachers' professional development

Within the hospital school context, teachers training plays a crucial role in addressing the complex issues that characterise education in this environment. This paper describes an online training course that is grounded on the results of a survey into hospital teachers' professional needs. The course, which has a modular structure, represents one of the actions foreseen in DOCC (Dynamic Online Course Community), a model designed specifically for hospital teachers' professional training. This paper sets out to investigate the manner and degree to which the online course satisfied the teachers' professional needs. The results indicate that overall satisfaction was good, however the level differed from module to module. Further training actions based on the results and criticalities that emerged from the present study will be implemented in order to develop increasingly specific competencies.