Under the innovation of information technologies and social media, developing the ability to learn is more important than learning specifi c things (Lytras et al., 2015).
Encouraging teachers to be active learners in their professional development is crucial mission since there are profound TPD resources in MOOCs but not yet many active learners engaging in MOOCs.
Forming a sustainable TPD model by encouraging and culturing teachers to be active learners on MOOCs can provide a solid foundation, especially in a rapidly changing society, where teachers need to continually update their professional knowledge
and skills. There are several means to facilitate this: project-based MOOCs to increase teachers’ collaboration, a system of awards to improve teachers’ learning motivation, a policy of officially recognized MOOCs for Teacher Evaluation in Professional Development, and using MOOCs learning communities to make TPD in MOOCs attractive to teachers. These facilitating strategies can become effective policies to encourage teachers to be active learners on MOOCs.
Conclusion
Information technology is having a revolutionary impact on working and learning (The Ministry of Education, 2016). Accordingly, teachers can improve their professional ability through new educational tools, such as MOOCs. A bottom-up model to encourage teachers to adopt this learning technology can reduce resistance from teachers. Thus, the government should develop a teacher-friendly environment for TPD, using MOOCs for teachers’ professional development.
MOOCs from top-tier universities can have various advantages. Teachers should make good use of MOOCs as a platform and OERs for their professional development or other learning approaches as they see them fit without cost and spatial-temporal considerations. MOOCs provide unprecedented opportunities for teachers’ professional development. Teachers should take active roles in MOOCs learning to get the most benefi ts for their TPD and so they can eventually increase their students’ performance.
The application of MOOCs has both positive and negative aspects, so using them to make up limitations of conventional TPD instead of replacing it will be a win-win strategy. Forming a sustainable TPD model is a long-term mission, and the best strategy will be to encourage and support teachers to form a learning community online with support from a TPD-friendly school culture under supportive leadership.
There are several further areas of development for TPD on MOOCs, including building a common gateway for TPD on MOOCs, designing an experimental school-based TPD with MOOCs, forming learning communities online for TPD, and creating the appropriate school culture to support TPD via MOOCs.
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