Predictors of teacher satisfaction with online professional development: evidence from the USA’s e‐Learning for Educators initiative

Abstract

Online professional development (OPD) is proliferating in an effort to eliminate barriers to high‐quality in‐service teacher training. Using the Internet as a vehicle for continuing professional development, however, introduces new concerns largely absent in its face‐to‐face counterpart. For example, evidence from the USA’s e‐Learning for Educators (EfE) initiative suggests that some OPD participants do not complete the online courses in which they enrol. In response to this evidence, the present study (N = 3998) investigates factors associated with teacher satisfaction with OPD via secondary analysis of EfE evaluation data. After considering participant variables, factors examined previously in the e‐learning and professional development satisfaction literatures as well as novel predictors, a blockwise ordinary least squares regression model explains a considerably large share of the variance in participants’ satisfaction with OPD (48.1%). Implications for the design and implementation of OPD and the training of facilitators to increase satisfaction are discussed.