Teachers as e-learners: exploring the experiences of teachers in an online professional master's programme.

This article reports the findings of a qualitative investigation into the e-learning experiences of educational practitioners in England studying for accredited Continuing Professional Development. The research was conducted with a cohort of participants studying on a mixed-mode professional learning masters programme for teachers. It focused on the subjective and perceptual aspects of the e-learners' experiences, and aimed to investigate how they can be gauged as part of an evaluation strategy which is built into course design. An innovative methodology was devised based on the collection of learner narratives which required a continuous process of meta-level engagement with their experiences by the participants. Both novices and experienced e-learners experienced unforeseen challenges in e-learning activities related to professional development. The study identified opportunities for meta-learning as central to the teachers' successful adaptation to collaborative e-learning processes within such programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]