Building cases for faculty development in e-learning: a design-based approach

This paper presents an integrated program of faculty development on e-learning, promoted by the University of Florence since 2016. It focuses on a specific pedagogical component of the program, i.e. case studies, and on the three-phase process of design, development and testing adopted to implement them. In the first phase exemplary cases were identified to develop a design format. The second phase aimed at checking this format against the best-performers’ narratives of practice, and at designing the digital resource presenting the case. The third phase included user tests and an analysis of how professional learning was shaped in novices of e-learning. Through this process, the main elements influencing effective design and implementation of case studies for professional development on e-learning in the higher education were discovered.