Promoting digital innovation in university teaching: Flexible thematic webinars as a tool for professional development

University teaching faces the challenge of innovating its strategies and methods to adapt to digitalisation and to prepare today's and tomorrow's students to be citizens in this changing world (Ranieri, 2024). This requires a shift beyond traditional teaching, assigning a central role to the student (Michelini & Perla, 2023). To achieve this goal, it is essential to focus primarily on the professional training of teachers, developing not only disciplinary expertise but also a propensity for teaching innovation. Therefore, the project “Digital Education Hub (DEH) - Advanced Learning Multimedia Alliance for Inclusive Academic Innovation” (ALMA), led by the University of Naples and funded under the Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), responds to the growing need to innovate university education by providing high-quality online learning opportunities. The ALMA network comprises 18 Italian universities, including the University of Florence (particularly the Digital Learning and IT Training Process Unit) as a partner. Within this framework, the University of Florence contributed by delivering targeted webinars for faculty development (Pezzati et al., 2025). Eleven thematic webinars were organised between 2025 and 2026, addressing a range of topics in the field of digital education and innovative teaching: Artificial Intelligence for higher education (5 webinars), Blended Learning (2 webinars), and 4 additional webinars on Student Response System, Digital transition in the higher education, Immersive learning and Digital game for teaching. A total of 784 users attended the webinars: 70% attended synchronously, while 30% accessed the content asynchronously via a recorded session. A satisfaction survey was implemented to gather participants’ feedback about the overall experience, specifically evaluating the quality and relevance of webinar content, as well as the overall satisfaction, using a Likert scale from completely disagree (1) to completely agree (5). The results indicated a generally positive evaluation, with mean scores for content quality and relevance ranging from 4,36 to 4,52. Considering the individual event, “Teaching microeconomics with digital games” was perceived as the most interesting webinar (score 4,80), indicating university teachers’ interest in innovative pedagogic approaches to academic teaching. Overall, findings confirm the effectiveness of the webinar format as a flexible and accessible training tool, capable of reaching a wide audience and maintaining a good level of participant satisfaction. Furthermore, the accessibility of the content even after the event represents an important added value, supporting flexible professional development for university teachers.