Up2U teachers’ Continuing Professional Development (CPD) program in Lithuania has started at the end of 2018. CPD Module 1 is accredited by Kaunas Region Education Center as well as KTU Centre of Educational Competence and is officially recognized in teachers’ qualifications development. Face to face delivery of CPD Module 1 has got a lot of interest, but only 15 teachers were accepted due to physical limitations of the training room. 

In order to justify high demand and to reach teachers living in remote regions a fully online CPD Module 1 was designed and has been launched on CPD dedicated Moodle instance. 166 teachers from 106 schools have joined this online program and took part in highly interactive learning during the 5 weeks (January 30 – March 1) of the program delivery. Teachers received the training materials, instructional video tutorials, assignments, examples of Up2U tools implementation into learning scenarios, discussion and support forums as well as many other activities. 10 training and consultation webinars were conducted during the first iteration of the online Module 1 delivery.

Each teacher had to create his/her own practice course and had to implement a preferred learning scenario for the subject of his/her choice. Those practice courses are shared for peer reviewing, teachers are requested to present them in the forum and to provide with feedback to their peers.

During activities of the CPD Module 1, teachers can earn 3 badges and the certificate:

• 1^stbadge is earned after self-introduction in the forum;
• 2^nd– for active participation and filling the survey;
• 3^rd– for completion of all activities.

The certificate is earned after compulsory activities are completed and own practice course is created and peer-reviewed.

The first iteration of online CPD Module 1 is proved to be very successful with more than 100 teachers expected to finish all compulsory activities and get awarded with certificates. There is a lively online interaction among teachers in discussion forums where more than 1200 posts are posted, and discussions still continue.  Many teachers have expressed their interest to keep their access to the online course and to all the communication channels after the end of CPD. All participants are also invited to join the Facebook group “Lithuanian Up2U teachers” that is dedicated to further communication and exchange of experiences after the CPD as well as for more informal social interaction.

KTUEMTC together with LITNET has deployed a national Up2U infrastructure where any Lithuanian school can request their own Moodle instance. There are already 108 schools that have their Moodle environments activated and number is constantly growing.