From June 9 to July 11, 2025, the Digital Skills for Teaching in the 21st Century (DS4TC21) course brought together educators from across the Commonwealth in a fully online learning experience designed to strengthen digital competencies—especially for those working in low-resource or remote teaching environments.
Hosted across WordPress, Moodle, and Discourse, the course offered five engaging modules, two flexible certification pathways, and a digital badging system. A total of 285 participants registered—over half (52.3%) from the Pacific. Interest was high in the early weeks, with 6,705 page views and an average session time of nearly 13 minutes. But despite this momentum, only 27 learners accessed the assessments, and 8 completed the full course, all from Fiji.
Participation patterns revealed both promise and challenge. Countries like Kiribati and Samoa saw strong enrolment but no completions. Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands had no registrations at all. These trends point to the need for deeper institutional support, improved outreach, and greater alignment with national professional development systems.
Still, many participants actively explored the content informally—downloading resources, watching tutorial videos, and engaging in forums. Tools like Canva, Kahoot, and mobile-based apps were particularly well-received. Learners appreciated the course’s practical focus, but the drop-off between registration and certification underscores the importance of clearer pathways and stronger motivation to complete assessments.
Moving forward, recommendations include:
· Strengthening collaboration with Ministries of Education and focal points in underrepresented countries;
· Aligning future runs of the course with school calendars and in-service training periods;
· Encouraging institutions to recognise badges and certificates as part of official teacher development;
· Providing targeted learner support to guide participants from informal access to formal completion.
This initiative is delivered by the Commonwealth of Learning (COL), with funding support from New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT).
Access the course: https://pacificopencourses.col.org/ds4tc21