1. Managing the online learning process to maximize the learning outcomes Managing the learning environment to maximize its efficacy. Evaluating the efficiency of the online learning process in a particular context Putting in practice online teaching and learning process monitoring and follow-up techniques Applying the principles of an online presentation considering the learning goals and the selected media Facilitating the online learning process to the students Applying group dynamics techniques in an online learning context Providing feedback in a timely, relevant, and clear way to the online students Facilitating the overcoming of handicapas when learning online. Planning online teaching and learning processes based on the principles of online learning Making available learning resources and strategy appropriate to a specific online learning context. Ensuring the learning environment is ready for all the players to start the online learning process. Preparing for teaching an online learning proposal. Online teaching professional development Albert Sangrà 1, Montse Guitert 2, Teresa Romeu 2, Lourdes Guàrdia 1, Francesc Llorens 3 1. Edul@b, eLearn Center, Psychology and Educational Sciences Studies, Open University of Catalonia (UOC) 2.Edul@b, Computer Science, Multimedia and Telecommunication Studies, Open University of Catalonia (UOC) 5. PhD Edul@b, eLearn Center, Open University of Catalonia (UOC) Contact: asangra@uoc.edu CONCLUSIONS: The programs that have been carried out according to this framework of competencies have worked very well: teachers have enhanced their online teaching performance and feel very satisfied for this. Finding out new informal professional development strategies is one of the following challenges of the project. Teachers with an extensive experience teaching face-to-face who move to online teaching have often the tendency of carrying traditional educational practices into the online environment. In the virtual scenario, teaching becomes a more complex task that requires teachers to possess and perform a diverse set of competencies associated to each role, and to make a proper use of the resources and support that could be available. Identifying the competencies, roles and tasks of online teachers is crucial in order to determine the teaching strategies that might fit better with online education. To deal with this, a number of projects have been and are being carried out. Each project has contributed with some outcomes leading to build up a useful framework to empower online education teachers, to support them and to give them permanent opportunities for their personal professional development. This framework is suggested for being used at the Open University of Catalonia. Marc de referència competencial per al disseny dels programes de formació docent per al professorat universitari(2010MQD00049)(20 11-12) Competencias para la docencia en línea: evaluación de la oferta formativa para el profesorado universitario en el marco del EEES(EA2010-0059) (2010-11) Identificación, desarrollo y evaluación de competencias docentes en la aplicación de planes de formación dirigidos a profesorado universitario (EA2010-0099) (2010-11) Competencies for professional working in learning environments: A perspective from different actors (AC2007) (2008) To identify, check and concrete the required competencies Higher Education teaching and, particularly, for online higher education teaching To build up a framework of competencies that could be shared with other institutions, in order to become a quality standard To organize an online teaching professional development program to be carried out at UOC for the benefit and improvement of UOC’s online teacher’s performance 1 Higher Education Teaching competence map 2 Online Teaching competence Map 3 PRODEL: A program for Online Teaching professional development at UOC 4 Education & ICT Master’s Program: Specialization Itinerary Planning and organization Learning and teaching strategies ManagementAssessment OBJECTIVES METHODS Even if each project had its own particular research design, the techniques for collecting and analyzing data has been quite common: Content analysis Qualitative interviews with experts Surveys to online teachers Interviews to online teachers Interviews to people responsible for university teachers training González-Sanmamed, M.; Muñoz-Carril, P. & Sangrà, A. (2013, accepted). Level of proficiency and professional development needs in peripheral online teaching roles. Teaching in Higher Education. Sangrà, A.; González-Sanmamed, M.; Fuentes-Abeledo, E. & Romeu, T. (2013). Issues on Strategic Online Teaching Professional Development. 19th Annual Sloan Consortium International Conference on Online Learning. Orlando, FL, 20-22 November 2013. Sangrà, A.; González-Sanmamed, M. & Romeu, T. (2013). Online Teaching Faculty Development in Spain: Challenges and Future Perspetives. Proceedings of the 2013 EDEN Annual International Conference. Oslo (Norway), 12-15 June 2013. Sangrà, A.; González-Sanmamed, M. & Akhrif, H.(2012). Online Teaching Professional Development in Spain: Current situation, limitations and future perspectives. Proceedings of the Belgrade International Conference in Education. Belgrade (Serbia), 15-17 November 2012 (pp. 168-170). Identificació i avaluació de la funció docent de consultoria en els estudis de postgrau de la Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC)