The Digital Training Companion

Duration: January 2025 – June 2026
Status: Ongoing
Educational Level: Tertiary Level
Topic: Digital Skills & Literacy, Digital Tools
Keywords: Data Science, Digital Skills, Large-scale Assessment, Process Data

Initial Situation

The importance of teachers’ digital competence in using technology meaningfully in education is widely acknowledged and is seen as a central task of teacher training. However, large-scale digital curriculum reforms in Europe have revealed critical limitations in the way digital teacher education is currently implemented and evaluated. These include an over-reliance on satisfaction and self-report measures, as well as a lack of advanced methodologies that could empower teacher trainers and student teachers in the areas of evaluation and self-regulation. Yet, successful digital competence transfer occurs most effectively when teachers witness direct positive impacts on their students’ learning. A research-practice partnership established in 2018 between the Centre LEARN and the Canton of Vaud during the EduNum reform’s pilot phase led to the development of a framework for enhancing digital education teacher training (DTCAM). This framework evolved into the Digital Training Companion (DTC), a web application designed to foster information-sharing among trainers, teachers, and students throughout training stages. The DTC provides the system of research-informed indicators moving beyond satisfaction for both subjective and objective assessments, maps the assessments with the competence frameworks, and makes the learning of teachers and their students visible by creating an eco-system of evidence-based training data, thus contributing to policy and practice of digital competency.

Objectives

We aim to understand the mechanisms, effects and impact of the DTC on the quality of professional digital competence training. To achieve this, we are employing a pre-post quasi-experimental design to understand how the use of DTC contributes to the growth of teachers learning and motivation in subject-oriented digital teaching competence, and how the DTC facilitates teachers knowledge transfer, i.e., the growth of their students learning and motivation with digital lessons. Our goal is to propagate a more comprehensive process-oriented evaluation approach within teacher training.

Method

Ten master’s student teachers completed a 3-ECTS course on “Teaching with Digital Technologies”. The course, structured around DigCompEdu, offered resources and tools for reflection, good-practice videos, lesson planning and micro-teaching with feedback. It also included DTC-based lesson assessment design aligned with Curriculum 21, and implementation of learning scenarios with 158 pupils. After each of the six learning areas, DTC monitoring assessed DCTAM indicators during and post-training. Measures included pre-post Selfie4Teachers self-assessment, self-efficacy, perceived utility, enthusiasm, objective TPK tests, interviews with student teachers and trainers. Teachers transfer was measured with pre-post student DigComp tests, situational interest, and formative learning assessments.

Results

Data analyses revealed significant improvements in teachers’ perceived digital competence and motivation, especially regarding assessment. Yet, no significant pre–post differences were found in overall test performance measured with TPK. At the student level, most pupils demonstrated substantial learning gains (over 50% success rate) and increased situational interest in digitally enhanced lessons. An important though small effect was observed between teachers’ perceived benefits of the DTC and students’ DigComp and situational interest. Most teachers expressed moderate to significant behavioral change, integrating DTC to boost students’ engagement and autonomy while improving their own teaching practices. Trainers noted that the DTC effectively supports large-scale training and competence development. However, there is still need for more support, practical examples, better time management, quality of AI features, and institutional integration to sustain these changes effectively.

Implemented Translation

The project helped to transform the experimental prototype into a robust, production-ready web application that meets reliability and security standards and is ready for public release of the DTC start-up. This process involved extensive testing, feature optimization and implementation of industry-standard security measures to prepare the DTC for widespread use in educational settings. This planned public release provides a direct and immediate pathway for the results of the project to be integrated into educational practice. Once released as an open source, the web application will be accessible to a wide range of educational stakeholders, including trainers, teachers and institutions. Further use involves a range of Swiss universities (PHBern, BFH and SUPSI), and teachers networks.

With the aim to transform teacher training and professional development, the project addresses long-standing challenges in training by leveraging research and field-tested evidence. It provides teacher trainers, teachers and institutions with digital evaluation tools to enhance teaching quality, learning processes and student outcomes. It offers the community a research-based DTC platform. Its open-access model ensures accessibility and adaptability while prioritizing data protection and the responsible use of AI. The DTC is transforming training evaluation and significantly impacting educational policy and practice by promoting informed decision-making. The impact of the DTC will be measured by tracking user activities, collecting feedback and monitoring institutional adoption rates.

Participating Institutions