The role of the online professional learning community in developing formative e-assessment strategies for in-service Omani teachers / Musabah Al Breiki and Dr. Wan Ahmad Jaafar Wan Yahaya

Previous studies indicated that teachers may have knowledge of formative assessment strategies but they lack using these strategies in the classroom. Therefore, this action research aims at investigating the effectiveness of using online professional learning communities in promoting formative e-assessment strategies practices at cycle 1 private schools. To achieve the purpose of the study, thirty-Eight female English teachers participated in this study from 5 private schools in Oman. A questionnaire and semi-structured interviews were used to answer the research questions. The results of the study indicated that teachers used formative e-assessment strategies significantly after they were exposed to the online professional learning community programme. Regarding the dimensions analysis, teachers employed feedback strategies more than other kinds of strategies after they attended the online professional learning community workshops. Moreover, the thematic analysis of the interviews produced three themes related to the benefits of online professional learning community which are developing personal skills, enhancing professional skills and improving students' performance. In the light of these findings, it is recommended to train in-service teachers to implement more formative strategies such as sharing learning intentions and success criteria to their students because some English teachers are unfamiliar with this kind of strategy and they rarely use them in the classroom. It is also recommended that Ministry of Education adopts online professional learning community to develop teachers' skills, specifically formative e-assessment.