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This research dissertation examines the emerging area of online professional development for teachers and examines the role it can play in providing ICT in-service to teachers. The main measure of ICT in-service is how effectively participants integrate ICT into their classroom practice. As more teacher in-service is delivered online, it is important that teacher education providers assess the impact that their courses have on classroom practice. This study examines a teacher continuous professional development (CPD) course on interactive whiteboards delivered to eighty primary teachers during the summer of 2009. The course was designed and delivered totally on line by the researcher's company H2 Learning. This was the first undertaking of this kind by the company. The literature review examines the background to the development of teacher CPD; the role of ICT in teacher CPD; and considers various efforts at establishing frameworks to evaluate the effectiveness of teacher CPD delivered online. The researcher uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to determine if ICT integration can be achieved through online teacher professional development. The quantitative data was collected through a census of the teachers participating on the online course. The qualitative data came from a focus group of tutors/facilitators; comments from the questionnaire; and e-interviews conducted with ten of the participants. The research findings conclude that ICT integration can be achieved through on line teacher professional development. The study makes a number of recommendations to H2 Learning and reflects on the learning of the researcher as a result of the research process.
