In a knowledge-based society, where teachers’ competences constitute a fundamental condition for the quality of education provided to students, access to relevant and flexible continuing professional development opportunities becomes a systemic priority. The creation of viable mechanisms for continuous professional growth, adapted to the contemporary pace of pedagogical and technological innovation, represents, according to the research literature, one of the most important factors of deep and lasting change in education (Fullan, 2008; Darling-Hammond, Hyler & Gardner, 2017).
Against this background, the iTeach platform (iteach.ro / suntprofesor.ro), developed by the Institute for Education (Bucharest) in partnership with Social IT, proposes an integrated ecosystem of continuing professional development, whose components – including the online course offering – directly address the needs of teachers in Romania. With a community of over 35,000 registered teachers and a library of more than 11,000 open educational resources, iTeach has established itself as the most comprehensive digital educational ecosystem dedicated to practitioners in Romanian pre-university education.
Why Online Courses for Teachers?
The continuing education of teachers is not limited to completing formal courses; it is a complex process that includes collegial experience sharing, project participation, collaborative activities, pedagogical research and reflection on one’s own teaching practice (Istrate, 2011). Nevertheless, well-structured courses, grounded in the realities of the Romanian classroom and accessible at each teacher’s own pace, constitute an essential component of any professionalisation pathway.
Reference research in the field (Darling-Hammond et al., 2017) demonstrates that effective professional learning programmes share several key characteristics: they are focused on content and discipline-specific pedagogy, involve active learning, support collaboration among colleagues, use well-documented models of instruction, include coaching and expertise, provide quality feedback, and are of sufficient duration to allow the internalisation and application of new competences. The iTeach course offering has been built with careful attention to these principles.
The iTeach Online Course Offering
The iTeach platform makes available to teachers, via suntprofesor.ro, a range of online courses dedicated to professional development – available free of charge or under accessible conditions, with completion certificates downloadable directly from the user account. The courses cover domains relevant to contemporary teaching practice, including:
– Digital competences for teachers – training in the use of digital tools and platforms in teaching, in line with the European DigComp framework and the concrete needs of the modern classroom;
– Digital educational resources (DER) – courses guiding teachers in the creation, evaluation and sharing of digital educational resources, with practical applications on platforms such as LearningApps, Wordwall or Quizizz, whose outputs can subsequently be validated and published on digitaledu.ro;
– Classroom management and modern teaching strategies – training in instructional design techniques, behavioural management and cognitive activation strategies, dimensions identified in the research literature as central to teaching quality (Klieme, Pauli & Reusser, 2009);
– Digital competence assessment – tools for self-assessment and documentation of digital competence, in line with European standards;
– Other current pedagogical topics – didactic methodology, inclusive education, communication and pedagogical relationships, academic writing and publication in educational journals.
Certificates obtained upon course completion are available in the „Certificates and attestations” section of each user’s personal account and can be integrated directly into the digital professional portfolio, featured in the „My Resources – Portfolio: my profile” section.
iTeach Courses and the Teacher’s Professional Portfolio
The relevance of iTeach online courses acquires an additional dimension in the context of the Romanian Ministry of Education’s recent initiative to regulate, through a framework methodology, the development and management of the teacher’s professional portfolio – a document applicable from the 2027–2028 school year onwards. According to the methodology submitted for public consultation, the professional portfolio will be used in key career situations: the definitive teaching examination, didactic grades II and I, annual professional performance evaluation, school inspections, and the awarding of distinctions and prizes.
Courses completed on the iTeach platform constitute direct and verifiable evidence of commitment to continuing training, contributing to the career development and professional preparation components of the portfolio. Their digital and online-accessible character facilitates their immediate inclusion in any portfolio format – physical or digital – without additional administrative burden.
Research confirms that professional development opportunities with direct practical applicability significantly increase the quality of curricular implementation (Cohen & Hill, 2001, cited in Fullan, 2008), while a system of comprehensive professional training portfolios – in which online courses play an important role – was explicitly recommended as an instrument for modernising continuing education as early as 2010 by the Institute of Educational Sciences.
iTeach Courses within an Integrated Professional Development Ecosystem
A distinctive feature of the iTeach offering is that professional learning does not take place in isolation, but within an integrated digital ecosystem: courses are complemented by the possibility of publishing articles in ISSN-registered educational journals, creating and validating digital educational resources on digitaledu.ro, participating in thematic discussions, and interacting with a community of tens of thousands of colleagues. This integration responds to the vision according to which online socio-professional networks can function as genuine communities of learning and transfer of good practices (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Istrate, 2011).
The iTeach points system, conceived as a partial indicator of the level of professional development, reflects precisely this holistic approach: activity documented on the platform – including course completion – accumulates as an expression of professional engagement, not merely as an administrative formality. This transforms iTeach from a simple course provider into a living space of continuous professionalisation, in which every teacher can build, step by step, a consistent and credible professional portfolio.
Conclusions
The iTeach online course offering represents an essential component of a continuing professional development ecosystem designed to respond to the real needs of teachers in Romania – flexible, accessible, free, grounded in teaching practice, and integrated with the platform’s documentation and reflection tools. At a moment when the regulatory framework for the professional portfolio is imminent, investing in continuing professional development through iTeach is not merely an opportunity, but a strategic decision for any teacher committed to the quality of their career.
Open-access platforms, built on sound principles of adult learning pedagogy and contemporary collaborative technologies, represent the model of continuing professional development for the future – and iTeach has already been, for more than a decade, a reality of that future.
Bibliogtaphy
Darling-Hammond, L., Hyler, M. E., & Gardner, M. (2017). Effective teacher professional development. Learning Policy Institute.
Editor iTeach (2026). Developing and Managing the Teacher’s Professional Portfolio. iTeach Platform. In: EDICT – Revista educatiei 3/ 2026. https://edict.ro/developing-and-managing-the-teachers-professional-portfolio-iteach-platform/
Fullan, M. (2008). Curriculum implementation and sustainability. In F. M. Connely (Ed.), The Sage Handbook of Curriculum and Instruction (pp. 113–122). Sage Publications.
Institute of Educational Sciences. (2010). Restructuring the national curriculum. Analysis of implementation conditions. ISE.
Istrate, O. (2011). Landmarks of educational innovation: The iTeach programme for the continuing professional development of teachers. iTeach: Experiențe didactice, 9. https://iteach.ro/experientedidactice/
Klieme, E., Pauli, C., & Reusser, K. (2009). The Pythagoras study. In T. Janík & T. Seidel (Eds.), The power of video studies in investigating teaching and learning in the classroom (pp. 137–160). Waxmann.
Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge University Press.
Ministry of Education and Research. (2023). Framework methodology on the development and management of the teacher’s professional portfolio [document submitted for public consultation].
Preda, M. (2026). The Teacher’s Professional Portfolio: Theoretical Foundations and Practical Applications. In: EDICT – Revista educatiei 3/ 2026. https://edict.ro/the-teachers-professional-portfolio-theoretical-foundations-and-practical-applications/
* * * Educatia-Digitala.ro (2026). Developing and Managing the Teacher’s Professional Portfolio. iTeach Platform. https://educatia-digitala.ro/developing-and-managing-the-teachers-professional-portfolio-iteach-platform/