Table 4 Pre- and in-service early childhood educators’ perspectives on the implementation of the TEACH study e-learning course

Acceptability

Satisfaction

• “I thoroughly enjoyed all the components of this course. I also thought it was very well put together.” (Pre-Service)

• “I enjoyed the course. I’ve been in the field for 15 years and still found new relevant information in this and that was very exciting.” (In-Service)

• “It was the best online workshop I’ve taken.” (In-Service)

• “I give it an A++, it was amazing!” (Pre-Service-1)

• “Everybody took it, and everybody loved it… including myself. And we were very thankful that we got to do it because it was so interactive, and we learned so much from it.” (Pre-Service-2)

• “Overall, it was all rich and interesting.” (In-Service-8)

Feasibility

Convenience

• “I liked that I was able to work at my own pace. Sometimes I could do one module in one sitting, sometimes I couldn’t, but I appreciate the flexibility.” (In-Service)

• “Anybody who has a computer can do these courses… people can do them kind of in their own time and it's available to more people.” (Pre-Service-2)

• “There's a certain demographic that benefits from having the e-learning opportunity. I mean, if you work full time and if you have, you know—your family life on top of it, taking part in e-Learning courses is much more manageable, you know what I mean? A lot more time-friendly.” (In-Service-3)

Time commitment

• “It took me longer than 5 hours to complete because of note taking.” (In-Service)

• “Finding time to complete the course during the week was tricky. I work full-time, so it was the weekends when I had the time to complete the course. It seemed to take me longer than the recommended time.” (In-Service)

• “The video library at the end and the resource at the end are all very, very useful. But it did take a little while to get through it all.” (In-Service-3)

Integration into pre-service ECE programs

• “I would love for this to be a part of students’ learning through their course work while learning/studying to become an early childhood educator.” (In-Service)

• “I think it fits into our courses so well that I think that there could be a whole course that we take over four months and just learn about this. I think it would be very beneficial to educators because even doing this in six, seven hours, my whole outlook kind of changed.” (Pre-Service-2)

• “I think that this could be easily incorporated into an ECE program all across the country.” (In-Service-1)

Compatibility (appropriateness)

Alignment with ECE philosophy

• “Everything was rewarding for our profession.” (In-Service)

• “After being in the early years field actively working with children of various age groups, it was refreshing to know that some of things I have learned haven't changed and I don't have to feel like such a "dinosaur" when I encourage the children to play more instead of them wanting to be glued to their screens all day.” (In-Service)

• “Based on what we're taught in school, it most definitely aligns with our philosophy.” ( In-Service-1)

• “I think it aligns very well because… everything we do is for the benefit of our children in our care and the families … learning how to maximize their time with us is important. And I think, yeah, it aligns very well with what our philosophies are or should be.” (In-Service-3)

COVID-19 influence

• “Given the restricting realities facing many children during COVID shutdowns and quarantines, this information is so important and relevant to ECEs right now.” (In-Service)

• “I sit way too much, especially now because of COVID. I'm a hermit crab … I don't leave my apartment ... It really opened my eyes that we shouldn't be sitting as much as we do.” (Pre-Service-2)

• “I think it's very relevant material … especially given the current setting. I mean, we have more and more children who are forced to be sitting at home on their couch now…and I think it's very important for educators and families to be aware of the dangers of not getting your children out and active.” (In-Service-3)

Complexity

Knowledge checks and assessments

• “Some of the end knowledge checks were challenging for first time learners.” (In-Service)

• “They were challenging, which is nice, because … I don't like doing things and just having these knowledge checks that are just like, OK, I know that…I know that…I know that…I know that. It's nice when it's challenging because then you know that you're getting new information.” (In-Service-1)

• “They weren't super easy, but they weren't so hard. So, if you paid attention and focused and did the course and didn't multitask…I thought it was like in the middle.” (In-Service-5)

E-learning platform

• “The course was really easy to use, which I think is great, especially for people who aren't tech savvy.” (In-Service)

• “The course was straight forward and easy to follow.” (In-Service)

• “I'm…technologically challenged and I got through it quite nicely.” (Pre-Service-1)

• “It's very smooth. Like, yeah…it's very easy to complete it.” (Pre-Service-3)

• “The navigation was very simple. It was easy to follow” (In-Service-1)

Context

E-learning likes

• “This is really awesome! Great presentation, side notes and illustrations that added to visual learning.” (In-Service)

• “I liked the fact that you had to complete a full lesson before moving on. As well as not being able to fast forward was ideal to fully understanding the material.” (In-Service)

• “I really appreciated the additional resource materials-both websites and videos.” (In-Service)

• “The videos were incredible. Like there was a lot of them. And being an online student now, videos are really useful to me, especially because it really hones in the information.” (Pre-Service-2)

• “I liked the external links because those are things you can save for later as well as the audio” (In-Service-2)

• “I think they have a good mixture of text and image and video. So, it's balanced.” (In-Service-6)

E-learning challenges

• “It was not super compatible with my phone.” (In-Service)

• “There were also a few times where the voiceover couldn't be paused as I was writing things down and I had to begin the whole section again.” (In-Service)

• “Sometimes the audio wouldn't catch up with the slide progression.” (In-Service)

• “I did have a couple issues with the voiceover.” (Pre-Service-2)

• “I feel like the only negative to it is that there's no way to clarify anything and there's no live interaction.” (In-Service-5)

• “If incorrect it didn’t not show the correct answers. So, we had to repeat that.” (In-Service-8)

Suggestions for improvement

• “It would have been great to have more information on the 0-18month age group.” (In-Service)

• “Break down some content into smaller modules.” (In-Service)

• “More examples from Canadian childcare centres (i.e., videos).” (In-Service)

• “A discussion board section where we can connect with other educators taking the course to further our professional development.” (In-Service)

• "It would be cool to kind of have, like, a PDF resource thing at the end … like a resource of all the different activities that were discussed or something like that.” (In-Service-2)

• “I think it was missing in the e-learning was for the children with the diverse needs. So, the special needs children…like how we can alternate physical activities for them.” (In-Service_6)

• “Maybe you can interview the early educators on what they do to incorporate those skills into the practice—like a testimonial” (In-Service-6)

Perceived effectiveness

Increased confidence

• “I feel more confident in my ability to provide great physical experiences.” (In-Service)

• “Now that I have completed this e-Learning course, and been provided with countless resources, I feel more confident about leading physical literacy interactions in my future endeavors.” (Pre-Service)

• “It wasn't until this course that I was actually confident in implementing risky play.” (Pre-Service-2)

• “Having a course that's full of strategies and videos and games and examples that show you that really boosted my confidence and being able to do these things with children.” (Pre-Service-2)

• “I'm more comfortable and confident in my abilities of going outside in [poor weather] and being able to stay engaged in the children's learning.” (In-Service-7)

Increased knowledge

• “I love the knowledge it gave me and the resources for me to expand further as well as ways I can help my families see the importance.” (In-Service)

• “I feel more comfortable with risky play with the knowledge I have taken from this study.” (In-Service)

• “I found lots of topics were new to me. The videos and resource library were very helpful in learning the new concepts.” (In-Service)

• I learned a lot of things that were briefly touched on in my courses, but I learned a lot more in depth.” (Pre-Service-2)

• “…gaining more knowledge on … the guidelines, because it's not necessarily something you talk about in school.” (In-Service-2)

Perceived benefits

Prompted awareness

• “It was all very informative and eye opening.” (In-Service)

• “I liked a lot of resources that provide new ideas for the physical activities. It surprised me sometimes how little effort it might take to get children become physically active.” (In-Service)

• “I did not truly understand the importance of physical activity until I took this course.” (In-Service)

• “A lot of it was reinforcement, but it gave me a new passion for teaching children about physical literacy and the importance of it.” (Pre-Service-1)

• “It really opened my eyes that we shouldn't be sitting as much as we do.” (Pre-Service-2)

• “my co-worker here in preschool and I—we both did this together. And so, we were able to talk about the things we were learning as we were doing it. And we really stood back and watched and were thinking about the different activity levels inside versus outside. And when we stopped and really realized what we were doing and what the kids were doing, we thought—oh, my gosh, they're right.” (In-Service-3)

Useful for training and practice

• “Tons of great info, with tons of resources to be able to go back to in the future.” (In-Service)

• “I enjoyed the amount of links to other sites to get more information on outdoor and risky play and all of the other physical literacy websites – I will be using these!” (In-Service)

• “As an educator… this whole course was great for me … because I learned so much and so many strategies for how to implement this into my everyday work.” (Pre-Service-2)

• “I used a lot of this information in my classes and to help kind of hone in my points and help others when we were doing like a risky play assignment. So even in school, after doing this, of course, I was able to put it into my classwork. And I think being able to do that made me understand it even more because I actually got to use it in something that I was planning.” (Pre-Service-2)

• “I have actually already started trying to do more active transitions and the active breaks. I haven't gathered any of the like the big outdoor loose parts materials, but I have spoken to my administrator about trying to find resources for that because I really enjoyed that part of it” (In-Service-1)

Motivation

Interest in content

• “The [professional] learning hours didn’t matter. I just…found the topic interesting.” (In-Service-5)

Knowledge checks and assessments

• “I wanted to prepare for them even more because I knew there is a test coming up … I wanted to do well, I wanted to ace it.” (Pre-Service-1)

• “I certainly liked, again, the different testing methods to keep you on your toes and make sure you're paying attention” (In-Service-3)

Tension for change

Current issues with practice

• “I would have loved to have learned more about sedentary behavior and physical activity before I started in my career because…like applying it now, yeah it helps the kids I have now. But what about the kids they had before? It didn't help them, right? So, it'd be nice to have it before people go into the work field.” (In-Service-4)

• “The situation is becoming very troubling these days and concerning that, children are spending more time online.” (In-Service-8)

• “You have these superiors over us…who are the ones who decide, not me. A little bit of rain, a few drops or a bit of snow. They would cancel recess just because of that.” (In-Service-8)

Current issues with pre-service curriculum

• “That's not something that was really touched on in undergrad. So, not a lot of ECEs really know what that is. I think it should be touched on more and this is kind of a great way to segue into that and start the discussion on it.” (In-Service-2)

• “When I went to [college] we didn’t do any training…like any physical activity.” (In-Service-5)

Relative priority

Importance of training

• “I think all educators, no matter if you're starting out like me or if you've been in this in the school system for 30 years, I think everybody should take this course because there's so much information and it's so helpful and there's so many strategies for us educators. And I think the more strategies we have as educators, the better educators we become. And it gives the children we work with higher quality care.” (Pre-Service-2)

• “I think that it's a very important topic and it should be learned early in the career.” (In-Service-1)

• “I've already told my supervisor—you really need to do this it's so good! She’s like, really it was that good? I was like, yeah, it was awesome. You should definitely do it.” (In-Service-4)