The Three Spaces Model for Online CPD - Research - a model for designing assignments for online courses in Continuing Professional Development - Malene Erkmann, Anne Kristine Petersen and Pernille Lomholt Christensen

Oct 15, 2026

The paper examines challenges involved in designing assignments for online learning environments in higher education, with particular attention to Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for teachers and (pre-)school educators. It reviews two established course-design models—Salmon’s five-stage model and Ryan & Ryan’s TARL model—and analyzes assignments used in online CPD courses to identify recurring design patterns. Building on these findings, it presents the Three Spaces Model for Online CPD as a support tool for course designers.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages9

Reading Time23 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Theoretical Framework

Research Question and Organization

RESEARCH: The Three Spaces Model for Online CPD

Purpose and Approach

Models and Design Patterns

Proposed Three Spaces Model

Erkmann, M., et al. (2019). The Three Spaces Model for Online CPD. Designs for Learning, 11(1),118–126 . DOI: [https://doi.org/10.16993/dfl.107](https://doi.org/10.16993/dfl.107) | RESEARCH
The Three Spaces Model for Online CPD
-a model for designing assignments for online courses in Continuing Professional Development
Malene Erkmann, Anne Kristine Petersen and Pernille Lomholt Christensen | | --- | | The paper explores the challenges of designing assignments for online learning environments and looks into the use of models as analytic thinking tools for course designers. The paper opens with a discussion on challenges central to designing assignments for online learning environments in higher education. Subsequently, two widely used models for course design, Salmon’s five-stage-model (2002, 2003) and Ryan & Ryan’s TARL model (2013), are explored with the aim of evaluating their usefulness in Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for teachers and pre-school teachers, a context which has received relatively little attention in terms of research on course design. A number of assignments that have been used in online CPD courses for (pre-)school teachers are analysed with the aim of identifying design patterns, i.e. examples of how recurring pedagogical problems can be solved and, on the basis of this, a new model that can support CPD course designers in designing assignments, the Three Spaces Model For Online CPD, is presented and discussed. | | Keywords: Online learning; continuing professional development; design patterns; course design; assignment design | Introduction In recent years, an extensive body of research has been concerned with course design in face-to-face, online and blended education in different educational contexts, from primary school to university level (Nortvig, Balle & Petersen, 2018) . Few have, however, addressed course design in online education for Continuing Professional Development (CPD), for which reason this is the focus of the present paper. Online education can be defined as courses that are offered completely online (Ryan et al. 2016), and the most distinctive feature of the concept is thus the absence of the physical classroom, which is replaced by web-based technologies, i.e. learning management systems (LMS) or virtual learning environments (VLE), that offer opportunities for out-of-class learning independent of time, place and pace (Bernard et al. 2014; Israel, 2015; Potter, 2015) . In online learning environments, the participants’ engagement with online assignments – and the professor’s feedback – is particularly important as students and professors may never meet face-to-face. Furthermore, it is equally important that assignments for online education relate to the course participants’professional working lives as they bring with them years of experience and learning needs that are situated in University College Absalon, DK Corresponding author: Malene Erkmann ([maer@pha.dk](maer@pha.dk)) their own practice. In addition to this, the curriculum of courses addressing professionals includes both content and skills, which means that course design should be developed to support knowledge transmission as well as skills acquisition (Heinerichs, Pazzaglia & Gilboy, 2016) . Ideally, in online CPD courses for professional teachers, assignments should also be exemplary in relation to the participants’ own practice in which they are also designers of assignments (usually for pupils in primary and lowersecondary school) . With this in mind, the paper seeks to investigate the following research question: what characterises assignments that support CPD students’ active learning in online courses and what are the implications for the design of online courses for CPD? The paper is organised into three main sections; firstly, it explores the extent to which two widely used models for course design, Salmon’s five-stage-model (2002, 2003) and Ryan & Ryan’sTARL model (2013), are

FAQs

What problem does the paper focus on regarding online CPD assignments?

It focuses on challenges in designing online assignments for higher education, specifically within CPD where learners’ engagement and feedback are crucial and must connect to participants’ professional practice.

Which existing course-design models are evaluated in the paper?

The paper explores Salmon’s five-stage model and Ryan & Ryan’s TARL model to assess their usefulness for designing online CPD courses.

What is the contribution of the paper after analyzing CPD assignments?

It identifies recurring design patterns in analyzed assignments and then presents the Three Spaces Model for Online CPD to help course designers design assignments more effectively.

Oct 15, 2026

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