Ensuring and developing the quality of interaction: the influence of blended learning online training

Recent years have seen considerable investment at European level in the expansion of childcare and education provision. Following this quantitative expansion initiative, the quality of early childhood education and care services is increasingly in the focus of research and social policy. High quality in early childhood education and care depends, among other things, on well-trained staff. This poses a dilemma for practitioners, as there is a shortage of qualified staff for a variety of reasons, and poorly trained staff are also employed in ECE settings. Online training formats can be a solution to the dilemma of quality and professionalisation. These formats are designed and produced to high professional and technical standards, but can be used cost-effectively because they can be replicated and can often be completed by participants independently of time and place.  The 'Qualimentary' project will design and scientifically support an e-learning training format. It has been designed in a blended learning format and is based on the principles of co-constructivist didactics. In terms of content, the focus was on the design of interactions between educational professionals and children. Standardised non-participant observations were carried out in Austrian, German, Hungarian, Slovenian, Italian and Portuguese child education and care institutions before and after completion of the blended learning format.