Continuous Professional Development in a Micro Learning Format and Lecturer Identities

Situated in the context of prolific continuous professional development interventions across international higher education, this paper reports on digital micro learning and lecturer identities. While digital micro learning has been heralded as offering a nonintrusive, granular and engaging approach to continuing professional development, there is a paucity of qualitative studies in this domain. Seeking to bridge this gap, semi-structured, visual elicitation interviews with lecturers in a United Arab Emirates’ college and a document analysis yielded a rich description of the situated learning experiences of the participants. Applying a socio-cultural identity lens, the thematic analysis revealed the avenues for identity reification and the barriers which trigger marginalised identities. Course accessibility advantages, small batch learning and meaningful reflexive opportunities were drivers to engagement, learning and imagining future professional selves. Meanwhile, impediments to digital micro learning which constrained identity negotiation were forced compliance with mandatory courses and perfunctory, ineffective digital peer collaboration.