During the pandemic, teacher training became an urgent challenge. In that context, #webinarsUNIA emerged, an open and free initiative from the International University of Andalusia that offered twenty seminars on educational innovation and digital competences.
With more than 10,000 participants from 35 countries, the program turned emergency into opportunity: each session was recorded, shared under an open license, and transformed into a reusable educational resource. Topics ranged from online assessment and flipped learning to gamification, robotics, and accessible material design, helping teachers quickly adapt to digital education.
The program evaluation showed highly positive results. Of nearly 11,000 registered participants, around 1,900 completed surveys reporting strong satisfaction: they highlighted the quality of instructors, the relevance of content, and the immediate usefulness of what they learned. Certification acted as an incentive, but it was not the main motivation: the real draw lay in practical applicability and human support throughout the webinars.
The experience left a clear lesson: webinars work when they combine teaching quality, sound pedagogy, and continuity. More than broadcasting information, they should build community, provide open resources, and enable learning that extends beyond the live session.
In this sense, #webinarsUNIA not only responded to a crisis, they laid the groundwork for a more flexible, open, and sustainable model of digital teacher training.
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How to Cite: Sánchez González, M., Miró Amarante, M. L., Ruiz Rey, F. J., & Cebrián de la Serna, M. (2022). Evaluation of Online Teacher Training Programs on Innovation and Digital Competences During Covid-19: #webinarsUNIA. RIED-Revista Iberoamericana de Educación a Distancia, 25(1), 121–140. https://doi.org/10.5944/ried.25.1.30763
