“There was nowhere to hide…”: the surprising discovery of how weekly web conferences facilitated engagement for online initial teacher education students

This paper reports on the ways that weekly webconferences (WC) facilitated engagement for thirty-two ITES enrolled in a capstone unit in their final semester of study in a teacher education course. Using a descriptive mixed-methods case study approach, the initial teacher educationstudents (ITES) completed questionnaires, participated in follow-up interviews and completed their assessment tasks to shed insight into the impact of the WC. The findings reveal the powerful ways that the WC facilitated engagement for ITES in their studies and helped develop the professional attributes expected of graduates. Importantly, the study revealed that the WC enabled a deeper level of engagement, satisfaction and sense of achievement than alternative activities, including face to face tutorials.