Applying TPACK to understand educator outcomes from digital instructional tool trainings

Digital instructional tools are an important component of undergraduate geoscience education, enhancing instructors’ ability to engage students with authentic geologic data, imagery, field environments, and interactive online learning experiences. However, increased availability does not ensure effective integration. Educators must not only learn new platforms but also align technology with disciplinary content and pedagogical goals. To address this need, the NASA-funded Infiniscope project developed browser-based authoring tools, Tour It and Simple Author, along with professional development programs designed to support educators in creating customizable digital instructional tools without requiring advanced technical expertise. Grounded in the Technological, Pedagogical, and Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework, this exploratory mixed-methods study examines how TPACK components manifest in educators’ final products and reflections following completion of Infiniscope trainings. Rather than comparing Tour It and Simple Author as competing tools, we use both contexts to investigate how educators demonstrate technological knowledge, technological content knowledge, technological pedagogical knowledge, and integrated TPACK. Educator-created products were analyzed using retrospectively aligned TPACK rubrics, and reflections were examined through pre- and post-training survey data and open-ended responses. Findings suggest authoring environments can serve as meaningful sites of professional learning, where educators iteratively develop and apply TPACK through design. Educators demonstrated uneven development across TPACK components depending on training structure and tool interface. These findings position TPACK as both a theoretical framework and a practical evaluative lens for understanding educator learning, underscoring the importance of professional development that intentionally supports the integration of all TPACK components.