According to Europe 2020 smart, sustainable and inclusive growth strategy, the priority fields are innovation, education, learning and lifelong education, as well as digital society, and according to the demands elaborated in the normative acts of the Republic of Latvia for teachers within the activity direction "Improvement of teachers’ education and lifelong education system” defined in the education development guidelines of the Republic of Latvia for 2014 – 2020, to increase their professional competences in professional development educational programs in one of 3 modules, choosing the module of teacher’s general competences, management of educational contents and the process of didactics or education. In this context the topical issue is the supply and demand in the field of lifelong education as well as use of e-resource opportunities in educational process to provide quality not only in e-learning, but also face-to-face and blended learning.

Quality in higher education institutions are mostly characterized in terms of students’ satisfactions, cost-effectiveness, and graduation rates (Jung, 2011; cited in Mahdiuon, et al., 2017).

The new reality of e-technologies of the 21st century faces new challenges in order to asses the technological, pedagogical and organisational consequences of e-learning and to find the most optimal way to fully benefit from the potential of e-learning (Garrison, 2011).

E-learning does not exclude traditional mixed learning methods (Garrison & Vaughan, 2008; Garrison, 2011; Wiley & Nowell, 2011; Polman, 2013), but both adult trainers and the teachers being educated have become more professional, their self-control and self-assessment of educational quality promotes achievement of personal aims, which are based on the theories of new learning technologies (Laurillard, 2013) and on the expectation factors influencing the achieved results (Pinto & Anderson, 2013).

The resources in the project of Leonardo da Vinci “Quality management of teachers’ education in Europe” (Managing Quality of Adult Education in Europe, 2006) along with such quality fields as principles, main activity processes, management, communication, assessment and marketing are mentioned as one component of the quality model.

Assessment of e-resources is based on e-learning system model, which is formed by 8 dimensions (Khan, 2003; Slaidins, 2004): 

• Institutional dimension is related to administrative (needs analysis, assessment, development, budget, collaboration with other organisations, marketing etc.), academic (accreditation, learning quality, support of academic staff etc.) activities and student related services (libraries, social services etc.);
• Pedagogical dimension is related to teaching and learning (contents analysis, aim analysis, learning methods and strategy);
• Technological dimension is related to technological infrastructure of e-learning environment (infrastructure planning, equipment, software);
• Interface design dimension is related to the general look and impression of e-learning programs (page design, placement of contents, navigation, applicability, accessibility);
• Assessment dimension is related to both the assessment of student achieved results and the assessment of learning process and study environment;
• Management dimension is related to maintenance of study and learning environment and to dissemination of information;
• Resource support dimension is related to direct support (study and technical support, career counselling);
• E-learning system ethical dimension is related to social and political influence, cultural diversity, prejudices, information accessibility, etiquette and legal matters (confidentiality, plagiarism, copyright etc.).

Aim of the research: To analyse e-resources for improving teachers’ professional competences within Latvian educational programs for professional development.

Research issues:

• What is the relevance of teachers’ professional development supply in respect to the demand of target audience (needs and interests), accessibility, educational quality and competence of adult education?
• How e-resources influence the relevance of the teachers’ professional development service supply in respect to target audience demand and supply, accessibility and education quality?
• Which are the determining e-resource quality and efficiency criteria?

In the survey two target groups of teachers took part from the whole Latvia: • 68 teachers of social and humanitarian subjects, who are not directly connected to computer science and programming (3 groups, 20-25 participants in each); • 132 teachers of exact subjects, which are directly connected to computer science, programming and advanced application of E-technologies (6 groups, 20-25 participants in each). In the process of empirical data acquisition, for self-assessment of the institutional dimension and e-resource Pedagogical, Interface design and Management dimensions within teachers’ professional development educational programs, the elaborated questionnaire was adapted within the project “Education StrAtegies Adult Education - EScAlADE” and Likert scale was used on the basis of theoretical analysis and the criteria and indicators obtained as the result thereof. Indicators of the Institutional dimension when implementing the teachers’ professional development program: • relevance of the supply to the target audience demands; • accessibility of the supply; • provision of qualitative education; • adult educators’ professional competence and interest of adult educators as to organisation and implementation of the learning process. Indicators of the e-resource pedagogical dimension when implementing the teachers’ professional development program: • Contents: Accuracy, usefulness, relevance and motivation, sufficiency of information scope of e-resources, so that trainees could formulate and achieve their learning objectives, connect the studies to their needs and interests; • Learning: supply of various learning ways / strategies in e-environment according to the abilities of trainees to learn, perform practical works, solve practical tasks on the basis of their experience; • Teaching: e-resources provide an opportunity to use the diverse teaching environment by uniting theoretical knowledge and practical application thereof in real and simulated situations; • Collaboration: using of e-resources and providing collaboration with other students and teachers; • Support: provision with consultative, methodological and technological support when using e-resources; • Assessment: using of e-resources to provide the feedback regularly and operatively. Indicators of e-resource Interface design: • Applicability: the design of e-materials is user-friendly - understandable and easy to use; • Dynamics: the design of e-materials for trainees is interesting and dynamic. Indicators of e-resource management dimension: • Accessibility of information: Trainees are provided with timely information accessibility and exchange; • Study environment: Trainees are provided with infrastructure and study environment relevant to expectations, needs and interests. Empirical data processing methods using SPSS software to provide quantitative data processing : • Mann-Whitney-U-test for determination of the statistical importance of differences between 2 independent samples; • Kendall correlation analysis for determination of relationships between indicators; • Factor analysis.

For teachers of both social and humanitarian science subjects as well as exact science subjects there is a tendency to assess the relevance of professional development program supply as fully compliant (60% and 62%) and the accessibility as very good (54% of respondents). Statistically important differences in respect to the profile of respondents are found in education quality and professional competences and interest of adult educators in organisation of learning process and implementation of self-assessment - for exact science subject teachers there is a tendency to assess such Institutional dimension indicators higher in comparison to the teachers of social and humanitarian science subjects (p<0.05). The results of Kendall correlation analysis for determination of relationships between indicators show that there is a positive correlation, first of all, between service supply relevance to the target audience demands and • e-resource contents (p≤0.05; r=0.58), • collaboration, using E-resources (p≤0.05; r=0.74), • constructive, methodological and technological support in application of E-resources (p≤0.05; r=0.64), • information accessibility and exchange (p≤0.05; r=0.64), • study environment compliance to the target audience expectations, needs and interests (p≤0.05; r=0.91); secondly, between the professional development education quality and • study environment compliance to the target audience expectations, needs and interests (p≤0.05; r=0.94); • competence and interest of adult educators as to organisation and implementation of the learning process (p≤0.05; r=0.63), • using opportunities of diverse learning environment (p≤0.05; r=0.69). As the result of factor analysis, the identified decisive e-resource quality and efficiency components in teachers’ professional development programs are relevance to the demand (Institutional dimension), study environment: (Management dimensions), contents, teaching, collaboration, support and assessment (Pedagogical dimension). E-resource quality and efficiency in teachers’ professional development programs in Latvia, from the course participants’ point of view, to the large extent was determined by relevance of the study environment to expectations, needs and interests of the target audience as well as by the interest and competence of adult educators in organisation and implementation of the learning process. For the participants, who have their professional development courses assessed as relevant to their expectations, actual needs and interests, the highest self-assessment is in all institutional, pedagogical, management and interface design indicators.

Adult education quality management (QM) - European model. (2006). http://www.laea.lv/UserFiles/File/MQ-A5%20latv%20val.pdf Education development guidelines for 2014 - 2020. (2014). Available: https://m.likumi.lv/doc.php?id=266406 Europe 2020 Smart sustainable and inclusive growth strategy. (2010). Available: http://ec.europa.eu/eu2020/pdf/1_LV_ACT_part1_v1.pdf Education development guidelines for 2014 - 2020. Available: http://www.lsa.lv/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Izglitibasattistibaspamatnostadnes.pdf Garrison, D. R. (2011). E-learning in the 21st century: A framework for research and practice. Taylor & Francis. Garrison, D. R., Vaughan, N. D. (2008). Blended learning in higher education: Framework, principles, and guidelines., John Wiley & Sons. Khan, B. (2003). A framework for open, flexible and distributed e-learning, eLearn magazine. Available: https://elearnmag.acm.org/archive.cfm?aid=640561 Laurillard, D. (2013). Rethinking university teaching: A conversational framework for the effective use of learning technologies. Routledge. Mahdiuon, R., Masoumi, D., Farasatkhah, M. (2017). Quality improvement in virtual higher education: a grounded theory approach. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education-TOJDE, 18(1), pp.111-131. Managing Quality of Adult Education in Europe. (2006). Available: http://www.laea.lv/UserFiles/File/publikacijas/MQ-A5%20anglju%20val.pdf Nowell, G. (2011). Student course evaluations in traditional and blended courses: a case study. American Journal of Business Education, 4(1). Pinto, M. B., Anderson, W. (2013). A little knowledge goes a long way: Student expectation and satisfaction with hybrid learning. Journal of Instructional Pedagogies, 10 (1). Polman, J. L. (2013). Identity Development through Participation in an Informal Setting. In: International Conference of the Learning Sciences: Facing the Challenges of Complex Real-world Settings (p. 340). Psychology Press. Regulations for the necessary education and professional qualification for teachers as well as the procedures of teachers’ professional competence development. (2014). Available: https://likumi.lv/ta/id/269965-noteikumi-par-pedagogiem-nepieciesamo-izglitibu-un-profesionalo-kvalifikaciju-un-pedagogu-profesionalas-kompetences-pilnveides Slaidins, I. (2004). Good practice quide for e-learning actors. Available: http://docplayer.net/34534287-Good-practice-guide-for-e-learning-actors.html