Supporting contract Lecturers' professional growth: design, implementation, and evaluation of the Iridi to Teach programme.

Contract lecturers and external professionals involved in university teaching contribute substantially to the provision of higher education, yet they often have limited access to systematic pedagogical training and faculty development opportunities. This paper presents the IRIDI TO TEACH programme, designed and delivered by the Teaching and Learning Center (University of Turin) to support the development of teaching and assessment competences among contract lecturers, understood as external professionals contracted to teach specific courses, modules or practice-based activities. The programme is entirely online and asynchronous and draws on the framework of university teacher expertise proposed by Van Dijk et al. (2020). Its design also addresses teacher beliefs, understood as implicit assumptions that shape pedagogical and assessment choices. The modular structure focuses on student-centred pedagogy, syllabus design, active learning strategies, assessment for learning, inclusion and quality assurance. Moodle is conceived as a scaffolded learning environment, with a structured progression of activities and recurring self-assessment moments. The pilot evaluation combines Moodle process data, initial and final questionnaires, paired pre-post data from early completers, satisfaction data and openended comments. Preliminary findings indicate high perceived relevance, strong satisfaction, increased perceived pedagogical competence, greater confidence in managing complex teaching situations and more reflective conceptions of assessment. The paper discusses implications for integrating contract lecturers into institutional faculty development policies and for evaluating professional learning initiatives in higher education