Investigating Factors Contributing to Online Language Learning Success: Student Teachers’ Perspectives

The objective of this study was to explore student teachers’ views of teaching factors, which make online learning success possible. The study was mixed-methods research with concurrent design in which the qualitative and quantitative phases were used simultaneously. The participants were 107 MA students of TEFL at Iran University of Science and Technology. The instrument was a questionnaire with 19 items along with one open-ended question at the end. The findings of the quantitative phase indicated that ‘information seeking’ as one of online learning success category, gained the highest agreement, while ‘constraint recognition’ received the lowest agreement of student teachers. In details, the quantitative results indicated that student teachers held the view that improving communication skills and maintaining good rapport between the teacher and students can be the most important factors which lead to online learning success, whereas using online conferencing technologies to achieve perceptions of class conceptions may not be effective. Given the qualitative phase and in response to the open-ended question, student teachers believed that good quality and high speed of Internet, teacher’s technological knowledge, learners’ engagement, and good rapport between the teacher and students play the most important role in students’ achievement and success in online classes.