Post-graduate students’ perception of using Moodle in a teacher education course: a focus on pros, cons and the role of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK)

Blended learning is an established learning style in language education due to the opportunities it offers for optimizing learning outcomes. In this line, the present research studied post-graduate students' perception of using Moodle, a versatile, opensource software developed from a social constructivist perspective, with regard to features of online-discussion forum mainly by identifying the pros and cons of it as well as the role of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK). The participants were 10 international PhD candidates in English Language Teaching at Eastern Mediterranean University, Northern Cyprus. Data was collected using two open-ended and close-ended questionnaires, and a follow-up semi-structured interview. The findings indicated that the post-graduate students highly preferred the traditional in-class discussion. Time limitations and lack of active participation of the forum members were found as the major discouraging factors for the post-graduate students' inactivity. This e-learning experience was not successful because 1) it failed to satisfy the learning needs of the participants; 2) the requirements of participation were strict; 3) Moodle was not of use in most of the contexts where the teacher students were going to work in after graduation; and 4) students could not develop a learning community of practice using this communication medium. Thus, it was suggested that TPACK should gradually be integrated into teacher education programs to equip teacher students, as both learners and teachers, with the necessary knowledge for benefiting from technology for their own learning as well as embedding it in their own educational contexts for teaching.