reasons for choosing online graduate program of tefl: voices from teacher educators and online students

The purposes of this study were to investigate teacher educators' and online students' perceptions of the goals and motivation for choosing online graduate program of tefl and to determine their viewpoints about the advantages of being an online student. the participants of the study consisted of 114 iranian online graduate students of tefl and five instructors at the e-learning campus of iran university of science and technology. the instruments were two open-ended questions answered by the graduate students as well as a semi-structured interview conducted with the online instructors. the results of the study revealed that job promotion, enhancing knowledge about tefl, continuing education at phd level, easier graduation, having more job opportunities, improving listening and writing skills, and immigration were the goals reported for choosing online program of tefl. with regard to the advantages of being an online student, the results showed that save of time and expenses, having work and education at the same time, no need for physical presence, archived files of online classes, and better time management were the most frequent advantages reported by online instructors and students.