This paper will report the experiences of 36 trainee teacher students at a UK based University engaging with a variety of activities during an intensive telecollaboration English for Academic purposes (EAP) training course on Moodle. Drawing on Gal'perin's Systemic theoretical instruction (STI), the trainees’ telecollaborative interaction will be discussed in order to understand the types of tasks and scaffolding features (Fu-Yun, 2009) that can enhance conceptual development in online environments. This also sheds light to the extent to which Moodle can serve the trainee teachers’ context specific demands (i.e. familiarization with theory, task types, peer review) and allow for personalizing their online training process during the course. To this end, a mixed methods exploratory sequential approach was adopted and a multimodal dataset was obtained by transcribing pre and post individual activities (think-aloud tasks and interviews) and by analyzing the participants’ recorded online activity (screen captures) while performing various types of tasks on Moodle. The findings revealed that the training and activities helped the participants develop a deeper understanding of academic texts at a conceptual level when reading. Insights into the development of the learners’ ability to effectively use reading strategies were gained through quantitative and qualitative data analysis. The value of telecollaboration and the various tasks and online scaffolding features will also be discussed in relation to successfully supporting the completion of the training. Finally, the participants’ opinions will be presented within this context along with pedagogical implications.
