Designing an E-learning ESP Course: Possibilities and Challenges

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to report on a twofold experience in distance education, first as a designer of an e-learning ESP course for Internet and Multimedia Information (IMI) students at the Virtual University of Tunis (VUT) during the year 2004, and, second, as a participant in a ten-week online course on Teaching Critical Thinking (TCT) offered by the University of Oregon in October 2006. Drawing from the literature as well as the reality of the local context the possibilities that distance education offer for teaching languages, this paper will discuss the challenges that an EFL/ ESP teacher may meet when designing an online ESP course, and draw implications that may help course designers make informed decisions to improve the quality of e-learning courses and help teachers better understand ESP language teaching and learning.