Redesigning an Online English as Second Language Course during (and for after) Emergency Remote Teaching

Online language teaching has become a reality for many second language (L2) programmes that were delivered remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many L2 tutors had to redesign their courses for online delivery and explored a range of online learning and teaching tools, designs, and platforms. This paper discusses how a language module has been redesigned in response to Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT). The initial reason for this migration was due to the pandemic, but it has provided an opportunity to review the teaching and learning methods used in the module, its course structure, design, and learning materials, and to improve their accessibility. Student engagement and interaction with course content, instructions, and other learners were also reviewed. Two years after the course first moved online, the module convener and students have settled into the new digital environment and explored ways to maximise the technological affordances in ways that can enhance students' learning experiences and digital literacies. This paper presents the tools, methods, and techniques that have been implemented in this course, alongside relevant literature, and student feedback. Results highlight the significance of a well-structured and multimodal VLE that fosters student interaction in the L2, but also that achieving this requires ample time for tutors to reconsider and adapt various aspects of the course.