EAP 4.0: Transforming the English for Academic Purposes Toolkit to meet the evolving needs and expectations of digital students

Abstract

The English for Academic Purposes (EAP) Toolkit provides a wide range of online learning resources which are used in a mixture of self-study, blended, and classroom settings, primarily by students whose first language is not English. The Toolkit was developed by the eLanguages team at the University of Southampton and first licensed in 2004. This paper describes the most recent major refreshment project to improve both the functionality and appearance of the Toolkit. With the latest updates, we have aimed to increase the appeal of the resources to encourage greater autonomous usage by students, and to improve the ease with which staff can recommend and use Toolkit resources with their students. In this paper we introduce the key updates to the resources, including new functionalities and features, expanding the Toolkit with additional learning resources, a new visual approach, responsive feedback, accessibility upgrades, and strategies for increasing student usage.