In the English language teaching (ELT) sector, the introduction of new technology tools over the last few decades has been greeted with a range of emotions ranging from excitement to trepidation and fear. However, 2020 and the unprecedented Covid-19 Lockdown in New Zealand arrived with a bang, escalating the move towards, what for many turned out to be, mandatory emergency remote teaching (ERT) (Hodges, Moore, Lockee, Trust & Bond, 2020). This initiated an urgent need for teachers to rapidly upskill in order to manage their online teaching.
At the tertiary institution where the presenter teaches, one technique used to manage this ERT was the appointment of two centre representatives for course adjustment (CR4CA) during Covid-19 Lockdown. The presenter was one of two nominated CR4CA at the institutions’ Centre for Languages. This role was essentially created as a bridge between teachers and the institution’s centralised online technical staff.
This presentation covers some key reflections related to pre-lockdown views of the role, the actual role during lockdown and course adjustment opinions and implementations, and post-lockdown evaluations. In this reflection, the presenter addresses some key tenets related to ERT mentioned by Hodge et al. (2020) and how the CR4CA role aligned with these tenets. The speaker will also evaluate the extent to which supporting and mentoring EL teachers remotely addressed core aspects covered by Caldwell & Ichaporia (2020) in their webinar on remote EL teaching.