a swot analysis of e-tefl curriculum: a case study

With the growing demand for e-learning all over the world, constant evaluation of its curriculum is incumbent upon institutions which aim to be competitive in this market. to this end, the present study employs swot (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis as the tool for the identification and prioritization of the gaps of the current e-tefl (electronic teaching english as a foreign language) curriculum at one of the iranian state universities, which is chosen to act as the case for this study. in order to collect the required data on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the e-tefl in this university, which for the ethical considerations is called the target, a swot questionnaire was administered to 50 students and 15 instructors/ experts. the results of the analyses of the responses to the questionnaire led to ten major statements for each part of the swot. in addition, the scores of the external and internal factors (2.32 and 2.74 respectively) indicated that although e-tefl has had a certain degree of achievement in this university, there are still a number of significant areas in need of improvement. in other words, the strategies employed by the target so far, have only been partially effective in exploiting opportunities and defending against threats. suggestions are made on how the current strategies may be improved to reverse the trend and help the target to take advantage of the opportunities. the study implies that the information obtained through swot analysis is valuable for the e-tefl curriculum designers who need to constantly seek ways to overcome weaknesses and minimize threats.