ABSTRACT This study aims to design and evaluate an online academic writing course for PhD candidates who use English as a Foreign Language (EFL), with a specific focus on review genre writing. Although genre‐based approaches have been widely applied in academic writing instruction, relatively limited research has examined the systematic design of review genre writing courses for EFL doctoral students, particularly in Asian higher education contexts. This lack of pedagogically grounded course models has created a gap in supporting doctoral students' ability to develop review article writing competence. Drawing on the Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation (ADDIE) model and genre‐based approaches (GBAs), the course was developed to enhance participants' ability to produce review articles in academic contexts. Data were collected through timed writing tasks, questionnaires and focus group discussions involving 120 international PhD candidates in Malaysia. The course design addressed participants' identified writing needs, including general academic writing skills, language‐related challenges and review genre awareness. The findings indicate significant improvements in review genre writing performance, alongside consistently positive evaluations of the course structure and instructional content. This study demonstrates the value of integrating the ADDIE model with GBAs in supporting the academic writing development of EFL PhD candidates, particularly in relation to review article writing. The findings contribute to research on doctoral education and English for Academic Purposes (EAP), and offer practical implications for the design of academic writing courses in multicultural higher education settings.
Zhai et al. (Tue,) studied this question.