Bildungswissenschaft/LANCELOT

1. Introduction

This paper reports the concept development and evaluation results from the project LANCELOT (LANguage learning with CErtified Live Online Teachers). LANCELOT is funded by the Leonardo da Vinci programme of the European Commission. In LANCELOT a training programme for live online language teachers has been developed which covers technological, methodological and intercultural aspects of live online language training. Concepts for the use of current online communication technologies, suitable language teaching methods and the consideration of intercultural aspects in a virtual language classroom have been developed within the project. These concepts are integrated by means of an innovative pedagogical concept for online teaching and learning: the Web-Didactics. Testing and evaluation of the training programme has taken place recently, guaranteeing for its market readiness.

2. Background

In recent years, numerous new technologies have been developed which opened up opportunities for innovative language teaching and learning. The most interesting development in this field for Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) are synchronous communication technologies, since synchronous communication is essential for language learning. However, there is also a lack of training programmes for language teachers which take into account the range of possibilities that these new synchronous communication tools have to offer. At the same time, there is still a lack of teaching methods that describe how languages can be taught with the help of synchronous online communication tools and taking into account intercultural aspects.

In LANCELOT, we have developed a teacher training programme to meet the rising demand for adopting language teaching methods to the synchronous online environments taking into consideration technological possibilities and intercultural aspects by focussing on the following four research questions:

1. Which online tools are available and suitable for synchronous language training?
2. Which language training methods are appropriate for online language teaching with synchronous tools?
3. Which aspects of intercultural communication have to be taken into account?
4. How can we implement an online teacher training programme for synchronous online communication?

The last question focusses on the integration of tools, methods and intercultural aspects. Thus, the question regarding the integration of the four questions mentioned above will also have to be covered.

2.1 Tools in online teaching and learning

Synchronous online interaction is not solely dominated by teacher-led activities, but can take the form of numerous ways of communication. Jonathan Finkelstein (2006) defines the following five functions which are served by synchronous online settings: instruction, collaboration, support, socialisation and informal exchange, as well as extended outreach. In synchronous online teaching the language trainer has to keep these functions and their realisation in mind.

These functions can be realised with the support of a wide range of tools, both synchronous and asynchronous, which can be applied in online language teaching and learning. Apart from the web conferencing environment which lies at the centre of synchronous online teaching and learning, other asynchronous and synchronous tools may be used to support and guide the learning process. These tools include forums, instant messaging, voice over IP, email etc., which serve as alternative spaces of communication and support the actual virtual classroom. This heterogeneity of tools, which is made possible through the fact that computer technology is an algorithm processing medium, leads to a research problem: it becomes clear that we are not only dealing with oral and written communication, but with a heterogeneous and constantly changing selection of media. Since each of these media (or tools) has a specific structure, specific features and thus (like every other medium) a specific impact on learning, the trainer needs to be aware of the nature of each tool in order to be able to choose the appropriate tools for the respective teaching method.

A further problem, apart from the interrelation between tools and teaching methods, can be defined. Recent technological developments and innovative tools have given rise to a demand for teacher qualifications. However, since LANCELOT does not only aim at developing methods for language training with the help of these technologies, but is also developing a training program for live online language trainers on how to transfer their teaching to the virtual environment, these technologies have to be considered both as learning objectives and as teaching methods for the professional training programme. As the familiarity with the tools is both a learning objective in itself and necessary for the competent implementation of teaching methods, objectives and methods become interrelated. This connection allows for an integration of hands-on experience and theoretical knowledge: theoretical knowledge about the technologies is applied in the training that is delivered through the technologies. Thus, the issue of enabling the teacher to experience the technologies at the same time as he or she learns about their theoretical background has to be dealt with.

2.2 Adapting language teaching methods

In view of the innovative tools made available to us over the last years, we seem to think only of the changes involved. With Web-based trainings, these changes often imply restrictions, since WBTs restrict language training to writing and visual materials such as pictures. Considering, however, that virtual classrooms provide us with voice, video, and audio, as well as writing and drawing tools, they have – quite to the contrary to the above-mentioned belief – the effect of enabling language teachers to use well-established methods also in their online teaching without being limited by technological shortcomings.

This, in fact, means that the novelty of the tools – or the medium – is a means of keeping to established methodologies and contents. Whether the language teachers have been using the Communicative Language Teaching approach, the Direct Method, the Oral Approach, or a blended methodology in their face-to-face teaching, the new technologies offer possibilities to transfer the respective method to the virtual classroom. Thus, language teachers do not have to learn anew how to teach languages, or adapt to new methodologies. However, they do have to become familiar with the new tools and learn how they can adapt those tools for their own purposes. Thus, the research problem we defined here is how language teachers become familiar with the tools and learn about the adaptation process.

While doing so, the tacit knowledge (Polyani 1983) inherent in the tools still has an impact on language training. This is because electronic hardware, which is the basis for fast and worldwide communication, and software which offers multi-channel (video, audio, text, pictures) communication, influence, among other factors, language training implicitly. One of the implicit changes is the distance between people.

Distance is an essential factor in language training. The concept of distance is changed fundamentally by the above-mentioned hard- and software in two respects: on the one hand teachers and learners may be situated in different regions all over the world, a fact which can be experienced by the participants through time differences only. On the other hand, the recording devices, webcams and microphones, are very close to the participants physically. This leads to a communication situation where communication partners appear to be only a few centimetres away in both image and voice. In fact, their voice is recorded from a distance that you would usually only experience a few seconds before a kiss. Consequently, synchronous online communication produces a rather close and intimate situation. According to McLuhan (1992) this situation can be described as a hot culture. Such a hot culture is a consequence of the frequent use of computer technology, which can be described as a cold medium. The hot culture resulting from the use of a cold medium needs to be taken into consideration while designing live online trainings. A cold medium involves people into the medium on a subconscious level: the senses have to add to this information before it reaches the conscious. For instance, it becomes necessary to add information to the images delivered by webcams due to their low resolution in order to allow for the recognition of a face.

The hot culture leads to certain expectations regarding communication. People in a hot culture expect to be involved, to be close to each other and to have the opportunity to actively participate. For people not used to a hot culture this is quite demanding and might lead to misunderstandings and insults, which may eventually even result in flame wars (endless insults in online forums). Thus, the problem for LANCELOT is to introduce language teachers to an involving hot culture, which at the same time corresponds to an individualised culture (Sennett 1998).

2.3 A new teacher role in an intercultural setting

According to some researchers, new e-learning tools raise a demand for a new teacher role: the role of the teacher as instructor is changing towards the role of the teacher as facilitator, as “guide on the side”, consultant and resource provider (cf. Hootstein 2002, Berge 2003). In addition, Berge also sees teachers becoming expert questioners rather than providers of answers. The teacher now provides a structure to support the work of the learners on the one hand and encouragement to self-direction on the other. At the same time, the student's role in a live online learning setting also changes from recipient to active constructor of his or her knowledge, i.e. to an autonomous, independent and self-motivated manager of his or her time. (cf. Berge 2003). For the live online learning setting, which is the focus of the LANCELOT teacher training course, the same consequences apply for the role of the teacher as in a distance e-learning setting.

Thus, teachers and learners actively engage in dialogue and share their knowledge, which also requires changes in the teacher's communicative competences (cf. Ambrose 2001). The teacher facilitates the learning process of each individual student within a constant communication process. Furthermore, new collaborative tools offer a wide range of possibilities for group work and collaborative activities in the e-learning environment. The teacher encourages the students to make use of these tools and moderates the process of group communication where necessary.

However, while new online tools do not require the use of completely new language teaching methods, they also do not force teachers to redefine their role in the classroom from scratch. Group work and the subsequent moderation of the group process has been a well-established teaching method in schools since the 1920s. In Austria this method has become popular in the 1950s (Hillebrandt 1956), and most of these old concepts, such as strategies for group building, providing tasks for groups and allocate different roles in a group, are still appropriate. These strategies are perfectly suitable for the online classroom. However, as traditional group work was conceptualised for the possibilities of the traditional classroom setting, where only one room is available for all learners who are present at the same time, the concepts need to be adapted to the involving structure of heterogeneous synchronous online communication tools.

Additionally, we have to take into consideration the aspect of culture, which forms the background for the research conducted in LANCELOT. In distance language courses, intercultural communicative competences gain a great deal of importance. Because of the high demand of native speakers in language teaching, live online or distance learning courses are appreciated as teacher and students do not need to be in the same place. Therefore, it is quite likely that people from different cultures meet in the online course and learn together. The basic idea of LANCELOT - namely using traditional teaching and learning methods in a slightly changed communication situation - rises to a challenge when taking into consideration the intercultural aspects: in different cultures classroom communication follows different cultural patterns, e.g., the physical distance kept by people in a conversation (e.g. while the British prefer a distance of one meter, Austrians are happy with 40 cm.) Moreover, while British teachers might prefer a task-oriented teaching approach, Turkish teachers often prefer a more lecture-oriented instructional design - accordingly, students from different cultures expect different teaching styles. Thus, the heterogeneity of teaching styles is another research problem, next to the heterogeneity of tools and methods, for the research conducted in LANCELOT.

3. A training programme for live online language teachers

The discussed digital culture which has emerged from the development of computer technology generates a demand for a new theory of signs, language and speech, which will in turn lead to a new theory of language learning. But as theory is not able to determine educational practice and LANCELOT focuses on actual teaching, we did not meet this challenge with theoretical reflections, but with practical experience. Theory is used to identify problems that have to be dealt with in practice. To focus on actual teaching has the additional advantage that adopting teaching to the hot digital culture and developing an according media habitus (Swertz 2007) is a learning objective that can only be reached by participating in the digital culture.

The actual training has to connect the three strands and to cover the shown problems. The key concept to connect the three strands in a heterogeneous environment that allows for individualised learning in an involving community is the didactical ontology used in LANCELOT.

3.1 Web-Didactic concept for integration

The three different strands in LANCELOT and the consideration of knowledge existing in the tradition of teaching and learning as well as the new technologies raise the need for a new teaching and learning concept that allows for linking these aspects into one teaching and learning scenario. An online project such as LANCELOT advises to take computer technology as a starting point for the concept development.

One of the aims of didactical knowledge organisation is adjusting content to media. Adjusting content to media has been a challenge for didactical theory since Gutenberg invented printing. Comenius, one of the founders of didactical theory, reflected on Gutenberg’s invention as early as in 1657. Comenius described books as an innovative technology and an important medium for teaching that allows us to not only improve tuition, but also to offer new forms of learning, and to help the lower classes. We are currently in a similar situation: in spite of the fact that schoolbooks are by now well established in our culture, the use of educational films in teaching has not yet reached this level, whereas computer technology is only just starting to be applied in teaching.

As Meder (1998) and Swertz (2000) demonstrated in a theoretical analysis of the media structure of computer technology, this medium requires offering learners to find individual paths through the content and allowing for reflective navigation, thus demanding from teachers to produce individually navigable hypertexts. Individualisation does not mean offering purely self-directed learning, since learning presupposes instruction by others. We have to help teachers in reorganising knowledge in accordance with hypertexts that allow for individual navigation. By offering such a learning environment, individual navigation becomes an implicit learning objective, and can therefore be considered as both teacher-directed and self-directed learning at the same time.

In order to support individual navigation we need to provide navigation tools that reflect the structure of the content. That is, the demand for individual navigation reflects the structure of the medium and the actual navigation reflects the structure of the content. In turn, this twofold reflective structure meets in turn the structure of an algorithm-processing medium. To cover this structure we have to offer navigational aids allowing the learner to navigate individually and efficiently.

In light of these considerations, Web-Didactics was based on educational theory (Hönigswald 1927), knowledge organisation theory (Buder 1991) and traditionally successful didactical models (Flechsig 1996). These theoretical findings were transformed into a didactical ontology. This ontology is expressed as a metadata system that uses a vocabulary which provides both an aid for navigation as well as a metadata system. Such a system allows for an automatic rearrangement of content according to varied didactical models. By providing authors of educational content with this metadata system and the didactical models, they are also supported in producing high quality content. Another advantage is the issue of quality assurance which is made easy by the fact that the material can easily be evaluated against the metadata. What does this ontology look like?

The Web-Didactic ontology consists of a local hierarchy placed in a network topology. The local hierarchy consists of three layers: Media Units, Knowledge Units and Learning Units.

Media Units are defined by the medium used. Every Media Unit is classified by their media type. Web-Didactics therefore offer an ontology of didactical media types. Knowledge Units consist of one or more Media Units with the same knowledge type. Web-Didactics offer an ontology of didactical knowledge types. Learning Units consist of one or more Knowledge Units with the same topic. The topics are organised as a thesaurus and linked by classified "relations". Web-Didactics offer an ontology of relation types. The typed relations make up the topology.

There are three levels where Web-Didactic modelling is applied within LANCELOT:

• The set-up of each learning unit
• The sequencing of the learning units
• The interrelation of synchronous, asynchronous and peer to peer activities

By modelling these three levels, the connection between the three strands is established.

3.2 Learning objectives for language teachers

The overall problem for synchronous online language learning is to establish an involving community while referring to traditional methods. Handling the new tools and adapting traditional teaching methods to the heterogeneous, individualising and reflective digital culture is required.

3.2.1 Language teaching methods

Although new tools allow for using established language teaching methods, the methods are now applied in a more involving and individualised culture. With this in mind, LANCELOT integrated well-established language teaching methods with new tools to serve as a case study for the course participants. These case studies were subsequently put up for discussion: at first, an experienced live online trainer sets up a lesson with a certain tool and a certain language teaching method. Typically, these case studies will show how concepts familiar to any language teacher, such as promoting listening skills or correcting errors in spoken language, can be transferred to the live online environment. The case studies are provided in different types of media, that is in written and in audio-visual form (from a conducted and recorded teaching session) in order to support individual navigation and thus individual reflection. These recordings are then offered in a learning management system together with a task, where the experienced language teachers are asked to discuss these examples and develop their own scenarios using their expertise to develop their individual way of teaching languages synchronously online. The participants were thus challenged to develop competencies to design their own individual teaching scenarios for a live online environment.

With this method, the methodology strand of the LANCELOT trainee course does not depend on a particular teaching approach. The objective is not to show one "correct" way of how the respective tool and the method have to be connected, but to enable the experienced language teachers to find their own individual strategies, by transferring methods they are familiar with and which they use in their own classroom teaching (e.g. Communicative Language Teaching, Grammar-Translation Method) to the live online environment. In order to support generalisation it uses different tools and methods and supports reflection.

This example and activity-oriented strategy is fostered by the Web-Didactics in that it offers knowledge types for examples, tasks, case studies, and lesson observations, thus providing a teaching model that reflects the LANCELOT structure explained so far and allows for an individual learning strategy (see Screenshot 1). At the same time, this model reflects situated learning as a conceptualisation of learning which focuses on challenging participants to develop their own usage of the tools by fulfilling certain tasks.

3.2.2 Recommending Tools

The challenges in recommending synchronous online tools are their heterogeneity and the issue of learning about these tools and through the tools at the same time. Unlike the methodology-related knowledge, tools application in a live online environment is not an area of expertise of the typical LANCELOT trainee. Thus, we developed three steps to meet this challenge:

- First, the LANCELOT course aims at providing knowledge needed for a well-informed decision on which tools should be used ideally in which situation. This includes detailed information on which tools are available, where and how they can be obtained, as well as a detailed description of their features.

- Second, the trainees are confronted with the various tools, starting with the most familiar and moving towards more complex and unfamiliar tools. Some examples of how tools may be used in the virtual classroom: e-mail communication is typically used at the beginning of the course in order to help ease into the new tools, as well as for general announcements regarding assignments or time and place of the synchronous sessions. Instant messaging, on the other hand, can be viewed as the “virtual hallway” (Nicholson 2002), where students can meet and chat informally, ask for directions or inform others of changes; forums serve as a “home base” where students can discuss the learning materials with their peers or ask for (technical) support. In case there are technical problems in the online environment, voice and text chat (e.g. Skype) can be used as a back-up tool.

- Third, the trainees start to get familiar with the tools which are typically new to them by using them in peer-to-peer activities and to applying them by developing an example online training session.

In order to cover these three steps the knowledge conveyed in the technology strand provides the trainees with facts about the tools and assigns tasks for them to fulfil. The Web-Didactics system supports this by providing knowledge types such as description, checklists, how to, tools and glossary. This model reflects the concept of learning that is named decision-oriented model within the Web-Didactics ontology.

Although the synchronous communication tools have only been recently made accessible to a wide audience, they can still be used in the framework of communication structures which are well-known from the traditional classroom such as group work or collaboration.

3.2.3 Intercultural aspects

Intercultural aspects affect LANCELOT in different respects:

1. The project consortium consists of people from different (teaching and learning) cultures
2. The participating language teachers originate from different cultures
3. The learners whom the language teachers will teach after visiting the LANCELOT course are from different cultures, which are often also different from those of the language trainers.

Intercultural aspects are necessary for language teaching in online environments due to the international nature of the expected audience.

Intercultural knowledge is particularly important for language teachers in a live online environment, as this medium is independent from local meetings and favours international, i.e. intercultural, groups.

In order to be able to encounter difficulties typical for intercultural communication, the LANCELOT teachers reflect their own cultural background and how they are influenced by it. This approach is based on the assumption that “people who know themselves better will know their culture better and, as a result, will be more competent in other cultures” (LANCELOT training course). These reflections are embedded in detailed theoretical knowledge and are divided into the following areas:

• knowledge
• attitude
• respect
• interaction
• awareness
• role behaviour

Web-Didactics enables this self-reflective approach by providing the following knowledge types: reflection, how to, task, and explanation.

3.3 Connecting Heterogeneity

It has been shown that connecting the strategies resulting from the answers to the research questions with the web-didactic ontology is indeed possible. This ontology is now used to connect the asynchronous elements of the LANCELOT programme with the synchronous elements from the peer-to-peer activities and group sessions.

An example for the Web-Didactics is shown in screenshot 1. The screenshot shows a beginners' lesson that was conducted using one of the language teaching methods developed in the project. The live online language teaching was held using an online videoconferencing system. The lesson was recorded. This recording is used in the LANCELOT trainer course as a scenario. Language teachers watch the scenario as an example for teaching languages online. To support language teachers in developing their own live online language teaching skills the scenario is combined with instructions on how to set up beginners lessons (“How To” in the screenshot) and a task where language teachers are asked to reflect on the connection of the given scenario with their own language teaching practice (“Writing Exercise” in the screenshot). “How To” and “Writing Exercise” are didactical knowledge types from the Web-Didactics which offers an ontology of didactical knowledge types. With these knowledge types an example and activity-oriented learning strategy is set up in the methodological strand of the LANCELOT training.

Since the LANCELOT strands are produced by people from different cultures, each of the three strands (methodology, technology, intercultural competence) uses different learning and teaching methods. Thus, the Web-Didactics is used to model intercultural differences in teaching and learning. Through this concept intercultural differences are an essential and implicit element of the course and, at the same time, the course explicitly teaches knowledge about intercultural differences.

The same reflective concept is used in the technological strand. Links in the screen pages where language teaching methods are covered refer to specific online tools. In the screenshot links to tools which are suitable to introduce new languages to beginners were provided. Apart from videoconferencing other live online tools, like voice over IP, instant messaging, screencasting, collaborative browsing etc. are covered. At the same time these tools are used within the training. Thus the usage of the tools is reflected. This way trainers learn how to teach online by being taught online. These experience are reflected and used for own teaching. This indicates the teaching and learning model we developed within LANCELOT:

1. First, language teachers participate in an online teaching with a certain tool, for example: an icebreaker activity with macromedia breeze.
2. Second, language trainers reflect this usage and think about their own experiences as participants in these activities. This reflection takes place during the weekly live online session.
3. Third, language teachers access asynchronous teaching material with background information on the teaching method, the tools and intercultural aspects (see the screenshot for an example).
4. Subsequently, they develop their own teaching strategy in a peer-to-peer activity, that is: they meet live online with other learners and develop a short teaching sequence.
5. Finally, the language teachers perform their teaching example in the online classroom with the respective tool. The teaching example is reflected by peers and the trainer.

3.4 Training language teachers: Assessment, Supervision and Coaching

Assessment in the teacher training course is conducted via two traditional tools: a development portfolio and observed live online teaching practice. The development portfolio serves as a record of the learning progress throughout the course and is essentially a collection of the work undertaken in the course, such as essays, discussion tasks, peer-to-peer activities etc. 80% of the specified work has to be completed as a minimum submission requirement. This form of assessment allows for a self-determined presentation of accomplishment as opposed to external assessment. It therefore connects both the external perspective and the perspective of the learner and opposes the assumption that it is possible to support the self-assessing competence of the learner through external assessment only. Additionally, it is not sufficient to only focus on learning results to support life long learning, but the learning process also has to be made visible to become subject of reflection (cf. Haecker 2005).

The second part of assessment consists of observed live online teaching practice. In the last two weeks of the 12-week training course, the trainees will conduct a teaching session themselves which they plan and prepare in advance. These individual scenarios will then be assessed according to the following Areas of Competence: Professional Values and Practice, Language Subject Knowledge and Understanding, Intercultural Communicative Competence Subject Knowledge and Understanding, Technology Subject Knowledge and Understanding, Lesson Planning and Target Setting, Teaching and Learning Materials, and Teaching. The assessment criteria are communicated in advance via the course handbook which is made available to the trainees at the beginning of the course.

While the traditional assesment strategies are easily applicable, they also support the change of the role and the habitus which is demanded from the teacher trainer. The involving and individualising structure of the programme raises the demand for a continuous reflection of the learning process that goes beyond usual online tutoring. Within the LANCELOT course trainees learn how to teach live online while being taught live online and in an asynchronous online learning environment. They learn how to use new tools and learning environments for teaching while being taught through and in them. These circumstances make it necessary to develop a new role of the trainer. The trainer becomes a facilitator by introducing the learning environment(s), helping establishing a group process, forcing the group communication process, implementing the learning process and forcing the development of the new role as a live online teacher.

This role of the trainer as a facilitator is complex. Therefore the following three methods are introduced in the LANCELOT train-the-trainer programme:

• First, the method of e-moderation, developed by Gilly Salmon (cf. Salmon 2001), was adapted for the needs of the LANCELOT course. This method provides advice on how to establish a communication process and to guide trainees through their first steps in the LANCELOT course, supporting them in finding their way through the new learning environments.
• Secondly, the trainer now teaches under new circumstances (see above). He or she first shows a new tool and how it can be used for teaching and then asks the trainees to reflect on this teaching scenario. This reflection process is initiated by the trainer with the help of supervision strategies. These strategies offer the possibility to assist the trainees in developing their own way of teaching live online and finding their own role as a live online teacher. They are focused on initialising the reflection of the trainees. Originally, supervision is a kind of counselling that assists people in reflecting on issues and questions of their professional life, to solve these and to find alternative ways of acting upon them. The LANCELOT trainers support the participants in finding their role as live online language teachers. It is important to note that supervision does not offer ready-made solutions or tipps, but assists the trainees in finding their own solutions by analysing their problems together.
• Thirdly, the trainer supports the trainees in their learning process, encourages them in their learning, in managing their time or in establishing an environment of intercultural awareness. Therefore the concept of coaching was adapted for the special needs of the LANCELOT course, conveying coaching skills to the LANCELOT trainer. Coaching deals with specific problems whereas e-moderation guides the trainees in the communication process.

With this understanding a clear distinction between supervision and coaching strategies is established:

Supervision gives us the opportunity to view a certain problem which may arise in the course of the training from a distance, thus turning the learning process itself into a learning object.

In LANCELOT, Coaching means dealing with specific problems that may arise for the trainees in the LANCELOT course. These problems may be related to their own personal time management, to the learning materials or to intercultural differences in the group. Problems trainees may have with their own teaching which arise during the live online sessions are not dealt with by coaching but by supervision.

As current literature (Tomaschek 2003, Reichel 2005) indicates that there are certain difficulties of defining the difference between supervision and coaching, we developed these specific understandings of the two terms for the purpose of the project only.

To empower language teachers to manage these circumstances while moderating and facilitating the students' learning process, it becomes necessary to raise their intercultural awareness and support them in their development of intercultural communicative competences. These form the third strand of the LANCELOT course, complementing the online teaching methodology and the technological aspects.

4 Evaluation results and future trends

Formative evaluation was conducted in the framework of a pilot test run of the programme with 23 participants in two courses. Qualitative interviews with the pilot trainees provided the project team with a range of vital results which will be taken into account for the final product. One of the main results is that 21 out of 23 participants actually finished the course, which corresponds to a considerably low drop out rate.

The evaluation shows that the reflective strategy works well. Participation was successfully activated and built a strong learning community. Although the course was centred around social activities (group sessions and peer-to-peer activities), trainees still asked for more communication and exchange of knowledge in the evaluation. There was a particularly high demand for personal and social exchange. This shows that the involving strategy was the right choice, however, it seems that due to the fact that the LANCELOT team members are situated in knowledge cultures where print is often the main medium, the communication needs were still underestimated.

The same applies for the idea of focusing the transfer of the practical experiences of the trainees into pracitical applications of the new tools. Despite this setup of the course, trainees said that the practical dimension of the course did not receive sufficient attention. This can again be understood as a result of the change from print culture to digital culture, which was identified correctly, but not put into practice with sufficient consequence. Nevertheless, the demand for more social communication can easily be considered in the final version of the programme, since the high level of theoretical input was based on readings which will have to be reduced anyway in order to meet the planned student workload. This will move the balance a good bit further towards the practical aspect of the course.

Further difficulties were observed in regard to the usability of the asynchronous learning platform, a greater workload than originally anticipated, a high number of participants (ca. 12 participants per course) and uncertainty as regards the tasks which had to be handed in for the assessment. Positive feedback, on the other hand, was given for the general course setup (LANCELOT methodology), the peer-to-peer activities, which serve to integrate the three strands (methodology, intercultural aspects, and technology), and the quality of the written materials.

These results will be integrated so as to improve the final product, the LANCELOT course, which will then be made available to everyone under the Creative Commons License for public use. The training course and the accompanying trainer manual will be published as single file for text processors and as SCORM package for LMS (e.g. Moodle). Additionally, the material is provided as ready-to-use online course at http://www.lerndorf.at/lancelotcourses/. With this material, considering the quick improving quality of synchronous online tools and the low costs of live online language training we expect an increase of these methods in private lessons, business training, university courses and all other fields of language training.

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