Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the third CATAPULT Consortium meeting, which was to be hosted by Turku University of Applied Sciences (TUAS, Finland) on 1-2 April 2020, took place online. The objectives of the consortium meeting were to (1) review feedback from course participants and Advisory Board members on O3 (LSP teaching MOOC, see below), (2) plan course content revisions accordingly, (3) finetune the course participants' certification procedure (O5) and (4) review and give feedback on the beta versions of the Community of Practice platforms (O4).

The second short-term staff training event, which was to take place at TUAS in the same week, also took place online as webinar sessions thanks to Poppy Skarli's and Katriina Vesanen's combined effort. This 3-day event included sessions on innovative pedagogies ("Innovation Pedagogy in TUAS" by Minna Scheinin, "Case Studies of Integration and Assessment in LSP" by Tiina Hirard), e-learning and e-teaching of languages ("The Role of an Online Teacher- Guidance and Support Online" by Marjo Joshi, "Quality Assurance Criteria and Authentic Material Usage in Online Learning Environments" by Sanna Simola), Learning Management Systems (LMS) for language education ("Virtual Learning Management systems: What’s on the Cloud?" by Susanna Saari), gamification in language learning and teaching ("The Psychology of Gamification in Language Learning" by Werner Ravyse).

Screenshot from Marjo Joshi's "The Role of an Online Teacher- Guidance and Support Online"

The Consortium is currently hard at work revising course content of Output 3 (LSP MOOC). This  Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) aims to upskill general language teachers who want to specialise in LSP pedagogies, as well as LSP teachers interested in updating and expanding their pedagogical repertoire, and in integrating the use of technology in their practice.

The Second Season of the LSP MOOC will start on 12 October 2020. Take a sneak peek at what participants can expect from the course in the short teaser below.

In spite of the COVID-19 pandemic, the CATAPULT Consortium had a busy first half of 2020 and Output 4 (Community of Pratice - CoP - platforms) is now available to the public. To fight the feeling of isolation among LSP teachers and their lack of institutional and pedagogical support, as identified in Output 1, the CATAPULT consortium has developed an online environment that enables European LSP teachers to become part of an online community of practice. After reviewing existing platforms, the specifications for two innovative platforms were drafted and a call for tender was put out to select a subcontractor; the development of the beta versions of the platforms could then start and these were completed in May 2020. The testing phase of the beta versions took place throughout the summer and the platforms were launched to the general public early September. The CATAPULT ecosystem now includes LinguaCoP, which comprises forums, blogs and a shared teaching resource repository, and LinguaClick, a matching tool which enables LSP teachers and potential employers to connect.

Watch the short presentation video below to find out more... and become a member of our online Community of Practice!