Points to note about the field studies.

4.3.4.1 A mix of co-located and distributed teaching

The research began with co-located groups. At the time (the mid-1990s), there was very little synchronous, interactive teaching over computer networks and none that was accessible and used desktop multimedia conferencing for language tutoring. To find out about the tasks to be supported, it was necessary to study classroom lessons and this is what was done in the initial studies (Table 4.1).

Next, in order to determine whether a shared workspace could support the same range of tasks as its classroom equivalents, distributed groups were studied. This work was in two phases. The first (Trial 1, Table 4.2) established that the conferencing system as a whole could support language tutoring, and provided a suitable fi’amework within \Wiich to investigate use of shared workspace tools. It studied four different foreign language courses. The second (Trial 2, Table 4.2) looked specifically at the way two shared workspace tools were used in an Advanced French class.

As a result of these two trials, it was possible to make recommendations about the features and functions required in a shared workspace tool for language tutwing. The trials also showed that the shared workspace tools had a very strong impact on the teaching and learning, so interest then shifted to investigating this impact. Co-located groups were used for this final stage of the research (Trial 3, Table 4.2). The final study was intended to highlight the best uses of the tool and to show whether it could really enhance teaching and learning in text-based disciplines or whether it just provided distance learners with a substitute for the classroom equivalents. This is easier to establish in a co-located group, where users have a choice about how to share material. Some questions relating to interpersonal communication and classroom atmosphere were also easier to address without the complicating factors of audio and video mediated communication (see Chapto" One, section 1.2.1). Finally, access to all participants would be more straightforward.

4.3.4 2 Varying degrees of control

The degree of control imposed on conditions varied between the studies. In the initial studies, the researcher was a visitor to the classes, with no influence whatsoever over conditions. Following this. Trials 1 and 2, with distributed groups, were field trials in which the research agenda was quite influential. Students and teachers were on real courses but all had agreed to take part in the trials and to co-operate with the research. The teachers controlled what happened in lessons, but the hardware and software platform and the technical support were controlled by the research team^. The final study (Trial 3) was, again, in a class that existed independently of the research. It was therefore subject to the constraints and conditions of day-to-day teaching and learning, and the demands of the course, not the research, governed what took place in lessons. However, this study was approached as a partnership with the teacher (see Use of Participatory Methods, below). As a result, the teacher made every effort to facilitate the research. This included allowing students to complete questionnaires during lessons, explaining the work that was being d(xie and giving the researcher copies of files.

4.3.4 3 Role of the ancillary investigations

The ancillary investigations differed fi’om the main studies in that they made no attempt to capture the whole of the teaching and learning expa-ience. Instead, as Table 4.3 shows, they collect only one type of data or consider one aspect of the course. They were carried out in order to broaden and deepen understanding of the potential role of a shared workspace tool in teaching and learning. They increased the range of learning situations and group sizes. They provided more examples of the use of a second shared workspace tool. They did not contradict earlier findings, substantiated a number of design findings and raised some new questions, which were addressed in the final study.

4 3.4.4 Duration of field trials

The need to explore use of the shared workspace over time has been stated repeatedly in this Chapter. This was given high priority and the courses studied in the three main trials lasted 9, 22 and 40 weeks. The last was a longitudinal study. It followed one teacher and the students on her course (73 in total) over two academic years. This is a relatively unusual method of capturing design requirements for a synchronous collaboration support tool. However, Mitchell et al. (1995) showed that an extended study of collaborative writing with school students could generate knowledge useful to designers. It was believed to be appropriate here because o f the questions addressed at that stage of the research and because the previous study had shown that use of the shared workspace tool was still changing after two terms. The fact that use of the shared workspace tool continued to develop into the second year of this study lends support to the decision.

4 3.4.5 An appropriate teaching and learning context

Foreign language teaching and learning supplies conditions in Wiich synchronous interpersonal interactions are likely to be needed (see Chapter Two, section 2.5.2):

• Communication is integral to the learning;

• Students working in a language that is not their own may find tasks difficult. They may also suffer fi’om lack of confidence, also known as “language anxiety” (MacIntyre & Noels, 1996).

At first sight, all the courses are "language classes", and the aim of this research was to look at support for an area broader than this, defined as "text-based" teaching and learning. In fact, the courses studied were varied. They included:

• beginner/early stage foreign language acquisition (Portuguese);

• applied, work-related language courses (Business French, Spanish for Lawyers); • reading courses (Latin, Advanced French - Trial 2);

• a writing course (Written Russian);

• three different courses for advanced students (a recreational French evening class; a French course for credit, including literary material; a course in English for academic purposes).

It was considered that this degree of variation would enable generalisation of findings to the area of text- based teaching and learning.