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Secondly, through the work of the OCT, who will adopt an appropriate tone whencommunicating with trainees online and who will foster the use of the site as a ‘warm’online community. The OCT on the pilot refers to the possibility of encouragingtrainees by clicking on ‘smileys’ in the Liveroom as useful but not particularlyspontaneous. A more effective approach to building rapport developed naturally:‘the main way you can do it is what you write in the discussion forums and whatyou write in the emails, so the written style you need to use, I think, has to be reallyenthusiastic, very warm and very friendly … when you have discussion forums, whenyou weave together everyone’s opinions at the end, you can make clear, positivereferences to what different people have contributed and I think that also helpsto develop a sort of sense of an online community’ (Cambridge ESOL TeachingQualifications, 2012b). One of the course participants interviewed supports thispoint, commenting that ‘the online tutor always responded to emails quickly andthe technical support has been amazing’ (ibid). Furthermore, Klímová, writing onthe distance learning element of blended learning, asserts that it ‘can offer moreinformation to students, better and faster feedback and richer communicationbetween a tutor and a student.’ (2008: 58).The development of the online materials presented an opportunity to re-think the natureand content of face-to-face input sessions and design materials that would not just tryto replicate the face-to-face input sessions, but in key areas improve upon them by:■■■■■■■■■■■■■■weaving throughout all the materials the voice of the language learner and trainer– through video, audio, image and textallowing trainees to work through key methodological areas at their own paceallowing trainees to return to work through units in a linear fashion but alsojump ahead and go back to materials when neededproviding a permanent resource trainees could use long after the coursehad finished 1encouraging active and reflective learning through materials that asktrainees to process information, test their understanding through activitiesand receive feedbackmaking full use of multimedia (audio and video) to provide lots of exposure tothe views and practices of a wide range of experienced teaching professionals,in a range of contextsfostering a socio-constructivist approach to learning through integratedcollaborative activities.Teaching practiceTeaching practice is one of the cornerstones of CELTA assessment and candidatesrely on the centre to provide classes to teach. Therefore candidates are obligedto come into the centre to teach, be assessed by the TP tutor(s) and receivefeedback. As with face-to-face courses, before this assessment begins, they havethe opportunity in unobserved lessons to familiarise themselves with the classroom1Trainees are given access to the materials and all discussion forums for one year after the course has finished.The Cambridge CELTA course online | 119