Online training for interpreters

Dear trainers - I think we have the makings of a fascinating thread here. Unfortunately I missed Sophie's seminar last night, but hope to plug in on Thursday instead. I was just reading all the other threads on here, some from last year before the Edit-a-thon, in which Sophie bravely suggested she and Alex work on a master document on this. I think it would be great to have a run-down of different tools with their pros and cons, but also something about keeping up motivation of students etc as mentioned by Danielle. We could then put the finished product under the Innovation part on interpreting/training technologies, which Alex is also working on at the moment. Also, I am going to try and organise an Edit-a-thon online in the not too distant future. We could even decide to hold one per leading community (like this one)? à voir

Thank you Alex. I think it is great Sophie organised the online workshop yesterday.

I organised our first online adapted "mock conference" yesterday. Two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon. We used Zoom. I would like to use Kudo as a teaching tool later on, which in my mind would be perfect for many aspects of our teaching, especially for simulated events. There were 7 languages yesterday and all our teachers were online with us to listen to students in a simultaneous manner, using all breakout rooms etc..

What must not be forgotten is the students experience, keeping motivation going, the group effect on motivation, guiding for individual practice when not connected, online flipped classroom model too... On Zoom, you can organise polls which are excellent to monitor all these aspects. For example, yesterday I monitored the level of stress as we were working on the platform and students all reported that the stress level was going down gradually as we were working together, getting used to the tools, being together etc...

We did a lot of rehearsal, training, brainstorming on Zoom, with trainers only, students only... and what we managed yesterday was the result of such a collaborative approach.

I am happy to share the experience. I took some screenshots of students, but with the polls too. I will ask students whether they agree to share today.

Good luck all. Time to share good practice. Let's not forget to listen to students and see how they perceive all these changes, what works for them etc... A great partnership!

Danielle

Helena, I apologise for not replying before now, somehow I missed this extremely useful post. I agree entirely with you, and Barry, that a lot depends on the experience of the trainer. I hope that this community will keep exchanging and even come up with a document that we can share on the 'static' part of the KCI!

Hi Cathy,

Thanks for the shoutout to Glendon. I am actually the Field Coordinator for Conference Interpreting for the Glendon program so I can answer the questions any of you might have about how we work there. There's a lot I could say so it might help if people asked specific questions that I can respond to.

Briefly, the Glendon MCI is a two-year MA program with the first year (offering Conference, Healthcare and Legal interpreting courses) taught entirely online and the second year (for Conference only) taught mostly on-site in Toronto, with some online elements. We use a Moodle-based LMS for the asynchronous learning and Adobe Connect Meetings for the synchronous components.

I hope this helps. Let me know what else you might want to know about how we work.

Thanks!

Michelle

I have delivered a few online training CPD. In addition to what has been said, I think it is important to look at the presenter's experience. Sometimes, you feel you are speaking to yourself, especially when you cannot see attendees. Adobe connect for example was not a great experience for me the presenter. I had no idea of the attendees experience. The chat box I feel is quite artificial. But recently I have used Zoom.us and actually bought the licence. The experience is completely different. there are break out rooms. You can organise exercises and have chat with attendees in the break out room. The connection is secure and there is no real concern with sound quality. I can see the participants, they can see me. I like t have a mixture of presentation, discussion, etc. and everyone can share their screen. Finally you can record. This is an improvement. To conclude, it is not just about delivery techniques. it is also about the experience on the platform, what can be done with it so that everyone can communicate. For me the visual input is important, the sharing of the screen and the breakout rooms. I hope this helps.

Josh, I have an overall observation. I hope you'll allow me to defer on answering the specific questions. At this point, the technical barriers for conducting meaningful training online are overcome. While getting the technical aspects of a webinar or online course are important, the crux of successful online CPD really rests in the quality of the material offered by the presenter/instructor. The best format depends on what is being taught. As a professional community, we really need to zero in on what really brings value to individual practitioners and focus on that. what kind of content or skills training will make a hard-working interpreter plunk down their hard-earned e-cash on the cyber barrel? for me, that is the most important question to answer.