Online training for interpreters

Dear colleagues, there is a piece of good news regarding GoReact: they will soon go live with a hosting platform in Europe, so the whole data protection issue your (and my) University used to have with GoReact will soon be solved! Here's an extract of the e-mail message we've just received: I just wanted to let you know that our Europe based hosting centre was launched yesterday! We are going through testing for the next few weeks with a view to going live for customer in January. This is great news for us and hopefully you and your team with regards to data protection and security.

Dear colleagues,

I wrote a blogpost about our experience of online assessment at London Met (MACI).

It provides an insight on our approach to COVID19 online exams. Our approach involved students who were fully involved in making decisions and designing their own technical set up. Student agency was at the very heart of this project and it worked exremely well. We did have a few issues as you will see but we knew this was a possibility and we were ready for it. So we managed! The blog post includes some detailed documents we used to manage the exam. I hope you find this useful. I really hope colleagues share their experience too.

There is so much we can learn from one another. And COVID 19 demonstrated how much we have already shared. Let's not wait for another crisis to share, let's make it a habit!

https://communityofpracticeforinterpreting.blogspot.com/2020/06/our-online-interpreting-exam-experience.html

Looking forward to hearing from your experience.

Many thanks.

Danielle

Please note my students read the blogpost before the publication and agreed for it to be published.

On Tuesday, 14th April, I ran an online brainstorming session for interpreter trainers. We discussed the various options for running this year's interpreting exams (at universities) online, including Zoom, KUDO, etc.

Here is the link to the replay:

https://vimeo.com/408842561/d07ccbe8d9

And here's the link to the chat box, which contained useful information:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wqfw4gf0r5ao024/Online%20exam%20brainstorming…

On Tuesday, 14th April, I ran an online brainstorming session for interpreter trainers. We talked about the various options for running interpreting exams online, including Zoom, Kudo, etc.

Here's the link to the replay:https://vimeo.com/408842561/d07ccbe8d9

And here is a link to the chat box, which contained useful information:https://www.dropbox.com/s/wqfw4gf0r5ao024/Online%20exam%20brainstorming…

SCIC organised a mock conference on Friday 3rd April - on the subject of COVID-19. Galway actually hosted the conference, and then passed the hosting on to the SCIC chairperson (yours truly). Speeches were given in Spanish, German, English and French and there was a short debate afterwards. Once I have the consent of the interpreters involved I hope to be able to publish it so others students can also benefit from it. We also intend to organise more of these with more universities in the coming weeks. Some fine - tuning may be necessary. SCIC's contribution (the speakers, i.e. 'the floor') passed through Zoom, and the universities on their side used different ways of having their students interpret, and being able to listen to them. I would ask the trainers from the universities to explain what/how they did it by replying to this thread. Thanks in advance!

It is so inspiring to see other trainers sharing knowledge and so many interpreters engaging in learning online.

This week I have a new masterclass for experienced interpreters who wish to become assessors and tutors online. And I will be repeating the Remote Interpreter Masterclass as there was a large number of interpreters and students who could not join last week. So here it is for anyone who is interested:

FREE Masterclasses this coming Wednesday:

1. How to become an online Assessor/TutorAimed at experienced interpreters who wish to move onto teaching and assessing students enrolled on online training programmes.Wednesday, 1st April @ 6pm Register using this link! ⬇️https://bit.ly/3asNvpS

2. The Remote Interpreter Covering telephone interpreting, VRI and Video Link. This is a replay of last week. Wednesday, 1st April @ 7.15 pm Register using this link! ⬇️https://bit.ly/2w0Fz03

See you next Wednesday!!

Helena

----Helena El MasriDPSI Online Founderhttps://dpsionline.co.uk Follow us on Facebook! Find us on Twitter!

Dear colleagues,

I am delighted we have exchanged so much about the technology that enables teaching interpreting. This is great! Lots of creativity, sharing, insights etc... I feel we have some pretty good tools now. Not perfect, but it works!

But what about the students' experience? How do they feel about their online learning? Especially over a period of time that could be fairly lenghty? It was not their choice to study online. It was not ours either. We all had to adapt. But what is it like for them now?

The first weeks were full of excitement with using the new technology, making things work together, being patient and supportive with one another... It is our third week at present. Will this enthusiasm wear out?

Will students remain motivated? Will they make progress? As much as with face to face learning? How do they experience their learning? This is not a common situation. It is not just the course that has changed, it is our lives. We are at home, we are going through tough times and it is not easy. My group includes quite a a lot of Italian/French/Chinese/Japanese students and their families have been affected.

So how do you maintain morale? How do you work with students to maintain positive?

I organised a zoom Chitchat cafe this week. It was all based on a simple idea: at uni, we would go to have a coffee together, chat and laugh. I tried to recreate a similar space with the chitchat cafe. It worked very well. It was a mixture of easy going laughter, then serious conversations and sharing worries, then back to laughter and sharing tips on how to cope... We shared photos of our cakes and mugs and shared the personal stories about that, and sometimes they provided an insight on the experience of our daily lives.These social spaces are vital in my opinion and enhance the togetherness students experience during a course. It is a vital element of informal learning and I feel this crucial side of learning is endangered. Students may have their separate channels to communicate. We have a permanent platform too called MeWe (semi formal), in addition to the formal Weblearn (university VLE) But it is still online... Have you tried anything else that worked?

During teaching, I use the poll facilities in Zoom to measure stress, personal impression on learning etc... and it gives a good sponatenous understanding of how students feel/learn. But perhaps you have tried something else? I have organised one to one phone conversations for students who were fed up to be online and were stressed, one to one on Zoom. That was good too. But I still feel frustrated...

I organised virtual cafe sessions with all tutors to informally share our experience of online teaching. This provided a fuller picture of the students experience. So far so good, I am simply amazed at how resilient students are, how motivated they seem to be. Everyone is connected early (no late arrivals), all homework is done (no excuses) , great focus (no separate conversations on a device) ... Great but how long for? What do you think? What have you noticed?

Then, there is the question of online exams... how will you organise that? We normally do our exams based on video recorded speeches. But where will the speeches be located? On the students' drive? Streamed? What device should students use to record themselves (Audacity?)? I normally record their exams in 3 locations just in case. How do we do that now without putting pressure on students? Then when they have recorded their file, how do they upload it on a Google drive folder? (We transfer? Simple upload in a shared folder?). What about an internet "potential incident"? How do we still insure exam conditions without too much pressure on the students who would need to manage a different technical environment?

We are going to rehearse over the next few weeks so we find a soluton that everyone feels comfortable with. Happy to share then. But also very happy to hear what your strategies will be.

So here I am , on a Sunday afternoon, wondering how you are coping, and looking forward to your suggestions? perhaps we should organise a chitchat cafe?

Looking forward to your suggestions.

Danielle

Dear all,

We organized our first remote mock conference at ESIT on Wednesday with Kudo.

My impressions are that, despite several technical hiccups and the need to practice with the platform, it works relatively well for a mock conference, even if participants don't fulfil all the required conditions in terms of hardware, software and Internet connexion.

However, the students have quickly identified that working alone from home is a huge issue and can not guarantee a professional interpretation.

I've compiled the details of the mock conference as well as students' impressions directly after the mock conference in a document (in French). If you're interested, I could translate it and share it in the files section.

We will hold a second mock conference next week, since we feel that students need to experiment more.

All the best,

Camille Collard

Dear colleagues,

In last week's webinar on providing online feedback on interpreting, I mentioned a tool called GoReact.

I have recorded two videos about how you can use GoReact for teaching interpreting online:

• Using GoReact to provide online interpreting feedback
• Using GoReact for simultaneous interpreting practice and feedback

GoReact is offering universities and their students free use of their platform from now until June 30.

Best,

Josh

Dear colleagues,

My colleague at Ghent University, Bart Defrancq, already briefly explained in one of the posts below how we moved our mock conference online using a combination of Zoom and Discord. We noticed course leaders and trainers are interested and therefor we have written a short report on how and what. It's now available for download in the Files tab (thanks for uploading it, Alexander!).

We are currently also working on a short instruction video on how to set up a Discord server (which is really just a fancy Discord word for webpage) for interpreter training. We'll share the video here and through our social media channels.

Don't hesitate to send us your questions, suggestions, feedback. We're also eagerly reading and learning from what you have been publishing. A warm thank you to all of you for your input.

All the best,

Tom

Dear colleagues,

I wrote a blogpost about transferring the MA Conference Interpreting at London Met online. I hope it helps colleagues:

https://communityofpracticeforinterpreting.blogspot.com/2020/03/rising-…

I am planning to write additional posts of our experience online.

Looking forward to your conversations.

Many thanks.

Danielle

Dear all

Inspired by colleagues who have been sharing such great ideas and content, I have decided to offer 4 short FREE Masterclasses, to assist interpreters affected by the lockdown.

1. Transitioning from F2F training to Online training (to help trainers who due to the current lockdown situation in the UK, have been asked to do remote teaching in the next weeks – for Level 3 and Level 6 courses - does not include conference interpreting). Wednesday, 25th March @ 6pm (UK time)

   Register using this link! https://lnkd.in/ea_rghX After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

1. The Remote Interpreter – An introduction to telephone interpreting, VRI and Video Link. For interpreters who have not yet done much remote interpreting and have been asked by agencies to do it due to the current lockdown situation in the UK. Wednesday, 25th March @ 7.15 pm (UK time)

   Register using this link! https://lnkd.in/eMHWx64 After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

1. How to become an Assessor for Online Training. (date tbc soon)

1. Interventions – the difference between intervening, interrupting and interfering. (date tbc soon)

Please share with anyone who may be interested, and follow news and other offers on our FB Page - https://www.facebook.com/DPSIOnline/

Kind regards

Helena El Masri

DPSI Online Founder

https://dpsionline.co.uk

Hello all,

Here's a list of links to the replays, chat boxes, and Powerpoints of my two webinars last week (intro to teaching consecutive and intro to teaching simultaneous online), on 17th March and 19th March.

Feel free to share the ideas; please also respect my copyright.If you didn't attend the webinars at the time, I would suggest watching the Thursday 19th version of the simultaneous webinar, because we were fortunate to have Barry Olsen in the audience, and he kindly answered a question about ZipDX.Do get in touch if you have other questions. If you haven't joined, you will find useful information on the trainers' Facebook page at facebook.com/groups/interpreter.trainers. I'm sure there are other good sources of information out there.

Teaching consecutive online powerpoint:https://www.dropbox.com/s/cncpujmt824lzvm/intro%20to%20teaching%20conse…

Intro to teaching consecutive online, 17th March:https://zoom.us/rec/play/v5wrc7-v_zI3TICT4QSDVKJxW9XoKa2sgChK-KIEmEe3UX…

Chat box Intro to teaching consecutive online, 17th March:https://zoom.us/rec/download/tMEqIeqopm03HoWR4QSDAP9wW43vf6msgShN-fMOzx…

Intro to teaching simultaneous online, 17th March:https://zoom.us/rec/play/vJZ5dr2vqDM3SYfAuASDAKIsW464Lvqs1CQbq6cOzB2wUn…

Chat box Intro to teaching simultaneous online, 17th March:https://zoom.us/rec/download/65Z-Ieuqr2g3TtSWtASDA_MtW47se_ms0nQbr_EOyU…

Intro to teaching consecutive online, 19th March:https://vimeo.com/399500290/c8c9cd404d

Intro to teaching simultaneous online, 19th March:https://vimeo.com/399949147

Chat box Intro to teaching simultaneous online, 19th March:https://www.dropbox.com/s/s94pktmxwu1c7kn/Chat%20box%20from%20intro%20t…

It's great to see all of the solutions being shared on this forum. What a resourceful bunch of people interpreters are!

At La Laguna, we have decided to use Adobe Connect Meetings for our online consecutive and simultaneous classes. Class started a couple of days ago, once the basic training on how to use the platform had been completed with both trainers and students. Things have been going surprisingly smoothly so far, I'm pleased to announce! A few hiccups with file formats and such but no more than is to be expected given the circumstances.

We will also be running mock conferences with KUDO, and using other online collaboration tools to get the students working and practicing together outside of class time.

If anyone wants to know more about how we at the La Laguna are teaching simultaneous and consecutive on Adobe Connect, please feel free to reach out to me directly (email m.hof@aiic.net or Whatsapp +34657806754). It's a bit too long to explain in detail here, but I can assure you, the platform has got plenty of bells and whistles that make it possible to replicate most face-to-face interpreter training situations in a virtual classroom.

Regards,

Michelle

Dear colleagues,

It is wonderful to see so much input from you all on how to make the best of the current situation. Josh Goldsmith and I want to contribute as well, and have started a series of webinars on interpreting and technology. The first session covered giving interpreting feedback online.

More information and downloadable slides can be found here.

Dear all, just to add to the previous very useful posts. We were locked out of the uni facilities last Friday. As we had a mock conference for sim and consec scheduled with 5 students and 9 staff, we combined zoom for the floor and discord for the interpretation. If all mics and headsets work properly the combination allows you to listen to source (on zoom on the laptop) and interpretation (discord on the smartphone or another device) simultaneously. Discord allows you to use multiple channels (=booths) and to switch from one channel to another. Feedback can be provided through both systems. Bon courage à tous.

Hello all.

Thank you for sharing your ideas and tips and thank you, Sophie, once again for bringing the community of interpreter-trainers together last Tuesday which helped to generate this very useful conversation.

I had to resort to Skype at a very short notice because for a visiting trainer it does not require any institutional affiliation (or complex logins) which gives many privileges to a number of free collaborative learning platforms. Those who use Skype would know that the current version of Skype in addition to a screen share option also has a sound share function. This means that in theory you can play a recorded speech to your students from your own computer and then listen to a selected student through your smartphone. The students interpret into their smartphone for your benefit but should be muted on Skype at their end at the time of interpretation. You need two headphones of course. I am sure some of you have tried this synchronous exercise. When I tested it at home on two computers with a family member, it worked very well (got me very excited too) but when I tried it during my Skype class the students could not hear the sound of the recording. I had to resort to the same exercise as Elena described in her message.

I’d be very happy to hear from those who have the sound sharing function working on their Skype.

Thank you and keep safe.

Svetlana

Hello everyone

Thank you for all your useful input.

The University of Porto, Portugal, suspended classes at the end of last week and we have been asked to provide online teaching and tutoring.

I have been using Zoom since Monday for training students online. Technically speaking it has worked very well. We have been having practising with 2 students at a time (usually with the same A language) or one-on-one. The only problem has been that the free version of Zoom only allows you to run meetings for a maximum of 40 minutes when there are more than 2 people in a meeting. After 40 minutes I have to schedule another and start another meeting. It's a bit of a hassle but it works well.

As for types of exercises, we have been doing mostly consecutive, but also simultaneous. For example, in one-on-one sessions, I mute my mike and the student uses his smartphone to listen to the original speech and interpret it for me. In this case, I am a pure user.

Students have also been sending me their audiofiles with their SIMs and then I give then feedback in an online session.

I would appreciate any idea about different activities we could do online.

Keep safe

Elena

Dear all,

I just wanted to say thank you for these very useful posts - they are most appreciated and are helping us figure out online conference interpreting training in Cologne. We have our first week of teaching as of Monday and will report back on how things go. Wish us luck!

Thanks again and best wishes in these difficult times,

Morven

Dear all,

I just wanted to say thank you for these very useful posts - they are most appreciated and are helping us figure out online conference interpreting training in Cologne. We have our first week of teaching as of Monday and will report back on how things go. Wish us luck!

Thanks again and best wishes in these difficult times,

Morven

Here's some instructions Andy Gillies put on the Facebook page about Audacity:

Here are some (rough and ready) instructions for using Audacity to get dual-track recordings of sim interpreting (and adding feedback to that)Using Audacity in simultaneous interpreting

(This is for a Mac)

There are two stages to get you to a dual track (both source speech and the interpreting in a single recording).

1. Convert Youtube speeches to MP3

2. Record interpreting over the original speech as a second track.

1. Convert Youtube speeches to MP3

1. Go to your Youtube film and copy the URL

2. Go to https://ymp4.download

3. Paste the Youtube film URL and click on the format you want (eg. MP3 320kbps)

4. Click „download” and then again on the new green “download” button that will appear

5. The downloaded MP3 file will appear in your Downloads folder

2. Record interpreting over the original speech as a second track.

Download, install and open Audacity.

To interpret

2. Drag and drop MP3 file of source speech into Audacity window.

3. Click on Tracks menu

4. Choose Add new

Stereo track

(Put the microphone volume up high and speaker volume relatively low. These are both underneath the green play button)

5. Press red record button to start interpreting

6. Stop interpreting

7. File/ Export

Teacher, to listen and give feedback.

Feedback in the audio recording

9. Click on Tracks menu

10. Choose Add new

Label track

11. Click the part of the recording to which the feedback comment relates

12. To add a new label

Edit Menu

Labels

Label at selection

click where you want to add a comment

type text into box provided

13. Repeat 12 for each feedback comment.

14. Save project (as an Audacity .au file)

Once you record the “project” you can still edit the feedback

Sending the project to a student

You need to send both the .au file and the _data folder of the same name (eg. Peter.au & Peter_data) for the student to be able to open the file at the other end. It’s a very big file! When they open the .au file it must inside the same folder as the _data folder.

15. To compress the file and folder into a zip file

Mark the file and folder and (ctrl + click) or (right click) on them. Choose “compress”. A .zip file will be created

16. Share the .zip file with your student... eg. via Gdocs

When you play back the project you might not immediately see your feedback as it is later down the folder.

Dear trainers,

Some of us started using Discord for online teaching and Discord noticed, so they published a short document to help beginners set up a classroom: https://blog.discordapp.com/how-to-use-discord-for-your-classroom-8587bf78e6c4.

One of our students created a server that simulates our classrooms at Uni (he even added a teachers' lounge!) on Discord. Basically, all the students and trainers are on the same server and can easily gor for one room to another: either they go in a text or voice channel with their group, or they join a virtual "booth". If you want, you can also start a videoconference with a group of students.

Personnally, I think that Discord is great to easily keep in touch with students, organise consecutive, sight translation or other types of interactive classes. I particulary like the fact that they can use it independently and organise their own practice sessions. However, Zoom and Kudo might be better suited for simutlaneous.