Abstract
This chapter examines students' perceptions of their online learning experience in a healthcare interpreting course as well as their self-efficacy beliefs. The results suggest that teaching presence is essential in online learning, as students indicated that the feedback provided by the instructor were among the most helpful aspects of the course. Additionally, including activities that required learners to interact and collaborate throughout the semester was an effective way of creating social presence. Students specifically perceived that doing peer-evaluations with a classmate on a weekly basis helped them learn and increased their confidence. Regarding self-efficacy beliefs, by the end of the semester students considered that they can meet the requirements established in the National Standards of Practice for Interpreters in Health Care. Overall, a collaborative online environment was successfully created, and learners had a worthwhile learning experience. This study provides meaningful data that can inform future online teaching practices.
TopIntroduction
When the COVID-19 pandemic struck in March 2020, academic institutions around the world were forced to switch quickly from face-to-face to online teaching and learning. From a purely academic perspective, this situation caused major disruptions for a variety of reasons, including the fact that many students and instructors did not have previous experience with online education but were nevertheless forced to adapt to it. The pandemic continued during the 2020-2021 academic year. During this time, students and instructors made a significant effort to adapt to the challenges posed by the pandemic. As a result, many lessons that may change education forever have been learned (Lederman, 2020; Miyagawa & Perdue, 2020). In this sense, and in order to discuss some of the lessons learned, this chapter has three goals. The first goal is to describe the curriculum of an English-Spanish healthcare interpreting course that was taught online for the first time in the fall semester of 2020 and that was designed following current theories of distance education. The second goal is to examine students’ perceptions towards the different components of said course. The third and last goal is to examine students’ self-efficacy beliefs as healthcare interpreters after completing the course.
The number of jobs for translators and interpreters is expected to grow 20% in the next decade in the United States, which is must faster than the average for all occupations (4%) (Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, n.d.). Given the expected demand of this type of language professionals in the coming years, one could also expect an increase of academic programs that aim to train these professionals in the United States. In this regard, this chapter provides a significant contribution by describing the curriculum of a course that was developed in accordance with current theories of distance education and implemented in an online course during the COVID-19 pandemic. The information presented in this chapter is valuable as it can inform other instructors and interpreter trainers, not only about curriculum design, but also about how students perceived different components of the course, as well as how they feel as interpreters by the end of the course.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Social Presence: One of the three presences of the CoI framework. It refers to the extent to which learners feel affectively connected to others in an online environment.
Self-Efficacy: An individual’s beliefs in their capacity to execute a specific task.
Consecutive Interpreting: Mode of interpreting in which the interpreter takes notes while a speaker talks. The interpreter then renders the speaker’s message for the audience.
Cognitive Presence: One of the three presences of the CoI framework. It refers to the extent to which learners engage with the material and construct meaning through sustained reflection and discourse.
Teaching Presence: One of the three presences of the CoI framework. It refers to the design, facilitation and direction of cognitive and social processes in order to achieve successful learning outcomes.
Sight Translation: The process of rendering out loud in the target language a text written in the source language.
Community Of Inquiry: A group of people who collaborate and engage in purposeful reflection to construct meaning and confirm understanding.