Why the Course Plan Matters More Than the Content

For years I treated the course outline as paperwork. I now think it is the single biggest predictor of whether students actually reach the learning outcomes we set for them.

When I taught in higher education between 2008 and 2011, content was king. What we stressed was topics and the teacher's objectives. It turns out that what really matters is the reverse: target the learning outcomes first, design learning activities for those specific outcomes, and then build assessment tools that tell you whether learners have achieved them. The alignment between these three elements is everything. Without it, course objectives are derailed.

I doubt any of the colleagues I worked with on the MA or the diploma in translation had a proper course plan before their first class, one that spelt out, consciously and responsibly, the pedagogical approach, the intended learning outcomes and the assessment tools. That gap cripples the quality of learning and misguides the student. In translation teaching it is worse still: instruction rarely reflected real-world requirements and practices. We need to know why we use a practicum in an MA course, and how best to engage students in activities that resemble the work done in translation offices and bureaux, or between online freelance translators and outsourcers.

In 2011 I took a graduate development programme in teaching in higher education at the Université de Sherbrooke (Canada). It was thoroughly practical. It made me reflect on how to approach content, the classroom, student characteristics and learning styles, and the choice of a pedagogical approach (or a harmonious mix of them), and then apply all this to translator training and education. Yes, education.

I took the course fully online, and that paved the way for me to specialise, a year later, in online education applied to translator training for my PhD. Two years in, I changed the topic to pedagogical and curriculum practices in face-to-face translation programmes. But my exposure to online, interactive education and scholarship taught me a great deal about educational technologies in general, and about those adapted to translator education in particular.

Takeaway: a course lives or dies by the alignment of outcomes, activities and assessment. Plan that first; the content will follow.