I lived the experience from scratch. It started from the program pre-approval stage until where we are now. We are now running our second semester and we have two other semesters left to deliver the first cohort . The contents of this program were very innovative and some of them new in the region. The program as it seems has been so far successful and many other students are in the pipeline to register for next year. Sounds promising.
In the Arab region, especially in the gulf area, translation departments/ units are not used to host and teach courses like localization, online interpreting, fully fledged e-courses on translation technologies, revision, project management...etc. So, these are top notch innovations in graduate translation contents/ curriculum. Yet, for such types of courses, students need to log into blackboard Collaborate( the chosen LMS platform) and take the courses on a weekly basis. They have a live lecture to attend, interactive by default, and then various types of assessments were provided to assess students understanding.
Diversification of means of assessment is a key elements that makes the difference here. And that is why credit should be given to the synchronous online teaching and learning model. Believe me there is learning/teaching and transformation taking place. Triangulating assessments tools, student/content, student /instructor , students/student and instructor/content interacting online and delivering assessment on time ( strict deadlines) is a clear sign of educational practices that can create impact.
So, why shouldn't we consider these learning/teaching experiences viable? based on what? may be its ideological, selfish and narrow minded interpretation and perception of what e-learning means.....with COVID in the pipeline, I think it cannot be denied that the e-exercise/test if designed properly it should certainly be counted and considered. Further, institutional support need to be offered for instructors to develop abilities and pedagogies specific for the online environments.
last question: what we assessing? content or understanding? I think it is time to assess the product ( content) and focus on assessing the level of understanding ( deep or surface) ( Bart, 1995)
