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Designing an immersive authentic event with a multilayered learning approach

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Wearing my two hats as Head of Business Engagement for GSBL and Course Leader for the MA Conference Interpreting at  London Metropolitan University , I organised an event that brought together the interest of both worlds. One of my objectives was to promote languages and raise awareness that multilingualism is an underestimated asset in the professional world. Many students across the university speak languages other than English. However, they are often unaware of the value of their language skills.  Rather than a lecture or a workshop, I designed an immersive multilingual event that brought together members of our interpreting Community of Practice (students, ambassadors, alumni and colleagues) who played different roles (organisers, interpreters, helpers, speakers) during the event. All students from the university were invited to join either online, onsite, or on YouTube to discuss the relevance of transferable skills in their professional objective. Why was the event such a succes
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How does a hybrid approach facilitate a flexible access to teaching and learning: Training the Trainers for Interpreting Studies 2023

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Time flies. Sometimes it goes so fast that there is no space to stop and reflect, and celebrate too! Well today, I want to stop and share our collective experience of the #trainingoftrainers for #Interpretingstudies at London Metropolitan University , a short course that took place during the last week of June 2023 (20 hours over 5 days). So what's new? It was the first time I ran the course in a hybrid mode 😊. - Four of us were onsite Silvia Scivales ACIL (UK based), Ebaa Alwash (UK based) and Asuman Yıldırım (Based in Turkey). I was on site too. - Seven colleagues were online @RoksolanaPovoroznyuk and Oleksandra Litvinyak (Based in Ukraine), Irina Sanders (UK based), María Luz Salas Roca (Based in Peru), Lucienne Peace (UK/Malta based), Emma Jane Brown (based in Spain) and Ondrej Klabal (based in the Czech Republic). The first question I have asked myself is: is the hybrid experience better for participants compared to the online experience? It certainly offers an inc
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The future of teaching and learning is in our hands

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(Photo:  tinyurl.com/fvop5buq) When I’ll look back at life under COVID-19 in a few years time, I will remember two contrasting experiences. On the one hand, a life on “pause” with restrictions of all kinds that all started in the same way: “you cannot…”. And on the other hand, the “fast forward” experience in teaching and learning that required imagination, agility, resilience and a deep sense of care. With access to vaccination, “life after COVID” is in sight. What will teaching and learning look and feel like? Will we fall back into our old habits and take refuge in the traditional face to face interaction? Will we celebrate the flexibility of online learning? Will we take shortcuts and do a bit of both to “make everyone happy”? To tell you the truth, when I speak to colleagues and students, we all share a common experience at present: we are exhausted, trying to survive one day at a time! However, I feel teachers have never felt so committed to delivering the best possible experienc
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Location: London, UK
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Our online interpreting exam experience: students as partners

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COVID19 brought its own online teaching challenges. But that was the easy part. Wait until you hear about the summative assessment challenges! Here is how we did it. That could perhaps help you with your own online final exam approach. Traditionally, assessing conference interpreting is done in so many ways, but always face to face. Some universities assess their students as they interpret live speeches whilst others prefer their students to use recorded speeches. Some universities organise a final panel to assess candidates, others assess recorded exams. This post is not about the format of interpreting exams, but rather about the approach to online exams at a time of crisis. At London Metropolitan University, the format of our interpreting exams is as follows: each module is individually assessed. It could combine one or more of the following formats: practical interpreting exams (consecutive and simultaneous), presentations, essays, and portfolios of practice.  I would like to focus
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