For years, students on the master’s degree in interpreting at the University of Nottingham (UoN) in the UK have been getting lessons in a training lab equipped with Televic technology. When the coronavirus crisis struck, the UoN sought a way to continue the lessons digitally. And found it in assessmentQ …

Televic training lab on the campus

The University of Nottingham and Televic are hardly strangers. For years the University has had a custom-made training lab for interpreters, equipped with Televic’s interpreterQ technology.

The setup consists of 8 booths and a conference desk equipped with software and hardware for simultaneous and consecutive interpretation. “It offers our students a realistic interpretation experience”, says Yvonne Lee, head of the master’s degree in Chinese-English Translation and Interpretation.

“The Televic training lab is the perfect learning facility to prepare our interpretation students for professional practice.”

Dr. Yvonne Lee, head of the master’s degree in Chinese-English Translation and Interpretation at the UoN

All master’s students attend lessons in the training lab. “Since 2018, postgraduates as well as undergraduates with different language combinations are included. I run the Chinese-English department, but in Translation Studies we also teach German, French, Spanish, and Russian. So, the group of students that uses the technology is extremely varied.”

An unexpected turnaround

The university was forced to close when the coronavirus pandemic broke out, and no one had access to the training lab. Yvonne didn’t throw in the towel: “After testing a few online alternatives, including Microsoft Teams, to no avail, I emailed Televic. In the end, that’s how I heard about assessmentQ, their online testing and examination platform.”

Yvonne: “After that, all the lessons went online thanks to assessmentQ. The platform is excellent for remote evaluation. The interpretation module makes it possible to simulate real interpreting scenarios, record the participants and assess their work afterwards. We advise students to practice on the platform themselves and then film their exercise sessions to learn from them later.”

“The switch to digital learning was seamless thanks to assessmentQ.”

“The University is open again today, and we are working in a hybrid setting. Lessons are going ahead in the training lab, but we are still making active use of assessmentQ for exercises and evaluations. The best of two worlds, if you ask me!”

Intuitive and user-friendly

Yvonne sees the switch to assessmentQ as a good thing. “It took a bit of getting used to in the beginning, for students and lecturers both. Fortunately, the platform is user-friendly and intuitive. If you know a little bit about technology, you will soon see what assessmentQ has to offer.”

“If we do hit a problem, we can always rely on the team at Televic. From start-up to the final steps of the implementation process they gave us useful tips about where things are, the best way to save your data, and so on.”

“assessmentQ is extremely user-friendly. If you do hit a problem, Televic is always on hand with a quick solution.”

Broad implementation of assessmentQ

“We are currently looking at whether assessmentQ can be rolled out to the other departments of the School of Languages”, says Yvonne. “There is a pilot project in the Russian department at the moment. Our colleagues use assessmentQ to put their course material online, including audio and video. If the pilot project is successful and assessmentQ turns out to be better than the other tools we have, there is a good chance of closer collaborations with Televic in the coming years.”

“In an ideal world we would roll assessmentQ out gradually to the other departments of the School of Languages.”

 

Wondering if assessmentQ can help you?

Schedule a no-obligation call with our experts or request a demo.