Effective Pedagogical Practices for Teaching Translation Courses Online in the Post-COVID-19 Era

Abstract

Purpose. Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, educational institutions were forced to close temporarily. Subsequently, online education replaced conventional classroom instruction, becoming the mainstream instructional method. This led to a significant change in lecturers’ approaches in teaching translation courses. This study aims to investigate lecturers’ experiences, reactions to, and techniques in online teaching the practice of translation. Methodology. It adopts a qualitative research method using in-depth interviews with university lecturers teaching translation online in Jordan. The participants' reflections were presented considering the components of the TPACK framework, described as knowledge, pedagogy, and teacher content knowledge. Findings The results of this study reveal the most relevant and useful skills and knowledge that translation lecturers can acquire from their colleagues’ experience of online teaching this subject, as well as the approaches they found best supported the online teaching mode. Also, it highlights the importance of considering the TPACK model in teacher’s practices. Implications for Research and Practice. The study’s findings have implications for teachers and the academic staff in institutions of higher education. The findings reveal information based on teachers’ feedback to improve online education for the practice of translation. This information can be taken into consideration in the future planning of training programs for online translation teachers in the post COVID-19 era. The main study limitation is that teachers’ self-assessment of competencies can be biased and thus may have affected the results. In order to avoid responses’ bias, future studies may adopt different approaches to understand and examine the TPACK of teachers.