Reconfiguring Universities for the Future: E-learning Resources and Instructional Designs in Training Translation

Background: This study attempts to understand the importance of applying E-learning resources through evaluating the importance of said-resources in the differences appearing in the translation quality of texts trained to the students through various educational references. Objectives: To achieve the purpose, the study was conducted at Islamic Azad University-Tehran Science and Research branch during the second semester of academic year 2018 - 19. Methods: The evaluation of translation quality of the students who trained translation via traditional references and E-learning resource tools was conducted at the textual level according to the Sager’s general classification for three levels of gravity of errors considering distortion of sense, omission, and minor errors using one way ANCOVA to determine a statistically significant difference in the learner’s outcome through controlling the potential effect of translation pretest. Results: For both traditional and E-learning references in translation training, the scorings of the two translation raters were consistent since the intraclass correlation (α) was 0.933 (> 0.70). The two groups of the study were significantly different from one another via obtaining the mean of 15.51 in the E-learning resources group of the participants in comparison with the mean obtained in the traditional references group which was 13.75 in the early observation of the descriptive statistics. Besides, the P value of 0.001 (< 0.050) retrieved from the result of One-way ANCOVA, represented the significant effect of training translation via applying E-learning in comparison to the traditional referenced training. The significance value of .001, which was smaller than 0.050, indicated the fact that our groups were significantly different. The proof to the claim was given strength from the results of the post hoc test for the dependent variable of the study (translation posttest), in which the means of 15.547 (for the control group) and 16.073 (for the experimental group) in the multiple measurements of P value (0.001) was calculated based on the 95% of confidence interval and standard error of 0.175. Accordingly, the translation training via E-learning resources made a statistically significant difference in the learning outcome of the students, the quality of students’ translation, while controlling the effect of the pretest. Also, the effect size of 0.244 revealed the strength of independent variable as an appropriate numerical value for indicating the efficacy of the treatment-training translation via applying E-learning resources. Conclusions: The consistency of quality assurance in translation could be achievable via E-learning resources; however it is not possible to consider all the resources as the appropriate material within all educational contexts with various instructional designs. Thus, the use of E-learning resources, as the necessary factor in reconfiguring the universities for the future through updated instructional designs should be preserved by the teachers and students regarding the necessary adaptations required in the local contexts of training translation. The research implications are basically referring the stake holders in developing instructional designs to consider the importance of E-learning resources in the training procedures applied by the instructors to provide various courses including translation. However, it is necessary for the policy makers to pave the grounds to settle the required platforms for the use of such resources within educational contexts concerning their applicability in the local context.