Based On Mahara Platform Electronics Gear Design And Implementation Of The Translation Course

In the past few years, many translation education programs have beenestablished and achieved meaningful development at the levels of undergraduate andpostgraduate. However, research on translation pedagogy is still behind the needs ofclassroom teaching, especially those teacher-centered classrooms fail to observe theinternal translation process and meet students’ needs, which reduces students’ motivationto a certain extent. Thus the innovation and improvement on translation teaching methodshave become the pressing demand of both teachers and students.The theoretical framework that guides this case study is composed of constructivistlearning theory, blended learning and authentic assessment theory, which helps theinstructional designer understand that the use of E-Portfolios in translation course is notonly for an alternative assessment tool, what is more important is to help students makeself-evaluation and reflection. Mahara, open-source software, is incorporated into thelearning context to fulfill the student-centered instructional design. This study attempts toanswer the following questions: compared with the paper-based portfolios, whatadvantages do the E-Portfolios have? Why shall this research choose Mahara? How shallwe integrate Mahara with translation teaching?In order to check out the feasibility and validity of E-Portfolios approach intranslation teaching, the researcher reports a16-week-pilot in Suzhou University ofScience and Technology. The participants in the experimental study are23juniors ofEnglish major in their second semester. The researcher reports the whole process oftranslation project “Shanghai Metro Pass”, included the translation decisions, the use ofaided-translation software, and the end product. The researcher also uses thephenomenological approach to guide his interpretation of the meaning that students gave totheir experiences, such as the reflective learning, self evaluation, learning contentpreference, and their acceptance of E-Portfolios. In the light of in-depth interviews,observations, and document analysis, findings from this study also show what benefits andproblems exist for the creating and use of electronic portfolios...