Evaluating the effectiveness of ORCIT’s note-taking resource

Abstract

The paper presents a study conducted over several weeks with 22 undergraduate fourth year Translation BA students taking the compulsory Consecutive Interpreting module. The aim of the study was to ascertain whether the use of the ORCIT note-taking resource had an impact on learner knowledge and note-taking skills. The study followed the relevant parameters of the five-level holistic TEL evaluation framework by Pickering and Joynes (2016). The results did not show a statistically significantly better performance of the ORCIT group versus the control group during the trial but, comparing the pre-trial interpreting performance of students with their interpretation during the trial, the ORCIT group showed a statistically significant improvement, while the control group did not. This suggests a possible beneficial effect of the note-taking resource in terms of transfer of learning (learner gain) rather than knowledge retention.