Interpreting – Televic Education

Background

The Interpreting item type allows participants to simultaneously or consecutively interpret a source file. The interpretation will be recorded with or without the participant's webcam.

An Interpreting item can't be scored automatically, therefore the scoring mechanism of the Interpreting item is always set to Manual scoring. This implies that Interpreting items are always scored in the Grading module.

Note: To be able to make a video recording, the users need to have a webcam installed on their computer.

Dual track recording and left-right ear playback

The participants' answer is recorded in dual-track mode, i.e. the source and the recording are separate tracks.

When used for simultaneous interpreting exercises, left and right ear playback is supported. The source file will play in the left ear, the recording in the right ear:

The participant will be able to listen to the recording in stereo when the Play button in the player is enabled.
The grader will be able to listen to the recording in stereo while grading.

Note: Left-right ear playback is not supported for exercises that are marked as consecutive interpreting items. When listening to the recording of a consecutive interpretation, both the source and the participant's interpretation are played back in both ears.

Procedure

To create an Interpreting item, proceed as follows:

Go to Authoring > Items.
Go to the folder in which you want to add your item.
Click on to add an Item.
Select Interpreting.
Result: The authoring screen of the item appears.
Enter the item name in the breadcrumb trail at the top.
Click in the content block and fill in the instruction.
Click + Add block if you want to add additional content blocks.
Click in the interaction block, containing the placeholder for a video, and upload a media file (audio or video) in the Block properties tab.

Note: A spinner is shown as long as the file is being uploaded. When the spinner stops, you can continue your authoring work.
Select the recording type: Simultaneous or Consecutive
1. Simultaneous: The recording of the participant and the source file run simultaneously.
2. Consecutive: The source file and the recording of the participant continuously alternate.
  The author can choose to predefine the segment markers or to let the participant mark the segments. If Predefine the segment is chosen, the author needs to click in the source track and add segments using the button in the interaction block.
Optionally, select the options you want to enable in the Bloc tab. More information.
Click Preview to try out your item.

Supported file formats and sizes

You can use the following video formats for the source file of an item: mp4, wmv, avi, mov, 3gpp, webm, ogm, ogv, and mpg. When you upload your source, it will be transcoded to mp4 format (H264 + aac).
You can use the following audio formats for the source file of an item: mp3, m4a, ogg, oga, wma, aac. When you upload your source, it will be transcoded to mp3 format.
The maximum file size you can upload is 1 GB.
The participant can make a recording of maximum 500 MB. This corresponds more or less to 1 hour and 30 minutes of video and to 8 hours of audio depending on the browser that is used. When the maximum limit of 500 MB is reached, the recording will stop and be uploaded automatically.

Instructions for participants

Browser requirements

Participants who start a recording item will be prompted to allow access to their microphone and optionally webcam. This prompt can be slightly different depending on the browser they are using, however, it is important for them to give this access. If they don't, they will not be able to start a recording and thus answer the item.