The ATA Chronicle - May/June 2022 - 25

grateful to them for the
suggestions. I also want to
acknowledge interpreting
colleague Rony Gao for
his helpful guidance on
organizing peer-based
study groups.
Over 60 people responded
to my initial inquiry
on the SPD listserv.
Gauging interest might be
manageable for one person,
but I knew successfully
organizing a study group
of that size would be a
team effort. Due to the
number of participants,
a coordination team of
five people was formed to
help with organizing and
administering the group,
with four more people added
later as organizational needs
increased. We sent a survey
(using Google Forms) to
collect the particulars of
each participant: name,
email, education, work
experience, ATA certification
status, and their desired
language direction in which
to take the exam. It would
have been good if we had
also asked who had taken
either a practice test or the
actual exam.
What follows are the
steps our coordination
team took to form and
administer the peer study
group. Those wishing to
form similar groups might
find themselves following a
different approach depending
on various factors, including
group size, language
combinations, practice
format, etc. Our approach
was based on the following
conditions: 1) we had a large
number of participants, 2) we
worked in only one language
pair, and 3) our participants
committed from the start to
a six-month practice period.
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Tools
One of the first decisions
to be made was how to
communicate within the
study group. We found
a number of free, easyto-use
cloud-based apps
available for Mac, PC, and
mobile devices.
y Communication (Slack,
WhatsApp, email, etc.):
We found email to be too
cumbersome for a group
this size. WhatsApp is
ubiquitous and easy to
use but lacks the feature
richness of a proper
business collaboration tool.
We chose Slack because
it has asynchronous
communication for
collaborating across
different time zones,
file uploading and
sharing instead of
email attachments, and
third-party application
integration.
y File Sharing (Google Drive,
Dropbox, OneDrive, Box,
etc.): We opted for Google
Drive since it integrated
better with some of the
other tools we were using
such as Google forms, docs,
and sheets. That allowed
us to post content (e.g.,
passages to be translated)
in one location and then
post the link in Slack.
y Video Conferencing
(Zoom, Hangouts,
Skype, Teams, etc.):
Zoom was selected as a
video conferencing tool
because of its ubiquity.
Organizational meetings
were held with the
coordination team, a kickoff
meeting was held at
the beginning of the study
group program, followed
by monthly group and
other ad hoc meetings.
Figure 1: Custom Channels on Slack for Our Peer Study Group
# 1-welcome-start-here
▼ Channels
# 2-exam-resources
# 3-exam-sitting-announcements
# 4-exam-practical-advice-and-tips
# 5-translator-training-opportunities
# 6-water-cooler-conversation
moderators
# step-1-pick-up-passages-for-en-into-sp-transl-here
# step-1-pick-up-passages-for-sp-into-en-transl-here
# step-2-submit-en-into-sp-translations-here
# step-2-submit-sp-into-en-translations-here
# step-3-feedback-and-discussion-en-into-sp-passage
# step-3-feedback-and-discussion-sp-into-en-passage
+ Add channels
We created custom
channels on Slack for posting
exam resources, exam sitting
announcements, translator
training opportunities,
water cooler conversations,
a moderator channel, and a
series of channels used for
our translation feedback and
discussion workflow. (See
Figure 1.) Some participants
had trouble setting up Slack
or joining the necessary
channels. Training videos
from the Slack website were
posted on a " welcome "
channel. Some personalized
training was also necessary
to get everyone up to speed
with the tool.
Structure
We used a two-week
modular format: one week
for translating the passage,
and one week for feedback
and discussion among group
participants. (See Figure 2
on page 26.)
Week 1: On Monday, the
group moderator provided
a link to the passage for the
module. Group participants
were given until Sunday to
complete their translation
and send it to the moderator,
who then compiled the
translations in a spreadsheet.
The first column of the
spreadsheet contained
the source-language text.
Each participant had one
column designated for their
translation and one column
designated for peers to
provide written feedback.
We found it advantageous
to keep all translations for
a given language direction
together on a single sheet of
the spreadsheet. However,
we discovered that the sheet
became difficult to navigate
after 12-15 participants
had been entered, so
creating additional sheets is
recommended.
Week 2: The moderator
provided participants
with a link to the feedback
spreadsheet. Participant
translation submissions
were pasted in columns and
a second adjacent column
American Translators Association 25
+
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