Results of our summer survey

98% satisfaction

In our survey 98 percent of respondents who attended at least one training event said that the webinar(s) they had attended were all, or mostly, great and that they learned from them.
Miss the survey? You can still review us here.

A huge thank you to everyone who took the time and trouble to fill in our survey during July and August. We have closed it now and this is a summary of the results.

At eCPD we try very hard to implement your proposals and suggestions. Many of the things you wanted us to consider are already in the pipeline, and we are open-minded about the rest. Why not tune into our Kick-off on September 2nd to see what we have in store for next term.

Summary of results

89 people responded.  Most (84%) had attended at least one webinar, with nearly 40% being frequent eCPD clients.

We asked you to give us some ideas of future topics

There were many suggestions, some of which have already been covered, and in those cases, we are considering updating and building on past events. There were some great ideas and Lucy will follow these up and try to line up excellent experienced trainers in the fields you suggest.

Ideas included: translating in IT, telecommunications, micro-electronics, webinars in specific

language pairs, genetics, finance, website translation, courses for interpreters, wine, veterinary medicine, more transcreation events, the education sector, nature conservation, cardiology  – the list is as long and varied as an undergraduate course list. There was also a clear desire for us to go more in-depth into subjects for which we have already provided an introduction.

Language pairs

We found that the most frequent language pair (with English) among the respondents was French (46.5%) followed by Spanish and German. Other languages were of course represented but in small numbers. We often consider running webinars in other languages but we do need them to be commercially viable. That's why most of our events are language-neutral. If we do not offer anything in your specific pair, you will probably find that most national professional organisations run their own programmes of events.

Length of training sessions

We asked you how long you like each separate session to be. The majority opted for an hour to 90 minutes as being the most time that was affordable out of a busy day – or indeed to concentrate on a difficult subject.  But respondents were clear that it would really depend on the content and type of seminar.

Accreditation

We then asked how important accreditation from professional bodies is to you. We asked because we are currently negotiating with the two main bodies in the UK for overall accreditation of our webinars and courses. Our training events are already individually approved by ATA and ITI. The new accreditation schemes are likely to come into being next year.

Seventy-seven percent of respondents said that accreditation by a recognised body was fairly important or extremely important. The rest felt that it didn’t really matter to them.

Mix and match, or full course

The sixth question asked whether you like to attend a complete course of, say, 4 lessons, or to be able to choose which ones out of the course you’d like to attend. Obviously this depends on the course. There are some where you really do need to attend every lesson to benefit, but others are very easy to split into discrete sessions. Since the majority wished to have the option to pick out certain sessions, we will continue to arrange courses on these lines, unless the content requires otherwise. We believe that this will help some translators and interpreters to juggle small budgets.

Overall satisfaction

We were very happy with the results of the next question. We asked what you thought about the general standard of eCPD Webinars. A gratifying 98 percent of those who had attended at least one training event said that all or most of the webinars they had attended were great and that they learned from them. 

Comments to this question included a request for lots of interactivity in workshop-style webinars (we are working on that!). And we especially like the person who said “There is no other word for it but excellent!"

Finally we asked about the cost of our training courses

Nobody thought we pitched our prices too low (who would?), but 96.5% felt it was just about right. Only a few said our prices were too high.

We haven’t altered the price of a standard “one-off” webinar for some time, but the cost of the courses do vary a bit depending on the trainer, the content and whether it includes a written assignment or other interaction with the attendee. But we usually have different pricing regimes so that you can pick and mix according to your budget and available time.

We are very aware of translators’ and interpreters’ budgets when it comes to planning CPD. However you should be aware that we at eCPD spend many many hours planning and organising these events, and our overheads can run quite high. We will not vastly increase our prices next year, but the prices will have to increase a little in line with the current (very low) inflation rate.

Some unsolicited comments we received

"Thank you for everything you provide!"

"Keep up the good work, thanks."

"I think the price is fair for what they are."

"Packed with information, good value considering experience packed in"

"For FIFPL funding in France your courses needed to fit the required structure."

"I think the webinars are very good value for money, and appreciate this very much. A small increase in the price would not deter me from participating"

"It would be better if we could have access to the recording for unlimited time"

Apropos that last comment, in fact access to recordings for those who purchased a seat at the live webinar actually lasts up to a year on the Gotowebinar host. However we prefer you to watch them within 3 months in case there is an issue with storage space.

We will consider extending the standard period during which you can view an on-demand webinar, but as many of you already know – we can extend access in special circumstances such as illness or similar.

Although the survey is now closed, if you wish to comment further, please do so below, or write a review.

Again, thank you to everyone who responded and to all our eCPD customers.

Lucy at eCPD Webinars