Case Study: Code.org’s Success In Bringing Computer Science To Every Student

Aarohi Pathak — Thu, 29 Jul 2021 13:25:24 +0000

Everybody should learn how to program a computer…because it teaches you how to think.
– Steve Jobs, Apple co-founder.

When it comes to equal access to quality education, providing multilingual learning material to students is half the battle won. This case study explains how Translate By Humans helps CODE.org reach millions of students through translations and subtitling.

Download the CODE.org case study.

Code.org – a non-profit organisation based out of Seattle, Washington – was built on the idea of enabling access to computer science for every student out there. Their vision is to help every student get the opportunity to learn computer science in every school during his or her K-12 education. Their Hour Of Code campaign is a global movement of one hour of computer science tutorials, available in 45 languages.

Bringing Code.org's Initiative To Diverse Students And Teachers

One of its major goals is to reach out to a diverse group of students and to ‘go global.’ While all course material provided by Code.org is free and easily accessible, they needed to do more to appeal to a diverse group of students.

The Challenge Of Providing Multilingual Course Material

The team at Code.org was managing translations of all their material by coordinating with multiple translators and resources. This process demanded quite a lot of time and effort, especially given the large amount of course material they have on their platform. Additionally, it took them more time to release the material in different languages. The Translate By Humans talked to the Code.org team at length to understand their challenges.

After multiple insightful meetings, it was clear that Code.org needed a one-stop solution where they could get everything done in less time by talking to just one person. So, the team came up with some solutions for Code.org:

The Code.org team will communicate with point-of-contact – a project manager who will handle all their deliverables and queries.
Translate By Humans will build a dedicated team of translators and linguists working round the clock for Code.org’s deliverables – resulting in less turnaround time.
There will be bi-weekly catch up calls to keep track of the progress and plan for the next batch of deliverables.

Translate By Humans' Impact on CODE.org's Initiative

“Having curricula, video series, and unplugged files allows us to bring assets to the table when starting new partnerships. Our materials are free, so bringing fully translated materials to non-profits or ministries of education is the first step for advocating for the advancement of computer science in different countries,” says Jorge Castro, Localisation Project Manager at CODE.org.

Translate By Humans’ has been helping Code.org in translating and subtitling its course material in more than 14 languages. The Code.org team uses Amara – a subtitle editor tool – and YouTube links for sharing their video files for subtitling. The Translate By Humans’ team assigns videos to the relevant subtitling expert who then creates subtitles as per Code.org’s requirements. The team also burns subtitles to videos and ensures that they are formatted correctly in each frame – as and when the Code.org team needs it. The team has subtitled more than 330 minutes of video for Hour Of Code tutorials like Dance Party, Star Wars, and Minecraft.

Code.org Shares Insights For Brands Looking To Localise

What’s better than receiving actionable insights from an organisation which has been localising on a large scale? So, we picked Jorge’s brain for some insights and practical advice that can help other brands localise efficiently. He came up with the following:

Organise your content well and coordinate with your content managers/engineering team on how to release new content that won’t overlap with the old
Invest in adding as much context to your materials as possible. At Code.org, they are working on setting up an environment that will allow translators to view the page while they translate the content.
Bring your partner organisations, or clients, into the work so they can help build glossaries for the translators to work with.

On A Mission To Promote Diversity And Inclusion Through eLearning Localisation

eLearning provides a unique opportunity to take learning to anyone with a device and internet connection. However, this seemingly easy access can still be a challenge for those who cannot understand the language. Creating inclusive content with eLearning localisation, translation, subtitling, interpretation, and more language services helps everyone get equal access to quality learning.

Code.org is playing an integral role as they view computer science education from a multidisciplinary lens that teaches students to question the broader implications of new technology and whether it is built to serve all people equally. Their curriculum features lessons on diversity and inclusion in tech, ethics, digital citizenship, and videos with people from various identities and walks of life.

About Translate by Humans

Translate By Humans is a UK-based leading language service provider (LSP) helping more than 50,000 global brands expand internationally in 180+ languages. We provide translation, localisation, subtitling, interpretation, multilingual desktop publishing, multilingual voice-overs, and transcription services.

Drop us a note with your requirements at support@translatebyhumans.com or schedule a call with one of our project managers – now! Continue reading our other case studies.

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