Most of our clients provide feedback of their English-version courses using Tracked Changes and comments on Word exports of the course. Some prefer to use the on-screen comment feature, which is a practical approach and is easy to use when building an English course.
However, this on-screen tool has not been developed to cater for translated versions of a course. Equally, a Word export would not allow us to capture changes in a manner that could be uploaded into the course free from human error. When it comes to translations in multiple languages, we need a robust and efficient way to execute the work.
It’s important to note here that Skillcast employees do not speak multiple languages and are not reviewing the translated content that they work with. The Excel file that we require all translation reviews to be collated in allows us to re-import back into a course any updates sent by a client, therefore reducing the margin of error and the time required to update a course.
The pitfalls of using the on-screen comments feature
The on-screen comment feature does not distinguish between languages, and in the case of a multiple-language course, all comments for a specific page would appear together – so without fluency in each language the feedback and changes would be impossible to reliably analyse and action by Skillcast
To add complexity, if more than one reviewer in a language leaves comments around the same time, the system does not distinguish one language from the other
A further challenge for reviewers is that they would not be able to view the English and translated version side by side
To work to the above limitations, we would need to duplicate the course for each language to ensure comments for a single langauge appear on the pages, and duplicate per review round (meaning a lack of visibility between reviews), creating a huge number of copied courses. These copies would then need to be merged - a challenging and time-consuming process that is not risk free.
The results would be of lower quality that using our preferred methos as human error would creep in, and cause an increase in review time on the client’s side.
The solution: working with a Word export file
While our preference is that we work with an Excel file throughout the translations process, we have taken onboard client feedback that working with this file can be tricky, especially if the language reviewers are not used to working in this way.
Therefore, we are also able to work with a Word document, which is more intuitive for some clients, and which enables us to copy and paste the content back in Excel ready for upload. This provides client reviewers with a user-friendly document that can be compared alongside the course, and gives Skillcast the ability to upload the precise change requests with considerably increased accuracy.
We are confident that this approach will achieve the results you require in an efficient and professional manner.