Action Translate: Supporting Students in Translation Volunteering

Document Title

Action Translate: Supporting Students in Translation Volunteering

Document Information

• Subject Areas: Translation technology, volunteering, higher education
• Keywords: translation, volunteering, machine translation, post-editing, collaboration, students, online platform, language learning

Research Background and Issues

• Identified Problems or Challenges:

  1. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) often struggle to allocate resources for document translation, resulting in critical information being inaccessible to target communities, especially those speaking less common languages.
  2. Existing online collaborative translation models ("solicited" and "non-solicited" modes) are poorly suited to multilingual student groups in higher education.
  3. Students' time is constrained by academic coursework, and traditional translation tools and workflows fail to support their volunteering activities effectively.
  4. Current translation platforms do not fully leverage students' learning goals, collaboration needs, and technical skills, leading to a lack of user-friendly platforms designed for non-professional volunteers.

• Importance of the Research:

  1. Translation activities can enable non-English-speaking communities to better access global content on topics such as environmental protection and science, enhancing community engagement and information equity.
  2. Providing students with opportunities to engage in real-world translation projects can improve their language skills while fostering soft skills and technical competencies.
  3. Designing collaborative platforms tailored to students can address the shortcomings of existing tools and workflows.

• Research Motivation and Related Work:

  1. Current machine translation technologies help improve translation efficiency but still require human post-editing to ensure quality.
  2. The psychological and practical benefits of student volunteering have been demonstrated in multiple studies, yet there is a gap in translation volunteering models suitable for students.
  3. The authors aim to design the "Action Translate" platform, combining machine translation post-editing with team collaboration, to explore how technology can efficiently support student volunteers in the short term.

Solution

• Proposed Solution: Developed an online translation platform named "Action Translate", specifically designed to support university student volunteers in collaborative translation, addressing challenges related to resources, time constraints, and skill requirements.

• Innovative Features:

  1. Introduced a workflow combining machine translation post-editing with multi-level human proofreading processes.
  2. Built a single-point interaction platform to simplify the learning curve and support team collaboration and communication.
  3. Incorporated gamification mechanisms (e.g., badges, scoring) to maintain volunteer engagement.
  4. Provided flexible project management features, allowing teams to autonomously assign tasks and track progress.
  5. Designed a secure translation environment suitable for beginners and volunteers with no prior translation experience.

• Implementation Steps:

  1. Content Preparation: Using computer-assisted translation (CAT) tools, original documents are segmented into small tasks, uploaded to the platform, and machine-translated.
  2. Post-Editing and Proofreading: Volunteers can lock tasks for post-editing, while other volunteers review and approve the translated versions.
  3. Project Management: Platform administrators oversee task progress and provide feedback to volunteers via dashboards.
  4. Output Publication: Translated content is exported as documents, with CAT tools reconstructing the original structure for publication.

Research Outcomes

• Specific Results:

  1. During a three-week testing period, 90 student volunteers collaboratively translated 19 documents covering 16 languages.
  2. The platform design, particularly its gamification features, enhanced student engagement, with most volunteers expressing willingness to participate in similar future projects.
  3. Volunteers improved their familiarity with machine translation through the project and provided positive feedback on its educational and practical value.

• Advantages:

  1. Efficiency: Leveraging machine translation significantly reduced translation time and improved terminology consistency.
  2. Educational Benefits: Volunteers learned translation workflows, technical tools, and language-related skills through practical experience.
  3. Social Value: Provided multilingual versions of NGO documents, supporting information equity in diverse communities.

• Experimental or Evaluation Results:

  1. 84% of volunteers completed at least one stage of translation tasks, indicating high participant enthusiasm.
  2. Among the 16 languages used, the Simplified Chinese group achieved the highest completion rate, followed by Indonesian and Arabic.
  3. However, collaboration and real-time communication among teams remained insufficient, particularly in smaller language groups.

• Limitations and Future Directions:

  1. Limitations:
     • Limited real-time communication among volunteers reduced the sense of collaboration.
     • Context loss in task segmentation posed challenges for fluent translation.
     • The platform's openness and task structure led to variability in participation levels.
  2. Future Directions:
     • Optimize platform features to facilitate real-time and asynchronous team collaboration.
     • Enhance task allocation visibility to better assist teams in strategizing.
     • Expand the model to other volunteer groups (e.g., NGO staff or community volunteers).

In summary, Action Translate explores how translation volunteering can integrate students' learning needs and time constraints with technological support, providing valuable insights and guidance for future development of student-centered online translation platforms.