Working Methodology
When teaching software localisation tools using several L10N tools, teachers and trainers have several possibilities for course design. Depending on the class objectives, number of students and number of available PCs, students can work individually or in groups to test:
- The different features and functionalities of a single software localisation tool
- The different features and functionalities of several software localisation tools
- A specific feature or functionality of several software localisation tools
Objectives
For courses on software localisation tools the main objective is to get to know the features of these tools in general, to test their functionalities, to develop criteria for evaluating tools and to get used to working with them.
Some of the features and functionalities that can be examined and tested on a single L10N tool or on several L10N tools in software L10N courses are:
- Options for managing L10N projects (see eCoLoTrain L10N Course IV)
- Number of source and target languages available to be assigned
- Options for extracting localisable elements: source code files, binary files (see eCoLoTrain L10N Course IV)
- Performance of parsers (see eCoLoTrain L10N Course IV)
- Pretranslation
- Interfaces to translation memories and/or termbases (see eCoLoTrain L10N Course IV)
- Update and leverage (see eCoLoTrain L10N Course IV)
- Translation statistics: option to create status of string list resources in the project (e.g. the total number of resources, the number of words still to be translated, or previously-validated strings)
- Localisation reports: option to create reports including general information on the project or the contents of the strings
- Quality Assessment: is there a way to perform spell checking, check punctuation, the existence of duplicate access keys, inconsistent variables and text length? How well do(es) the tool(s) perform? (see eCoLoTrain L10N Course IV)
- Data exchange: what are the supported formats for import and export? (see eCoLoTrain L10N Course IV)
- Resizing functionality and available editors: graphic editors for icons, WYSIWYG editors for menus, dialogues boxes, etc. (see eCoLoTrain L10N Course IV)
- Available Add-Ins (see eCoLoTrain L10N Course IV)
Course Organisation
The course can be differently organised, for example:
- Different L10N tools can be presented to students in face-to-face scenarios
- Different tasks can be assigned to students, e.g. to analyze different features of tools, compare tools regarding these features, etc.
- Students can make short presentations reporting about the advantages, disadvantages, challenges or shortcomings of the tools tested in the course