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3.0.2 Forge and Multilinguism

What is a forge?

A "Software Forge"1 is initially an online tool for working together on software projects. It can also be used more widely for collaborative editing and publishing of digital resources (websites, databases, course documents, etc.).

A forge offers:

  • online storage of files that can be synchronised with your own computer to ensure that the data is always available;

  • version management tools to keep a history of changes;

  • collaborative tools for correcting errors and suggesting new ideas;

  • tools for creating web pages, publishing software online or transforming text files into complex documents (slideshows, diagrams, etc.).

Although forges were mainly used by software developers, the teaching and training community can also benefit greatly from this type of platform. The forge of the Digital Education Commons created by Alexis Kauffmann is now promoted by the french Ministry of Education

A solution that supports and facilitates multilinguism

To co-design and distribute open educational resources, the Inria Learning Lab regularly uses Git forges. We had the opportunity to use this solution to create bilingual resources for the Mooc Environmental impact of digital technologies.

For the AI4T project, we have then adapted our methodology to create a multilingual system. The Mooc is now available in 5 languages.

How to Build Your Own Training, a 3-Step process

  • Step 1 - Forking the Mooc: Create your own AI4T repository on GitHub

  • Step 2 - Translating the Mooc ressources: A simple methodology to translate textes and contents &  review the result.

  • Step 3 - View & Share: Visualise your ressources on a static webpage  & update the  multilingual navigation.

Then Let's go, Build your own training !

Please note that although we have tried to be as specific as possible in presenting the different stages in generating Mooc pages in a new language, it is recommended that a developer or someone who is comfortable with IT be involved in the technical part (fork of the repository, generation of text in the target language, updating of .py or .yml files, generation of the static webpages).

  1. Description by Alexis Kauffmann in the French forge La Forge des Communs Numériques Éducatifs ↩