Practical guideline transculturation of modules

Project n°2012-1-FR1-LEO05-34330
Practical guideline
for the transculturation of modules
02/04/2013
This project has been funded with support from the European
Commission.
This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the
Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be
made of the information contained therein.

2
Document name Practical guideline for the transculturation of
modules
Elaborated by INFREP
Work Package No and
Title
WP 2 : Transculturation of modules
Version 1.1
Date 02 April 2013

3
RAISE4e-Inclusion project
Practical guideline for the transculturation of modules
Preamble
This document aims at accompanying the RAISE4e-I project partners in the transculturation of
their modules.
The Transfer project plans the adaptation of 2 learning modules per partner participating in the
Transfer (ACDC from Romania, ARCI from Italy, FDEP from Switzerland and INFREP from France).
Following a process of selection of modules, each RAISE4e-I partner has selected 2 modules out
of the 10 modules available. This selection has been made with the support of WP2 leader who
provided the Guideline for selecting modules.
The RAISE project now enters a phase of construction of the e-learning platforms, where each
organization participating in the Transfer creates its own national platform with Moodle.
In anticipation to the availability of each national platform, WP2 – Transculturation leader
provides partners with a guideline for transculturation so that they get ready to build their 2
online learning modules on their national platform.
The transculturation work is organized on the basis of a defined calendar provided in this
guideline.

4
Table of contents
Introduction ............................................................................................................................4
Objectives................................................................................................................................5
Methodological framework......................................................................................................6
1. The Transculturation process inherited from VET4e-I: lessons learnt...................................... 6
2. The organization of the work of transculturation – Human resources .................................... 7
3. The organization of the work of transculturation – How to start?........................................... 8
4. Calendar of operations............................................................................................................ 10
Helpful hints for the task of transculturation and case study .................................................. 12
Introduction
• Transculturation is a methodological process which is inherited from the VET4e-Inclusion
project. It is the process through which learning content is adapted to new geographic and
cultural contexts and made usable for a given (national) target group. It also refers to the
transformation of « row » learning content in usable online modules on the Moodle
platform1
.
• Therefore it consists both in a work of adaptation to national language and geographical /
cultural contexts AND in a work of construction of learning modules on Moodle.
• This guideline aims at supporting the RAISE4e-I project partners in achieving these two
complementary works.
• Important:
Partners are invited to carefully read this guideline even if their Moodle platform is not
finished to be installed.
Depends on the date of availability of all 4 national Moodle platforms, an update of this guideline
will be provided so as to give more operational instructions regarding the graphic settings and
components of the Moodle interface.
1
See the RAISE4e-Inclusion Glossary of terms document.

5
Objectives
General objective:
• The objective of Transculturation activity is to successfully achieve the transfer of innovative
quality products and results from VET4e-Inclusion project to the 4 countries participating
(Italy, France, Switzerland and Romania). The objective is to transfer onlines modules and
methodology of transculturation.
Operational objectives:
• Translate the learning modules into the national language
• Adapt the learning modules to the national / local context and to the given target group
• Build the modules on the Moodle platform that each partner has installed
• Obtain quality modules which are operational and ready for test on the target group (
WP4 Experimentation of modules)

6
Methodological framework
1. The Transculturation process inherited from VET4e-I: lessons learnt
The Transculturation process has been experimented before by 3 partners of the RAISE project
who were part of VET4e-I project: ARCI, Fundacion Esplai and INFREP.
At the time of VET4e-I project, there wasn’t any dedicated work package for transculturation. This
activity was integrated in a larger activity of Development of curriculum for e-facilitator.
Although the activity had been well coordinated, what can be said is that partners who did the
activity could suffer from a lack of information on the real importance of the transculturation
work. In addition, partners were short of time and of competences to be able to achieve the work
in good conditions: most of them had to run quickly the translation work, had difficulties to find
adapted resources and couldn’t even test their module before the start of the pilot.
It is important to underline that transculturation work will guarantee the quality and
adequateness of learning modules to the target groups. Therefore partners should consider it as a
key-activity in the project.
The big lesson learnt with VET4e-I project is that transculturation has to be given a lot of care!
Here are the 3 “commandments” for a successful transculturation process:
I. Quality translation you will provide
Think that there will be professionals who will participate in the online course and who will
study with the contents you prepared!
II. Relevance and adequateness of the didactic material you will ensure
Think of the usability of the resources you propose for a professional who seeks for new
tools, innovative practices and resources, etc.
III. User-friendly “handling” of the online course you will take care of
People hate having to find by themselves or guess what they are supposed to do on a web
page! You should make the course development user-friendly, logical and practical!

7
2. The organization of the work of transculturation – Human resources
2.1. During VET4e-I project
• Partners had a common platform and the partner in charge of the modules development,
Fundacion Esplai, could see if the national teams were doing the job of transculturation.
• The organization was up to each national team. At INFREP, 2 persons – the National Referent
and the Project Coordinator for INFREP – were transculturating the 2 modules. The 2 tutors in
charge of each of the 2 modules were also involved at the end of the transculturation phase so
as to give a feedback and check if everything was clear.
• During the process, the national teams could ask Fundacion Esplai team to help when there
were difficulties (mostly technical problems on how to set up a text, etc.).
• Some Skype meetings were organized a few times so as to follow up the work of
transculturation.
2.2. With RAISE4e-Inclusion project, the organization is different
• First, each partner has its own Moodle platform. This means that partners have to be
responsible and control themselves that the job of transculturation is done!
• Each national team organizes for the work of transculturation, and the National Referent is
given the coordination role of the national team.

8
• Fundacion Esplai can answer questions and try to solve possible difficulties during the
process of transculturation, and National Referents can share difficulties and solutions on
the National Referent training platform and during specific dedicated Skype conferences.
• WP2 leader set up a calendar so as to make the follow-up of transculturation work done by
partners.
2.3. The role of National Referents in Transculturation
• National Referents are heads of national team in each country participating in the transfer
(France, Italy, Romania, and Switzerland).
• They ensure that the transculturation process is correctly implemented in their country and
they give their feedback on how the work is developed in their country, notably by
participating in the bi-monthly follow-up Skype meetings organized by WP2 leader2
.
• They ensure that the 2 modules are correctly installed on the Moodle platform. They install
the modules on the platform and coordinate (or directly take part in) the work of
transculturation.
• They refer to the existing resources3
for guiding them in transculturation work and building
of online modules. In case of doubts, they contact WP2 Transculturation leader INFREP and
/ or WP3 Training to Moodle leader Fundacion Esplai.
• By the end of June 2013, once the modules are transculturized at 75%, National Referents
involve the 2 e-tutors of modules. They give them access to their module and make sure
that e-tutors:
Check the module that they will tutorate: read the content, follow the logic
development of the course, check links and resources test the activities, and give their
feedback about the module.
Participate in the work of transculturation in specific parts of the module: they will be
in charge of adapting instructions of exercises / activities, and if needed they will
propose changes.
• They make the necessary tests on the 2 modules upstream the experimentation.
3. The organization of the work of transculturation – How to start?
As explained before, transculturation is both adaptation of learning content and construction of
modules on a Moodle platform. Therefore partners have to deal with pedagogical aspects and
technical aspects. Of course partners should see the two aspects as complementary ones, not
distinct matters.
2
See calendar in 3. Calendar of operations
3
Aside of this guide for transculturation, the NR can look in the National Referent training platform, where he/she
will find technical answers.

9
3.1. Understanding of the learning environment and what we want to achieve
Moodle is a new learning environment for most of people. It is not something that is natural or
instinctive! Although the courses developed with RAISE project will be tutorated by human
beings, partners have to be conscious that people using the courses will be alone in front of their
computer. This is essential to keep in mind when building online courses!
The point is to always ask if the course is clear, logical, user-friendly.
During the transculturation work, partners should always ask themselves about the quality of the
course. For example, they can ask themselves:
- Does the table of content of the module include all the units’ title?
- Does the proposed exercise relevant with the unit’s topic?
- Is there a clear deadline set for participants to send their homework? Etc.
1. Thus partners have to take time at the beginning to read carefully the 2 modules available on
the VET4e-I platform, and all their resources / activities. They can also refer to the learning
programme design4
describing the modules. It will help to focus on the learning objectives of the
module, and the means developed to reach them.
2. Partners reflect and analyse with their team (NR, colleagues involved in transculturation, e-
tutors), what they want to achieve by offering these 2 modules to a national public of e-
facilitator.
They can ask themselves about what they want to achieve in terms of:
- dimension / level of quality of modules,
- dimension / level of satisfaction of the target group,
- dimension / level of satisfaction of their team,
- dimension / level of exploitability of the modules, …
3. Partners evaluate how they organize the tasks of transculturation regarding these objectives
and with a look on the calendar for transculturation proposed.
IMPORTANT: partners are all part of the same project! They can rely on the expertise,
competences, and mutual trust in between partners. In the meantime, each partner organization
is responsible of the quality of its modules and of the satisfaction level of its target group…
The team work inside each partner organization and in between partners is essential!
4
Partners find the Learning programme design in annexe of the Guide for selecting modules (WP2 Transculturation).

10
3.2. Technical steps to start
So far, technical aspects have been introduced to the teams through the training of National
Referents. A basic short recall of the technical steps is made hereunder (the finalization of the
respective national platforms’ installation will enable the National Referents to practice the
construction of module).
1. Once each partner will have its national platform Moodle ready to run, they will have to
import on it the 2 chosen modules. For this, National Referents will copy the modules from the
VET4e-I project platform and install them on their own Moodle. This will be very easy since
Moodle allows the function “copy” a course5
.
2. Once this operation will be completed, partners have their 2 basic modules, in English (and
French for FDEP) and not transculturized nor adapted to a local context. They will be able to start
editing the modules.
3. To start editing, National Referent studied during the NR training all the functionalities to edit
contents, resources, activities and adapt settings like default language or dates. To be able to do
that, they have to “turn edition on”.
4. Calendar of operations
• Transculturation phase is planned to begin on May 2013 and last 3 month. With this time,
each partner must transculturate its 2 modules.
• As explained before, it is not only a matter of translation and adaptation but it is also about
pedagogical engineering. Partners won’t just "copy" modules and edit them on a word
processor, but will integrate them into a virtual learning space, which is often binding, where
all content, interactive tools and management tools of back office must be shaped,
configured and activated. The work is difficult and it is with full knowledge of causes that we
evaluated the time allocation needed for doing it.
• Following a strict calendar with bi-monthly follow-up Skype meeting will ensure the quality
of the work carried out by partners. The dates will be flexible but it’s mandatory that each
National Referent participates. The Skyke meetings will be animated by WP2 –
Tranculturation leader INFREP.
5
This technical point has been studied by the NR during the NR training « Installing Moodle ».

11
• It is essential that National Referents integrate this calendar into their professional
planning. Bear in mind that each partner is responsible of the quality of the modules it will
offer to its target group!
• In the second half of June 2013, once the tutors will have followed the face-to-face and the
learning by doing trainings, National Referents will be able to solicit their expertise and involve
them in the transculturation work. As mentioned before, e-tutors will focus their effort on:
1) the global understanding and usability of the module they will be in charge of,
2) the translation and adaptation of activities / exercises planned in the module,
3) the development of criteria and notation code for the evaluation of the participants’ work.
• The 2 last weeks of July will be dedicated to tests of the 2 modules.
Mo Tu We Th Fr
1 2 3 Unit 1 Module 1
6 7 8 9 10 Unit 1 Module 2
13 14 15 16 17 Unit 2 Module 1
20 21 22 23 24 Unit 2 Module 2
27 28 29 30 31 Unit 3 Module 1
Mo Tu We Th Fr
3 4 5 6 7 Unit 3 Module 2
10 11 12 13 14 Unit 4 Module 1
17 18 19 20 21 Unit 4 Module 2
24 25 26 27 28 Intro unit Module 1
Mo Tu We Th Fr
1 2 3 4 5 Intro unit Module 2
8 9 10 11 12 Final Unit Module 1
15 16 17 18 19 Final Unit Module 2
22 23 24 25 26 Check-up Module 1
29 30 31 Check-up Module 2
Follow-up Skype meetings
TRANSCULTURATION PROCESS (WP2 by INFREP)
MAY
JUNE
JULY
Each module contains 4
learning units + 1 opening
unit and 1 closing unit.
The calendar organizes
the work of partners so
that they can
transculturate one unit per
week.
25 days for each partner
are planned for this work
(except FDEP: 16.5 days)
= around 2 days per week
will be dedicated to this
work during 3 month. (1.3
days for FDEP)

12
Helpful hints for the task of transculturation and case study
This document aims at helping National Referent, tutors and colleagues in the adaptation of
learning modules to their national context.
The main goal of the work of transculturation will be to achieve that the final user feels familiar
and comfortable with the texts, the logic development of the course and the navigation on the
platform, and that he / she finds it relevant and qualitative.
This has to do with:
- care about language aspects,
- care about the chosen resources and documents (links, documents, references…)
- care for getting an easy-to-handle and user-friendly course.
Bring care to this work!
The quality of your course depends on the good adaptation work you will provide!
As “transculturator”, you have the freedom to adapt content, with respect to the course
objectives. Be creative, and be consistent so that users find a quality online course!
NB: keep in mind that modules have been developed from Spanish language into English. In case
you have a doubt about a term used, and that you can’t find out about the meaning, please
inform the WP3 leader, Fundacion Esplai.
Tip for starting transculturation:
During the translation, we recommend you to use the text editor from Moodle.
In case you decide to work texts in Word for more comfortability, please, copy them from
Moodle and paste it into Notepad/Notebook tool of your computer. Then copy the text and
paste into Word. Once it is worked as you want, copy it and paste into Notepad/Notebook
before pasting it again into Moodle. Using the platform and Notepad / Notebook will avoid
having problems with trash codes (which can lead to page setting problems).

13
LANGUAGE
Translation part. All courses will need to be translated from English (or French for FDEP)
What How
Terms related to computer software
It is necessary to ensure the proper match, not a literal
translation of the term used in English.
Example: « Microsoft Office pack » remains « pack
Microsoft office » in French.
The following website may be useful: www.wordreference.com. In the computing section
you will find technical vocabulary. It is recommended to consult several sources of
information to get the adequate translation / equivalence of the word in your national
language.
Terms related to the Internet and web navigation
It is necessary to ensure the proper match, not a literal
translation of the term used in English.
Example :
« Web browser » is translated in French by « Web
navigator » ☺
Make sure to go through all levels and paths of the navigation, translating the indications
in tune with the software’s instructions for use of your country. Same word may
sometimes mean different things on different levels. Use softwares’ official website for
checking completion.
Check this dictionary specialized in Internet terms : http://www.cybertionary.com/
Conceptual level
Translation of educational terms, labor, social, cultural,
political, sociological, philosophical, anthropological, etc.
It is necessary to ensure the terms have their equivalent in your national language by
checking glossary references.
Labor, employment, training, educational terms :
www.cedefop.europa.eu/EN/Files/4064_en.pdf
Level of familiarity
Find examples which are familiar and close to the
content, so that users find them relevant.
Adapting the text to different cultural habits and feelings; using pictures and common
metaphors in your own language, instead of translating literally.
Level of language
English is a language that often lacks of subtleties.
It’s up to you to refine the level of the language, without changing the meaning of the
pedagogical content.

14
ADAPTATION OF MULTIMEDIA ELEMENTS
ADAPTATION OF RESOURCES
Examples of resources, documents, etc. given in the English modules should easily have their equivalent in your country. The following hints
enable to focus on what is expected in terms of adaptation.
What How
Links
External links may have different degrees of
importance. Based on this, you will have to
work with the idea of looking for links that
help users to understand the course’s
content.
We will search for links belonging to the same category and useful for the same purpose as the
originally proposed, even though it means to bind to different institutions’ websites.
International links you think may be interesting could be indicated as external links (e.g.
Google). Whenever we link to an international material not translated to other languages, we
will refer to it as a foreign language link and we will provide online translator links (Google
translator for example).
External documentation
Documents (as articles for example) will be
searched in the same category but adapted
to the national / local context. It is better to
promote local contents.
Sometimes, if there is no alternative to the proposed documentation, you could explain the
idea behind with your own word, if adapted. In this case, indicate the references of the
document, as long as they ensure the quality and accuracy of the information.
Adaptation of legal / educational / political
/ institutional information
Adapting, or even changing the text,
according to the legal / institutional
regulations of the country.
For example, the labor market institutions and regulations are very different from one country
to an other one. They may require different concepts, examples, references, documents, tools.
This can have an impact on the organization of a whole learning unit!
Surveys, studies, statistics
It is necessary to give numbers and statistics
that are interesting and locally relevant /
understandable in the context of the student.
In case of studies, surveys and polls, the level should be the same as the original. If the original
study level is scientific, it is preferable to achieve the same level but adapted to the local
national context.
External participants
In some modules, outside experts are invited
to intervene in the course through chat or
interviews.
The goal is to achieve a comparable level of experience, so it is recommended to look for a
person of the same experience and field of expertise as the one presented to address the same
topics. If it is not possible, look for an alternative activity.

15
What How
Images
It is very important to adapt and
contextualize very well the images, since in
some cases these are more important than
the text (e.g. cartoon).
The images showing screenshots to
illustrate technical processes must be in the
language of the module. If they stay in
English, use text boxes to facilitate the
understanding.
Be sure to use graphics and visual references that the users of your module will easily understand.
In each country, different associations and graphic symbols are used for certain notions,
institutions, etc.
For creating text boxes, edit the image in Paint and
save it as JPEG :
Videos
Check if there are subtitles already included
in the video.
If there aren’t any subtitles, look for similar videos to the proposed one (find national, regional or
local videos to convey the same idea as the original). If you have better ones, use them. If you
cannot find any solution, evaluate the possibility of making subtitles.
Tools and application
Search for tools and applications that
targets the same purpose as the original
proposed.
In the case of tools and applications that you think are essential to understand the general content,
if you cannot find the equivalent in your language, think on facilitating online translators and making
abstracts.

16
Case study of transculturation – Adaptation of resources
Concrete examples of how to perform transculturation work on the basis of the available basic English modules:
• Illustrations
Be careful to provide the right illustration matching the learning content. Pictures / illustrations are very important in the course as they give visual
landmarks to the participants and also, make the learning content attractive (a).
Sometimes, the illustration is in itself a real resource of the course, and so you need to find an equivalent (b).
(a) Modify the picture in Paint or any other editing programme:

17
(b) See the illustration here under: it aims at making the participants react on the topic “Digital identity and employability”, or “how what the people
show of them on the Internet can affect their professional life or opportunities”…
“We were about to hire you before we saw these pictures.
Do you have anything to say for your defense?
– Someone expanded my nipples with photoshop””
Think that you can find illustrations and pictures under Creative Commons Licence (free and open) on various web sites:
- www.flickr.com
- www.search.creativecommons.org
- www.compfight.com
- www.freemages.fr
• Link to useful resources, URL links, videos, etc.
Since we are developing courses on web 2.0 tool, it’s essential to make best use of the resources we can find on the Web!
Lots of quality contents can be freely found on the Internet and can be very efficient and give an added value to the module and the learning
process. This is why you have to give lots of care to the links you propose in the module.
« Your professional background is remarkable. But you will
understand that your commitment on the ‘Nice Green Guys Blog’
won’t enable Chemistry Petroleum Corp to hire you ».

18
Since we address the module to participants who are supposed to live, work and speak the language of the country, all URL links should be found in
the language of the country. Try to find equivalent URL links as the ones proposed in the English module, bearing in mind these 2 aspects:
Educational purpose:
- Does it bring an added value to the course?
- Is it something that the participant will be able to use on his job?
Technically speaking:
- Make sure the URL link / the videos / material is working properly when clicking on it
- Make sure it opens in a new window (parameter to be ticked when uploading the URL link)
- Make sure it’s understandable (language, sound, link with the learning topic)
- Mention the sources of the resources (Ministry, private institutions, online community, etc.)
Case study of transculturation – The adequateness of vocabulary / linguistic level used
Sometimes, from one language to another, we can have different perceptions of things. This is due to the vocabulary and the language of each
country, and this what makes things interesting ☺ !
Also, when you want to adapt some learning material from English language to Latin language (which is our case), you need find more specific
words!
Please adapt the modules bearing in mind:
- Does the vocabulary fit with the target group?
- Does it sound professional?
- Is the module as clear as possible / as precise as possible?
Examples:
In the English module, the learning content addresses the participant with “you”, which is universal. In French, or other language, we might prefer to
use the polite and more formal “vous” (“usted” in Spanish, “voi” in Italian…).
The English module talks about “grades”, which sounds “schoolish”. In French we’ll prefer to talk about “results”.

Practical guideline transculturation of modules

Practical guideline transculturation of modules

More Related Content

Viewers also liked (15)

Similar to Practical guideline transculturation of modules (20)

More from TELECENTRE EUROPE (20)

Recently uploaded (20)

Practical guideline transculturation of modules