Matt Reider Posted September 27, 2004 Share Posted September 27, 2004 Hi there, I have been working on a free / open source course management tool (php/mysql) for a few months now - it is being used by a few Universities here in the U.S. and I have big plans for it. I know there are a couple of products like this already, but none that did what we needed - pretty simple to use - basic functionality. Anyhow, I need some help from people who would like to get involved. I am thinking about translating the application into different languages. This wouldn't take place until late October or November. So far I have a professor in the Netherlands who will translate it into French and German. I am looking for Spanish and Italian next. I would send you a word document of all the 'phrases' to be translated directly. If you are interested in looking at the tool - please visit wordcircle.org. You can download the source code, or set up a test course on my server to see how it works. Appreciate any feedback / help. -Matt Reider mreider at wordcircle.org Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Davies Posted September 27, 2004 Share Posted September 27, 2004 Matt writes: I know there are a couple of products like this already, but none that did what we needed - pretty simple to use - basic functionality. The one that is really catching on among language teachers is Moodle (http://moodle.org) probably because of the large number of different languages in which it is available - 47 at the last count. The EUROCALL 2004 conference featured Moodle in one of the pre-conference workshops, and there were a couple of papers on Moodle. See the EUROCALL 2004 website: http://www.e-lisa.at/eurocall/ You could try writing to the EUROCALL discussion list to see if anyone wants a translation job. By the way, ALWAYS use a native speaker of the target language when employing a translator. This is standard practice in the translating profession. Non-native speakers make more mistakes than they think they do! I know - I've worked as a professional translator: from German into English. I would NEVER attempt to produce a publishable translation from English into German without having it checked by a native speaker of German. Here is the URL of the EUROCALL discussion list: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/eurocall-members.html EUROCALL's main website is at: http://www.eurocall-languages.org Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Reider Posted October 6, 2004 Author Share Posted October 6, 2004 Thanks for your response. I am a Moodle user and I think it is a great product. For what we were doing, Moodle had a steep learning curve. It was hard for me to believe - as I find the product rather intuitive, but most of my users are still getting comfortable with clicking mice. As for translation, I appreciate what you are saying. I have Dutch gentleman who is helping with French and German. I also have native Chinese and Japanese speakers. Spanish is pretty easy to find around these parts (California). Do you find Moodle to be overwhelming for new users? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Davies Posted October 6, 2004 Share Posted October 6, 2004 Matt asks: Do you find Moodle to be overwhelming for new users? Personally, I don't use it. I just know people who do. I have a thing about VLEs in general. I don't use any and probably never will. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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