163 research outputs found
Incorporating Collaborative and Active Learning Strategies in the Design and Deployment of a Master Course on Computer-Assisted Scientific Translation
No full textThis research aims to address the current gaps in computer-assisted translation (CAT) courses offered in bachelor’s and master’s programmes in scientific and technical translation (STT). A multi-framework course design methodology is proposed to support CAT teachers from the computer engineering field, improve student engagement, and promote computer-supported education, together with a balanced coverage of the most relevant topics in the CAT domain. STT is currently in high demand in many fields, requiring translators with sector-specific language skills and considerable computer literacy in order to manage translation projects with complex structures, and format heterogeneity. However, many STT curricula often lag behind current market demands, focusing primarily on language and translation theory, with less emphasis on CAT technologies and tools. Moreover, the lack of shared course design guidelines hinders the introduction of innovative teaching approaches based on collaborative learning. A novel multi-framework CAT course design methodology, named CATDeM, is proposed, based on the integration between an official European translation competence framework, real-life-mimicking laboratorial activities, and computer-supported collaborative learning, enriched with discussion case studies and role-playing experiences. A real-life case study is examined to illustrate and evaluate the implementation of CATDeM in two consecutive editions (2020/2021 and 2021/2022) of a one-semester compulsory CAT course in a M.A. degree in STT at the University of Salento (Italy). Students’ perceptions of translation technology and role-plays, as well as their attitudes towards the proposed CAT course are evaluated through a post-grading self-assessment questionnaire. Achieved results indicated successful student engagement and self-assessed improvement in translation, technical, and interpersonal skills. The importance given by students to role-playing experiences mimicking professional scenarios was also highlighted, paving the way for CATDeM to be adopted in similar contexts
The Immersive Workbench for Engineering Educators: (Re)Thinking Collaborative and Distance Learning Platforms as Technological Enablers
No full text- Guest Editorial
Lifecyle Design and Effectiveness Evaluation for Simulated Translation Agencies
No full textCurrent demands from technology-based translation industry and market require adequate educational offerings to be provided at Master's Level Degree. Therefore, novel and more engaging strategies for complementing traditional theoretical lessons and laboratory sessions on computer-assisted translation are needed to improve students' skills and technical acquaintance, as suggested by the European Master's in Translation Competence Framework. The Simulated Translation Agency (STA) holistic approach promises to be a key enabler capable of motivating students to manage a fictional company according to a professional translation workflow. In this paper, a methodology based on Business Process Modelling (BPM) for designing cloud-enabled STAs grounded on competence frameworks and professional standards is proposed, along with a set of metrics targeting student self-assessment and agency productivity. The "STARS" agency, designed and deployed according to the proposed methodology in an Italian university, is described in detail as a test case. Achieved results demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach as well as the significant engagement of participants
Adopting machine translation in the healthcare sector: A methodological multi-criteria review
No full textBackground: The recent advances in machine translation (MT) offer an appealing and low-cost solution to overcome language barriers in multiple contexts (e.g., travelling, cultural interaction, digital content localisation). However, highly-technical domains typically exhibiting as long, complex, and specialised texts as the healthcare sector, pose multiple challenges to the effective and risk-safe use of MT. Methods: To examine how MT nowadays assists written/verbal health communication and because of the existing considerable heterogeneity in technological enablers, language pairs and user groups, training approaches, evaluation processes, and users” requirements, we propose in this paper a methodological multi-criteria literature review based on current guidelines in computer science research and grounded on a customised configuration of the PRISMA methodology, normally used to perform meta-analyses on clinical trials. The review focuses on language-to-language medical MT, covers the time period January 2015–February 2023, and only refers to articles written in English that are accessible via four scientific online digital libraries. Articles are ranked according to a meta-evaluation scoring method for MT scientific credibility along with a scoring for assessing the scope of MT in healthcare. Finally, a guideline to properly design a study about MT in healthcare is also proposed. Results: The review included a final set of 58 articles from journals (n=30) and conference proceedings (n=28), considering 48 different language combinations. We identified a predominance of English-to-Spanish (n=19) and English-to-Chinese (n=16) implementations, mainly tailored to medical staff only (n=14) or along with patients (n=12). Included papers addressed clinical communication (n=21) and health education (n=37). Unidirectional real-time bilingual MT (n=24) was the most frequent configuration. MT implementations were dominated by Google Translate (n=22) often used as baseline, OpenNMT (n=12), or Moses (n=11). Training and evaluation approaches varied considerably, while deployment and pre-/post-editing were rarely described with an adequate level of detail. Conclusion: Even if a significant number of articles reported that the proposed MT solutions were effective when translating (bio)medical texts, only a subset of them complied with rigorous translation quality assessment criteria (e.g., use of automatic metrics better related to human ranking than BLEU or statistical significance testing). Nevertheless, MT can be a valid support/supplement in health communication but to cope with issues in fluency, accuracy, unnatural translations, domain-adequacy, and potential safety risks (for highly-sensitive documents), appropriate MT training is essential, along with in-domain human post-editing. The presence of in-domain training text corpora has also proven to be beneficial. Finally, guidelines about how to design studies on MT in healthcare are also proposed to engage more researchers in this field
Calung banyumasan: shaping bamboo, sounding identities
No full textCalung Banyumasan: Shaping Bamboo, Sounding Identities is an ethnomusicological documentary film about the gamelan calung, bamboo xylophones ensembles typical of the Banyumas Regency (Central Java), on which the author is currently focusing his doctoral studies. The documentary – shot during a semester of field research, from March to August 2019 – should be considered as a collective creation, since it is the result of a close cooperation with local musicians, who actively participated in choosing its form and contents. Calung Banyumasan explores various socio-anthropological and musicological issues in connection with the calung. The daily lives of the three main protagonists (a teacher, a calung maker and an expert performer) and the stories they tell reflect the importance of this musical tradition as a central element of the local cultural identity. The film considers the indigenous artisanal knowhow, provides an account of the ever-increasing presence of these ensembles in educational institutions, and reveals some of the contexts in which calung performances are held. Although a few international scholars have dealt with this topic, to date no extensive and in-depth audiovisual documentation of the calung has been carried out by ethnomusicologists. The author therefore decided to present this musical practice in an original and widely accessible documentary film that could be of interest to a wide-ranging audience and lead to a deeper understanding of this subject
A cloud-based approach to dynamically manage service contracts for local public transportation
No full textPublic contracts regulate how public services are managed by the stakeholders. However, the current technological trend is creating a significant bias between the pace at which service data are produced and that at which contracts change. This increased availability of service data can be exploited in public procurement processes by fostering novel approaches to manage contracts, making them more dynamic and improving the Quality of Service (QoS) delivered to customers. In this paper, a cloud-based approach for assessing the QoS in Local Transportation Services (LTSs) in Apulia Region (Southern Italy) is proposed. Service Level Agreements (SLAs) between providers and the Regional Authority, as well as the minimal guaranteed QoS levels between providers and passengers, are modelled as contracts enacted via a cloud-based system, which gathers data from sensors and passengers. In this way, changes in contract conditions for improving the perceived and delivered QoS can be fastened and facilitated based on data. In order to validate the pilot case, a set of quality indicators and service levels grounded in European and Italian regulatory frameworks has been considered
Apollon project: A massive online open lab for citizen science driven environmental monitoring
No full textThe collaborative power of ICT systems is a key enabler of social and technological advances disclosing multiple opportunities for involving students and teachers in STEM, thanks to novel paradigms like citizen science and mobile crowd sensing These paradigms, if applied according to specific methodologies, promise to increase the pervasiveness of current environmental monitoring technological solutions. In this paper, we propose an approach, for enabling universities and schools to develop environmental monitoring experiments based on massive online open labs and citizen science concepts. The approach has been implemented and validated in an educational context, where students participate to scientific research activities. In the paper, we firstly describe the approach to produce successful experiments, the supporting platform and the results achieved in a real context. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is discussed in terms of compliance with a set of reference guidelines addressing the citizen science domain
Online lexical resources for translators: where do we stand? A (possibly meaningful) case-study
No full textBy means of a case-study of word ‘jab’ in its medical sense, this work aims to assess the effectiveness of a range of online lexical resources in providing word meanings. These include: monolingual and bilingual dictionaries; corpora; and machine translation services
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