MAKING ON-LINE SCIENCE COURSE MATERIALS EASILY TRANSLATABLE AND ACCESSIBLE WORLDWIDE: CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS Wendy. K. Adams, Department of Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA Hisham Alhadlaq, The Excellence Center of Science and Mathematics Education, King Saud University, and the Department of Physics and Astronomy, College of Sciences, King Saud University, PO BOX 2455 Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Christopher V. Malley, PixelZoom, Inc., Boulder, Colorado. USA Katherine K. Perkins and Jonathan Olson Department of Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA Fahad Alshaya and Saleh Alabdulkareem, The Excellence Center of Science and Mathematics Education, King Saud University, and the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, College of Education, King Saud University, PO BOX 2458 Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Carl E. Wieman, Department of Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA and the Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia,V6T 1Z3, Canada Abstract The PhET Interactive Simulations Project recently partnered with the Excellence Center of Science and Mathematics Education at King Saud University with the joint goal of making simulations available worldwide. One of the main challenges of this partnership is to make PhET simulations easily translatable so that truly anyone with a computer can use them in their classroom. The PhET project team has created the Translation Utility that allows a person, who is fluent in both English and another language, to easily translate any of the PhET simulations. This can be done with minimal computer expertise, making the translation process accessible to faculty and teachers. In this presentation we will share solutions to many of the unexpected problems we encountered that would apply in general to on-line scientific course materials including working with a language that is written right-to-left, different character sets, possible misconceptions and various conventions for expressing equations, variables, units and scientific notation. 1. Introduction As a part of the PhET Interactive Simulations Project we created a method for translating our science and math simulations (sims) and then hosting them on our website. This approach works because the underlying science is universal and it’s only the words and norms used to represent it that must be translated. In this paper we present our current translation process and discuss the pitfalls we encountered along the way. By documenting the process, we hope others can avoid many of the difficulties we encountered while creating such a tool. The PhET Interactive Simulations Project is a substantial (~85) and growing suite of professional quality sims for teaching and learning science. The sims are written in Java or Flash and are distributed from the PhET website http://PhET.colorado.edu at no cost to users, with roughly 10 million uses in the past year. The majority of PhET sims are for teaching physics but there are a growing number in chemistry, biology, math and other sciences. PhET sims provide a high degree of interactivity in terms of user control, dynamic feedback, and multiple representations. The sims enable students to make connections between real life phenomena and the underlying Figure 1 shows a screen shot of Circuit Construction Kit translated into Arabic.science which explains such phenomena (Fig. 1). Our team of scientists, software engineers and science educators use a research based approach – incorporating findings from prior research and our own testing – to create sims that support student engagement with and understanding of scientific concepts. Our research includes investigating the use of PhET sims in a variety of educational settings. (PhET, 2009). In this paper we will describe our current solution for translating the sims and our website including a few brief examples of the technical concerns involved. We also explain the method we settled on for finding translators and our co-authors from the Excellence Center of Science and Mathematics Education (ECSME) at King Saud University will share their experience as users of our Translation Utility. Creating this method for translating sims was a difficult and time consuming process; however it was much more efficient than rewriting the sims from scratch. It also allows a single location to host the same product in multiple languages, giving the instructor the opportunity to choose which language s/he will use in their classroom. 2. Current Solution Developing software for world-wide use involves addressing two related issues: internationalization and localization. Internationalization is the process of designing software so that it can be adapted to various locales without engineering changes (Deitsch, 2001). Internationalization is often abbreviated as i18n (there are 18 characters between 'i' and 'n'). Localization is the process of adapting internationalized software for a specific locale (language and country) (Deitsch, 2001). This paper will address one aspect of localization: translation. For technical details on how PhET has addressed other aspects of i18n and localization, see (Malley, 2009). In December of 2007 we released the initial version of the Translation Utility (PhET Team, 2007) for our sims. The Translation Utility is a program that allows the translator to see the English strings as they enter their translation. The translator can then test their work in the actual sim to make sure it appears as intended. Once complete, the translator emails PhET the translated strings, we compile a translated version of the sim and make it available on the PhET website. This solution came after several other avenues for acquiring translations proved unsuccessful. In addition, it has recently become obvious that we also need to have the delivery mechanism, the website, in the user’s preferred language. 2.1 Translators The most successful method for translating sims turned out to be a contributor model similar to the Wikipedia editing model1. Instructors who use PhET sims volunteer their time and expertise to create translated sims. These instructors are ideally suited for creating the translated versions. On the surface this contributor model appears to be the least expensive; but, there are much more fundamental reasons. Bi-lingual teachers who use the sims have three necessary