What are our goals and milestones?

Stage 1: Beginning

What you do to get there: Work with us to manage the Youtube channel that we provide, and to translate/approve strings on our Translation Portal/Crowdin. 

What your site will look like: You don't have one yet. You have a Youtube channel that we provide you, and you will manage and save your translated written text on our Translation Portal.

What your team will control (all of these privileges and responsibilities are cumulative): You manage the YouTube channel, incoming Crowdin requests, translator applications, and approvals. You are also responsible for mapping your localized videos to the English versions, translating text, and building your translator community.

Quality Assessment: At this stage, we audit a few videos to make sure your audio-visual setup is correct. We might give you some helpful hints on your team structure and translation style. We try to be responsive in the first few weeks of a project to questions. We'll provide you with some quality assurance guidelines that we use at Khan Academy, but you are responsible for assuring the quality of your own videos. To reach the next phase (Demo Site), we will ask about your practices, so please prepare by reading and implementing the guidelines early on.

Our Rationale: Before you take on a project, we want to be sure that you are willing to take on the organizational responsibilities. A language requires a certain amount of translating before we actually build a site. We do this because we want users to have a good experience, and also because making a new foreign language site requires engineering resources to build and maintain.

Stage 2: Demo Site

What you do to get there:

Achieve 100% localization of at least one of the following subjects (includes translation and approval of all specified website platform* and content text strings - i.e. exercises, articles, and video descriptions - as well as dubbing or recreating of all videos, and mapping the localized videos to the English versions). 

• Early math

• Arithmetic

• Pre-algebra        

• Algebra-basics

• Algebra 1            

• Algebra 2

• Basic geometry  

• Precalculus

OR if you would prefer to translate math grade-by-grade, you can achieve a Demo site once you have reached 100% localization of K-2nd grade in math.

* Platform strings that must be translated: About (except for the staff member biographies), About: Donate, About: Mission, Accounts: Settings, Coach Reports, Coach Resources, Content: Chrome, Discussion, Email, Homepage, Login and Registration, Notifications, Other, Profile

If you have a compelling reason that there is another subject you would like to complete first instead of Math, please email i18n_support@khanacademy.org to discuss it with us.

What your site will look like:

At the demo stage, you will have a Khan Academy interface that looks like the English site but much more limited. To see an example demo site, click here. This site can be used to demo to potential sponsors and used with students in pilot projects (and beyond, depending on how much content you have.) When you have a Demo Site, it will be available to all users on the internet, and your language will be displayed in the language dropdown at the bottom of the Khan Academy site (and in the account preferences drop-down menu for users who are logged in). 

What your team will control (all of these privileges and responsibilities are cumulative):

You can directly manage which subjects you would like to appear on your language's site via access to our Content Management System (CMS). 

Quality Assessment/Assurance:

In order to reach the demo stage, Khan Academy and your team will work together to make sure that a quality control process is in place. This may take the form of casual interviews (in English) with 1-2 members of your video dubbing team to discuss your: approach towards content quality, dubbing and quality review methodology, and domain / language / pedagogical expertise and experience. You will be asked to produce a summary of your process and guidelines. These summaries may take several forms, including a rubric, a Khan-Style Video, or a case study. 

Our Rationale:

Many teams ask us whether they can subtitle videos in place of dubbing. While we understand this is more culturally appropriate in some places than in others, there are a few reasons we insist on at least some dubbed videos: 

1. Young learners can't be expected to read and learn math at the same time.
2. We want to make sure that the level of quality is equal in every language, and that the Khan Academy brand is world-class everywhere.
3. Every localization project will eventually need dubbing capabilities because some content simply can't be subtitled. We want to make sure that every team builds this muscle early, even if in a limited capacity.

Why do we prioritize math?

When Khan Academy started, we offered math content, which is why our math library is the most built-out content domain. We also have humanities and substantial science offerings, and are continuing to add more subjects, but math remains a foundation of stable content that is practical to start with. In general, math content also has fewer localization issues because it requires less local context than, for example, history does.

Stage 3: Full Site 

What you do to get there:

Achieve 100% localization of all of the following subjects (text and dubbing/recreation of videos). The platform string translation requirements are the same as they were for achieving Demo Site status.

•Early math            

•Arithmetic

•Basic geometry      

•Pre-algebra

•Algebra 1              

•Algebra basics

Plus 100% localization of three additional subjects in any other core content (math, science, humanities, or computing). You may subtitle two of these subjects instead of dubbing if you prefer.

What your site will look like:

Exactly like the English Khan Academy site, just likely with less content depending on how much you have translated. As with Demo sites, your language will appear in the language dropdown at the bottom of the Khan Academy site and in the account preferences drop-down menu for users who are logged in. 

What you are working on:

When you reach Full Site stage, you will continue translating any of the content in our core domains (Math, Science, Humanities, Economics, and Computer Science). Restrictions apply to certain partner content so please email i18n_support@khanacademy.org to check on translation permissions before starting to translate any partner content. We recommend working on Math and Science first since those are the most well-developed domains we offer. Once you have a full site, you can also make sure your mobile strings are 100% translated for consideration to be integrated into Khan Academy's mobile apps.

What your team will control (all of these privileges and responsibilities are cumulative):

As with a Demo site, you can directly manage which subjects you would like to appear on your language's site via access to our Content Management System (CMS). You can manage which subjects appear on your site and can request formatting of your learn menu by emailing i18n_support@khanacademy.

Quality Assurance:

In order to attain Full site status, your team must adhere to quality control guidelines (modified versions of the Quality Control guidelines followed by the English content team and Khan Academy HQ). We will provide these guidelines and will empower advocates to administer this process successfully. Please note: these quality control guidelines will be made in consultation with language teams. We will not ask you to dismantle your current quality control process if it works well (although we may make some suggestions based on our guidelines). Khan Academy hopes to work together with your team and support you in your efforts. To do so, Khan Academy may ask you to fill out/discuss a questionnaire/ report describing your quality assurance process. Khan Academy may also provide bilingual subject experts to conduct a review of your team’s video/string translations. In addition, at this stage, teams may have some of the same site maintenance responsibilities as the English Khan Academy team, for example, YouTube moderation, Khan Academy comment moderation, and reported mistake review.