Coursera Seeks to Create a ‘Global Translator Community’

Last year Coursera announced partnerships with international organizations to expand the number of its massive open online courses available in foreign languages. Now the for-profit MOOC provider is going a step further by establishing a Global Translator Community in which individuals will volunteer to help translate lectures.

Coursera says it hopes not only to “make more content more available in more languages” but also to create a close-knit community of translators who will be recognized for their work, according to a news release. Volunteers will help with subtitle translations for the lectures.

The company now offers courses with subtitle translations in 13 foreign languages, with Chinese, French, and Spanish among the most popular. The company says only 40 percent of the people who take its courses live in English-speaking countries.