IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine - June 2021 - 106

it challenging to translate material into Spanish in a way
that sounds natural to everyone. In this article, we focus on
ARSET's approach to increasing the use of remote sensing
assets in Spanish-speaking countries, with a case study of
implementation in Bolivia.
METHODOLOGY AND BEST PRACTICES
There are two main ARSET activities dedicated to facilitating
access to remote sensing resources in Spanishspeaking
countries: 1) providing training presentations
and hands-on exercises in Spanish and English through
the program website [7] and 2) delivering live online and
classroom-based instruction in Spanish. Online instruction
consists of two webinar sessions per week (over a period
of two to four weeks) covering identical content in
English and Spanish, on the same day.
Each webinar session includes a 1-h lecture and guided
demonstration on data download, access, and analysis,
followed by a question/answer (Q/A) period. Sessions
are also recorded in both languages and made freely
available on the NASA Video YouTube channel ARSET
playlist [8]. Classroom instruction is conducted in either
Spanish alone or in another language with simultaneous
translation. Online instruction is frequently a prerequisite
to more advanced training, so all attendees have a
basic level of knowledge before participating in subsequent
training.
We present ARSET's 10 best practices for successful multilingual
remote sensing training. These approaches have
resulted in both increased attendance and a number of concrete
successes, to be described in the next sections.
1) Integrate native Spanish speakers into the training team:
Native speakers are able to provide live instruction in
Spanish, which is more effective than English instruction
with simultaneous translation to Spanish.
2) Professional translation of training materials by a native
speaker: Training materials are translated and made
freely available through the website,
regardless of
whether they are disseminated live bilingually or not,
and the translator, who is a native Spanish speaker, is
an integral part of the training team. Translations are
also reviewed by native Spanish-speaking scientists.
Lectures include guidance and translation of English
terminology associated with data sets, websites, and
other resources that are only available in English.
3) Utilization of technical terms applicable to the most users:
Preference is given to Spanish terminology employed
by the United Nations (UN) or other multinational
organizations. If these are not available, it becomes a
judgment call based on an online search for the most
commonly used terms.
4) Live Q/A period with transcription into Spanish: These are
led by a native speaker. When the course instructor is
not a native Spanish speaker, questions are translated
into English for the English-speaking instructor, who
provides written answers in real time. Spanish-speak106
ing
team members then translate, read out, and transcribe
the answers in Spanish in real time.
5) Dedicated outreach in Spanish: This includes social media,
newsletters, and website announcements tailored
to stakeholders in relevant countries.
6) Surveys and postassessments disseminated in Spanish: These
improve the quality of the information and data collected
from native Spanish speakers and enables better
integration of their feedback into future program planning
and structure.
7) Codevelopment with regional partners: This ensures that
the agenda is tailored to meet end users' needs, and it
facilitates the pooling of resources to disseminate and
translate the content into other languages. Trainings
in Brazil were jointly planned and executed by ARSET,
the Itaipú Technological Park in Brazil, and UNESCO,
with participation across Latin America.
8) Cost sharing translation and content development: In 2020,
ARSET provided a trilingual training experience through
a collaboration with the UN biodiversity lab. By
cost sharing the outreach effort; the native English-,
Spanish-, and French-speaking instructors; the educational
content; and the online training infrastructure,
it was possible to provide a more global educational
experience otherwise not feasible due to cost.
9) Use of geographically relevant case studies: This ensures
that the curriculum is developed around the needs of
the region. For example, a water resources management
training conducted in Brazil in 2017 included
several case studies for the Parana River Basin.
10) Trainers conduct themselves as " honest brokers " of the data:
Participants are exposed to the pros and cons of data
sets, but, ultimately, they decide what resources will be
applied to regional decision making or research needs
and how they will be applied.
DEMOGRAPHICS AND PARTICIPATION
Since 2009, ARSET has delivered five in-person and 10 live
online trainings in Spanish. There was one in-person training
in Costa Rica and two in Colombia in collaboration
with the Group on Earth Observations. There were also two
trainings in Brazil, conducted in either Spanish, English, or
Portuguese with simultaneous translation to the other
two languages.
To examine the geographical impact on Spanishspeaking
countries, we show the number of program
participants per country between 2009 and May 2020
in Figure 1. There were 12,566 individuals representing
more than 2,700 organizations across all 19 Spanishspeaking
countries and territories in Latin America and
the Caribbean, plus Spain.
Figure 2 shows the cumulative growth in participation
for the entire program and separately for attendees from
Spanish-speaking countries and territories. The steep increase
in the last few years is due to both a growth in the
number of participants per course and an increase in the
IEEE GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING MAGAZINE JUNE 2021
IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine - June 2021

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