Text Collection FOUNDATIONS
How text collection projects work: transcription to spec, translation and bilingual text, and document rights.
Counts towards Data Collection Foundations certification: 8 courses required.
Course Fee
Overview
Start your Text Collection journey.
Text is the one kind of AI training data you do not capture.
You transcribe what was said, translate what was written, type up documents, or write original text in a language the internet barely covers, and the work is judged on fidelity to the brief, not on how well it reads. A transcript is measured against its audio, and nobody links a source, because you made the text: its value is that it did not exist before, in that language, from a real person, with clear rights attached.
This course covers verbatim against clean-read and why the difference is never a matter of preference, since a transcript can read well and fail, or read badly and pass; tags, speaker labels, timestamps and how accuracy is actually measured; faithful translation for model training rather than publication, and the machine-translation rule, how it is detected and what it costs; whose text you may supply, the personal data that hides better in text than a face does in a photograph, and rights records; then a review shift on submitted files. Transcription practice runs against real audio. Around 1 to 2 hours, self-paced; the free Data Collection Basics first is recommended.
One of the eight courses of the Data Collection Foundations certification programme: pass all eight to become a Certified Data Collector. Available on its own or under the programme fee; certificate included on passing.
What You Get
What's included in your training
Structured Learning Modules
Learn at your own pace through structured modules on the DeeLab Academy learning platform.
Self-Paced Schedule
No fixed schedule. Start when you want, finish at your own pace.
Knowledge Checks
Worked examples and per-unit practice quizzes with instant feedback, plus a final knowledge assessment on the e-learning platform (80% to pass).
Certificate Included
Your verifiable certificate for this course is included in the programme price, issued once you pass the final assessment.
Outline
What you'll learn
-
Text Collection Projects
What transcription, translation, and authored-text projects are, and who buys them.
-
Transcription to Specification
How verbatim rules, timestamps, speaker labels, and style guides decide acceptance.
-
Translation and Bilingual Text
What a faithful translation pair requires, and why both languages must be strong.
-
Documents, Rights and Privacy
Which documents may be submitted, and how rights and personal data are handled.
-
Judging Text Submissions
What the text rejection catalogue contains, and how self-review prevents it.
-
Working Professionally on Text Projects
How quotas, queries, quality scores, and payment work on text projects.
Counts toward the Data Collection Foundations (DCF) certification programme.
How it works
From enrolling to certified
1
Learn at your own pace
Start the moment you enrol and work through the material in your own time. There is no cohort to wait for and no fixed schedule to keep up with.
2
Pass the assessment
The course ends with a graded assessment you take when you are ready. The result is what counts, not how long you took.
3
Receive your certificate
Issued within one week of passing, with a public verification page anyone can check.
Two ways in
This course, or the whole programme
Just this course
Text Collection Foundations
One course, with its certificate when you pass.
at your own pace
Best value
The full Data Collection Foundations
All 8 courses, and the programme certificate at the end.
the courses one at a time
Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about this course.
Most learners finish in 1 to 2 hours, self-paced. Each of the six units has reading and a practice quiz with instant feedback, and interactive exercises run throughout the course. The final knowledge assessment has an 80% pass mark. You can retake it as many times as you need, with 24 hours between attempts, and your highest score counts.
It's designed for beginners who write their own language carefully. No AI knowledge, no transcription background, and no special equipment beyond a computer and headphones are required. It is especially worth taking if you are fluent in a language that AI models handle badly, because that is where the shortage and the better rates are. Data Collection Basics is the recommended starting point, but this course doesn't assume it.
They are the two halves of text work and they deliberately do not overlap. Web Research Foundations is about finding text that already exists, judging the source, and recording it with a link back. This course is about producing text: transcribing a recording to a specification, building translation pairs, and writing original text in your own language. Many contributors end up doing both.
Reading, interactive scenario exercises, and knowledge checks on the e-learning platform. It teaches the conventions of text collection: project types, transcription to specification, translation and bilingual text, document rights and privacy, how reviewers decide, and professional practice on text projects. There are no transcripts or translations marked by DeeLab, no portfolio to build, and nothing to submit.
The course teaches you to read each project's rules, because they differ, and many now expect you to correct a machine draft rather than type from nothing. What is never acceptable is passing raw machine output off as your own work: it is routinely detected, and it ends accounts. Either way you are responsible for every line you submit, which is exactly what this course teaches you to check.
The other Data Collection Foundations courses are the natural next step; each is available on its own, or the programme fee covers them all. Web Research Foundations is the closest companion, covering the sourcing half of text work, and Conversational AI Data Foundations is the next step up for writing. You can also record your languages, language pairs, completed courses and availability in the freelance and gig work section of your trainee profile, which is what DeeLab looks at when a text project needs contributors.
Yes. The certificate is included in the course fee and is issued automatically once you pass the final assessment and leave your course feedback, and in any case within a week of passing. Pass all eight Data Collection courses and the programme certificate, the Certified Data Collector award, follows automatically as well.
You have three months to complete the course, counted from the day you sign up. Within that window it is entirely self-paced and always open; your progress is saved automatically and you can return whenever suits you.