The way people communicate globally has changed dramatically in the 21st century,hence the change has been accelerated even further due to COVID. With the rise of remote education as the new norm, virtual, on-demand training videos, module and slide software have become even more important.
Therefore content, whether coursework, tutorials, or entire online courses, needs to be well-designed, engaging, and multilingual to be effective. Challenges organizations and workplaces face in this new era of eLearning include managing remote workers, recording progress, and personalizing learning and development.
Under the circumstances, companies must act in a professional tone consistent with the brand to increase their ability to interact with and retain customers. So how does e-learning localization play a role here?
What is e-Learning Localization?
E-Learning localization process is the process of adapting digital education content according to the language, culture and regional characteristics of the target audience, which involves reviewing online courses, eLearning software, training materials, and multimedia presentations to ensure the content is meaningful and understandable to students from different backgrounds.
In addition to translating text, audio and visual elements, localization also takes into account cultural contexts, units of measurement, date formats and examples appropriate to the target audience. Additionally, user interfaces and navigation can be tailored to conform to the design conventions and languages users are accustomed to.
Successful eLearning localization increases communication and understanding among trainees, making localization an indispensable part of global education and training efforts. Benefiting from advanced language translation, organizations can adapt content to different target audiences, ensuring effective information transfer while respecting students' cultural identities and preferences.
How does E-Learning localization differ from E-Learning translation?
When you have a workforce dispersed around the world andcontent in native languages in-demand trainees, localizing your learning management system (LMS) is one of the most effective ways to keep your audience interested, motivated, and engaged.
More than 90% of people wish to study in their native language, but achieving this requires more than simply translating the text from the original course language into the native language. While translation delivers an eLearning course in a different language while preserving the meaning, localization adapts the course to the target audience and culture.
The process involves revising or adapting images, phrases, fonts, currency, dates, tone of voice, units of measurement, and other integral details. The purpose of e-learning translation and localization is to ensure that trainees or employees perceive the course content in their own cultural context.
Different Types of Target Audiences of E-Learning
Localization of E-Learning Content for Corporate Staff
In cases such as introducing new protocols for critical processes in a corporate environment or creating teaching modules for product and service training, translating E-Learning materials can effectively train geographically dispersed workforces or employees who speak different languages in the same country.
Adapting E-Learning Resources for Academic Trainees
Localization of e-learning content allows educational institutions to expand their courses by offering different courses in multiple languages. The adaptation provides education suitable for larger and more diverse populations.
E-Learning Localization for Compliance Training
Every organization must comply with regulations and rules. Therefore, it is important to localize compliance training to make it easier for speakers of different languages to adapt, including organizations, industry associations, and government agencies that participate in compliance training.
Technology Training Localization
Technology companies often seek to enter global and international marketstechnical translation making it necessary to adapt and software, hardware and training materials to local tastes
Dealer Networks Training
Supporting your partners with localized resources can help increase employee engagement and sales performance. Additionally, localizing E-Learning training content can provide these partners with the knowledge and tools to achieve their business goals.
Why is eLearning localization so important?
Localization examines and takes into account cultural differences. For example, giving a thumbs up might be considered a positive sign to an American reader.However, but this is regarded as a very disrespectful act, in the Middle East. The best way to avoid offending individuals is to learn as much as possible about a country's etiquette, communication style and values.
Localization is sensitive to cultural contexts and makes necessary adaptations to make the course suitable for the target audience. Ignoring cultural diversity in eLearning courses risks excluding a significant portion of your target audience, which can result in revenue loss. It is important to understand the traditions and perspectives of the people in your target country.
By paying attention to these points, you can ensure that the content is local, understandable and interesting for the target audience.
How to achieve effective E-Learning localization?
Focus on both design and language
Videos, graphics and images are elements that need to be taken into consideration as much as text when localizing your e-Learning content. For example, if you compose a course in the USA, you can use a thumbs up image to motivate the audience. However, in Iran, this image can cause great discomfort, as giving the thumbs up means an insult.
Consider which fonts and styles are preferred in the market and keep in mind that some fonts do not recognize or support certain languages. Keeping these in mind can help you prevent future problems.
Know your target audience
To successfully localize your text, you need to know your target audience well. Before your educational content designer creates your course, conduct extensive research on cultural preferences, appropriate tone, and spelling conventions.
If you try to localize your text without knowing your target audience, you may miss the target and lose your target audience's interest. Among other factors you should pay attention to includes the age and gender of your target audience. Choose words and images that match demographics to increase engagement.
Also take into account the dates, currencies and time units. It would be easier and more economical to research and resolve these issues at the beginning of your localization strategy.
Determine the best language for your target audience
More than 6,000 languages are spoken in the world. However, it is impossible to localize your content for all of them. There are approximately 30 most spoken languages, among which English, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, Russian and French stand out. You can access to a larger portion of the existing market, by targeting more common languages
Remember the importance of audio localization
Many eLearning videos, modules, and slide software include audio narration to better explain and contextualize on-screen text and graphics. The same localization principles apply to audio narration.
However, other quality elements are also important in the audio narration process, such as your narrator being suitable for your brand, your teams being followed without getting bored, and your recording environment (microphone, studio/room) being of high quality. You should avoid using team members for narration just because they speak the local language.
First, these employees (usually instructional designers) do not have professional vocal skills. Second, these employees may stop working for the organization at any time, leaving the organization at risk of inconsistent narrative as the eLearning library grows.
For better quality and long-term results, consider working with a professional vocalization service provider, offering the languages and sustainable talent availability that will keep your content consistent even over years of updates.
Contact us and deliver the quality of your e-learning service to the whole world.
