Elearning localization services are vital for providing your global e-learning audience with a better learning experience. Besides, eLearning localization will simply make it possible for educational businesses to expand their footprint on a global scale. Further, if you’re a global company, in any industry, with workforces in different countries, localization will help your multilingual employees to learn better if the course is presented in their native languages.
However, the eLearning translation process has its challenges and, sometimes, mistakes!
The 7 Common eLearning Translation Mistakes
So, it’s time to listen to the voice of experience! As a leading e-learning localization services provider, we’ve decided to put together for you a list of the common mistakes that are usually made down the road of elearning translation. Let’s dive deeper.
- Lack of Pre-Planning
Like every successful effort, if you start the localization of your e-training materials without an adequate amount of planning, the whole project could end up in a fiasco. Therefore, your Elearning translation company should invest time and effort in the planning stage so they can choose the right teaching style that matches the taste and culture of your course’s target audience.
- Cultural Differences Matter!
It’s a wonderful fact about life ─ and marketing! You’ll find that some words, images, ideas, and symbols will appeal to, say, the people of South Africa while being regarded as provocative and offensive for the people of, say, Germany or Japan. Each language carries a distinct cultural and historical background. So, is it your job to be aware of the culture of every learning audience your course is targeting?
Big No. It’s the job of the experts at your elearning translation company who must be fully aware of the intricacies and fine details of your target audience’s culture so that your eLearning course may effectively reach and appeal to them. And, this is done only by research, and extensive research!
- Use the Right Font
Unlike what many people might think, choosing the right font is very important in the eLearning translation process because it helps you to ensure that your eLearning content is noticeable no matter what the language of the target market is. We, thus, advise that you stay away from custom fonts and licensed fonts as some of them may not be properly visible on all devices or systems or. So what?
Simply use the system fonts that support characters for all the languages your eLearning material will be localized into. You may use such fonts as Arial Unicode MS.
- Don’t Ignore Translating Your Audio/Video Scripts
Audio and video are becoming the king of eLearning content, and you should by now have exerted a lot of effort producing them. Yet, this is not enough!
To provide your learners with a great learning experience, you still need to partner with an expert eLearning localization services provider that will translate the course materials into the languages they understand.
- The Problem of Embedding Text
Frankly speaking, using charts, graphics, and images that have embedded text can be a challenge when it comes to adapting your course for global users. So, we advise that you try to steer away from them. But if you must embed text, we recommend that you produce all versions in all languages at the same time when it’s still easy to modify the source image.
- Be Cautious About Expanded Text
It happens at the best of eLearning translation projects! The translated text often takes up an amount of space more than the source text, especially when translating, for example, an English course into Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, and French. So, you need to take this 20% extra space into account. But how?
Make use of white spaces and take care of frames, text boxes, and potentially restricting areas. Also, you need to be very cautious about such areas as links, drop-down menus, and navigation bars.
- Partnering Indiscriminately with Any Elearning Translation Company!
It’s easy. Just request the proposed localization agency to translate random samples of your elearning materials, and then assess the quality of their work before opting for them.
Given the vital importance of partnering with the right elearning translation company, this will certainly lead us to the following logical question.
Why Contentech?
Since 1994, Contentech has been professionally providing top-notch e-learning businesses and platforms with first-class elearning localization services that empower them to adapt their eLearning courses to suit different audiences who speak and understand multiple languages.
Also, we’ve been, over these 25 years, helping hundreds of global companies to provide professionally translated and localized training materials to their multilingual workforces all over the world.
Overall, our clients cite several reasons for choosing us, including our team of experts who fully understand the target language and the target culture they’re localizing into in addition to our reputation for quality, quick turnaround, and round-the-clock customer support.
Get in Touch to get started with our premium elearning localization services.
