eLearning programs have revolutionized education. From online college classes and continuing education programs to career certifications, e-learning programs have made it easier than ever for people to sink their teeth into educational courses.
eLearning programs existed before the 2020 pandemic, but the world was reminded of the value of digital connection when the world shut down. Entire school systems, from primary education through master’s degrees, switched to e-learning programs, proving beyond a doubt that all you need to learn is a strong internet connection.
If you want to maximize the reach of your courses and educational modules, you can open them to other markets by developing multilingual versions using eLearning translation services.
Multilingual eLearning Courses in Education
One of the most significant benefits of eLearning programs is the ability for students to go at their own pace. In a traditional classroom setting, if necessary, a teacher leads a group of students with live professional interpreters. With online courses, teachers can record their curriculum and let students move through it at their own pace. eLearning translation services can make existing programs and training courses reach more people in new countries and across language barriers.
Translated eLearning content makes it easy for students to learn from where they are educationally, linguistically, and physically. When you start an eLearning translation project, you take a significant step toward overcoming language barriers in educational materials.
Use of eLearning Materials in Business
Education is not limited to schools. Moreover, it is important in business settings- companies that invest in continued education for their employees have higher employee satisfaction and better job performance rates than those that don’t. E-learning courses can help your business onboard new employees with training materials, share essential company policies, engage in corporate training, learn new products, and more when you translate them to fulfill the needs of employees around the world.
There’s so much that e-learning programs can do for your business; engaging in eLearning localization is an easy way to make these programs work harder for your business—multilingual eLearning can help your employees, partners, and clients.
Why eLearning Translations?
Translating your eLearning content is a crucial step for international companies – operating solely in one country, like the United States, doesn’t exempt you from maybe needing e-learning translation services in other languages, depending on your users. Over 40 million people in the US speak Spanish as their first language, so providing crucial information and training to them in their native tongue helps increase information retention and understanding.
Many people who speak multiple languages still prefer to receive information in their first language. A less measurable but significant benefit is that providing information in someone’s first language is a gesture that goes a long way to show consideration. It shows care and concern for the diversity of your employees. It is important to provide information in multiple languages to maximize the impact of your e-learning courses.
The Challenges of eLearning Translation
Level of Sophistication: Due to the number of elements in an e-learning course, eLearning translation can be surprisingly complex. It’s not as simple as translating a page of text from a source to a target language—there are written elements, visual elements like photos, videos, and images, interactive elements such as quizzes, progress tracking, and all the backend components to manage.
Several components: eLearning courses use desktop publishing software, and these digital learning platforms have pieces to manage. Text translation can expand or contract the space taken by the text, leading to changes in the course’s design. To stay consistent with the branding and appearance of a course, you want to control the changes between languages to be as minimal as possible in your e-learning tools.
Localization of Content: There are also cultural nuances to navigate. Suppose you’re using the same e-learning course in multiple countries and languages. In that case, you must ensure your content is optimized for global consumption and free of country-specific examples, images, idioms, and unclear terms. Localization solutions should consider cultural nuances when working on your e-learning translation services since these courses typically have country—or culturally-specific references.
Translating the text is not enough to complete a successful eLearning translation – you must consider localizing your materials. eLearning translation and localization ensure that your courses are grammatically accurate and culturally sensitive to your new audience.
eLearning translation for Korean will require a different team than the project for Spanish eLearning translation. Likewise, within Spanish Translation Services, localization for Latin America will require a different group of linguists than localizing for Spain due to the difference in vocabulary, idioms, and cultural references involved.
Planning and Workflow: Embarking on an e-learning translation project means managing multiple moving parts at once, so planning and preparing for the project’s workflow is a must, which is most easily accomplished by working with professional translation services.
Benefits of eLearning Translation Projects
What are the benefits of embarking on eLearning translation projects? There are many, some measurable and others intangible.
Increase the reach of existing eLearning content:
Why reinvent the wheel when you have a developed curriculum for students and professionals? Translating your existing content makes it work harder for your business without increasing your team’s workload. eLearning programs break down geographic barriers and give anyone with an internet connection access to high-quality educational materials.
Increase engagement
Providing information in people’s first language is the best way to increase their engagement with content. Even the most skilled multilinguists still prefer to receive information in their native tongue. eLearning translation also allows participants to go through the courses at their own pace and convenience. These programs are also typically more engaging than traditional classroom settings, allowing for the use of videos, animations, quizzes, and other interactive elements.
Respect cultural diversity
English is the dominant language of business and the world, but it is shortsighted to assume everyone speaks it. Showing respect for linguistic diversity goes a long way, especially if your business operates in multiple countries or is expanding to a new country.
Streamline internal processes
Using e-learning courses in business is a great way to systemize processes like human resources and onboarding. All your employees or students can work from the same course, which only needs to be created once. Translating this content makes it available whenever you require it, so you don’t have to return to the drawing board if your company expands into a new country, saving you time, money, and energy.
Accessibility and inclusivity
Translating your eLearning content makes it more accessible to people with geographic or physical limitations. With e-learning translation and localization, people with mobility issues, reduced hearing capacity, or geographic isolation can access your content online from the comfort of their homes, breaking down global barriers to education.
Cost-effective
Creating an e-learning program can be a significant upfront cost, and translating this content can help your investment go further. You don’t have to re-create any content to translate it so you can repeatedly use the original content in new languages. Typically, The cost of establishing your eLearning program exceeds the eLearning translation cost, which means each translated version of the course makes your initial investment go further.
Why Work with a Professional for eLearning Translation Company
Working with professional translators can help smooth the strategy. A professional translation company has the know-how, linguistic expertise, and cultural competency to help you create high-quality, engaging learning platforms. From translated content to video localization and performance support tools, a translation agency is there for you through every step of the translation process.
The best part is that a professional language services provider understands your e-learning translation needs and knows how to execute them to complement your team’s efforts while partnering with your company to succeed with flawless multilingual content.
Localization Solutions for Your eLearning Translation Project
eLearning localization projects require a team of experts in different disciplines, from linguists to project managers, designers, and localization engineers, to work together in designing, controlling, and executing the project within time and budget.
A translation team will also test your eLearning platform at each translation stage to ensure the user experience is flawless. A translator does so much more than substitute one word for another in different languages – they bring a holistic linguistic perspective to your team throughout the translation process.
From the halls of higher education to high rises and home offices, e-learning is revolutionizing education for students and adults alike – and e-learning translation is making this content available to an international audience. If you have not yet taken advantage of what e-learning platforms offer, they can help you create a robust body of resources for a global audience of students, employees, and knowledge seekers.
If you’re ready to maximize the reach of your e-learning programs with translation services, you need a professional translation service company with the capabilities, team, and experience to help you get the job done successfully.
JR Language Translation Services Inc. has worked with businesses and educational institutions worldwide to provide high-quality services at affordable prices and fast turnaround times. Give us a call or write an email today – we would be happy to offer a free quote to assist you with eLearning Translation services.
