Why is localizing your eLearning content important?
In today’s dynamic workplace, what may sound like simple tasks often require certain skills and industry knowledge. This means that offering your team high-quality and effective training is crucial to their success, and that of your company. However, providing this training can be costly and time consuming. It’s also difficult to guarantee that the same standards of training are being given throughout your company, especially if your company exists internationally. If you’re looking for a cost effective, efficient, and easy to manage method of training your teams, the best answer may be eLearning.
With eLearning, your business can streamline its training process, minimizing human resource requirements and ensuring that the same quality of instruction is given to all teams within your company. However, training materials that are suitable for one country may not be suitable for all countries, which gives the best companies the chance to show how much they know and care about their employees.
For businesses that operate internationally, eLearning presents the perfect opportunity to teach company values and procedures across countries. Below we’ve compiled a list of 5 helpful tips which will help you when you start localizing your eLearning content:
1) Culture is King
Before creating content for eLearning, spend time researching and analyzing the cultural background of your audience. Mixing up cultural norms may be very distracting for certain audiences. For example, if there is a family home depicted in your training material, Western audiences would not expect the grandparents to be living with the family, however for many Asian cultures this would seem perfectly normal.
2) Gestures Speak Louder than Words
We often give gestures without thinking about them. Nod if you agree. But across different countries some gestures convey very different meanings. For example, the classic ‘thumbs up’, which means ‘well done’ in many parts of the world, is actually offensive in places like Greece and the Middle East. So be sure to pay close attention to the gestures used in your videos!
3) It’s All In the Details
Your employees will likely notice even the smallest details in your eLearning that will highlight that the material was not originally created for them. For example, something as simple as road signs being shown that are not country specific will make your team aware that your company isn’t putting them first. To avoid negative feelings, consider every tiny detail before releasing your content.
4) It’s Like They’re Speaking a Different Language
Languages are full of nuance and localizing languages is difficult. If you’ve ever read or listened to something that’s poorly translated, you’ll know how it made you feel. It’s important to hire professional translators and voiceover artists that will make your material seem as though it was only ever created for that language. And when writing the original script, help the translators out by avoiding local jargon or humor that may be difficult to localize.
5) We All Need a Little Support Sometimes
It’s important to not only localize your eLearning material but also to localize the documentation and troubleshooting channels that support it. If someone encounters an issue and needs assistance while using your eLearning platform, they need to have quick, uncomplicated access. Whether you’re providing support online or through printed documents, make sure material is localized to the same high quality as your eLearning material.
For companies establishing a new platform, appropriately localizing your eLearning content is vital. While it’s possible to localize on your own, using a team of culture and language experts will guarantee that your eLearning content will be effective in all countries. For more information on how to localize your business’s eLearning platform, learn more about CSOFT International’s services here!
Written by Samuel de Swardt – Marketing Intern at CSOFT International