Making E-learning translation more effective elearningserv.com /blog/making-e-learning-translation-more-ef f ective-2/ Subhatul Marjan
It has become a universal f act that hiring a teacher or trainer f or executing training will incur higher cost then the cost of the E-learning and training and that is the reason all the companies pref er of f ering training to the employees which is cost ef f ective and can be of f ered at individual pace. T he other remarkable benef it of the E-learning course ware is that, the training and learning can take place in all the branches of the company at dif f erent locations in the world without any major inconvenience. When we talk about training at dif f erent locations around the globe, the need f or translation of the E-learning content comes into picture. T he E-learning has truly gone international. And the scope is ever growing in all the dif f erent dimensions of learning and training. As the E-learning is expanding its f eathers universally, the demand f or translation of the course into dif f erent languages and localization has taken the centre stage in transf erring the E-learning courseware into desired languages. When we consider the globalization of the E-learning course ware we need to keep into consideration certain aspect as to just translate the E-learning course modules into target language will not ef f ectively serve the purpose. And there are some important aspects which are to be kept in mind while translating or transf erring the content the course ware. Doesn’t matter if we are talking about the simplest course ware. However, translation of dif f erent E-learning courses would be tricky and most importantly expensive if proper planning and strategy is not in place. So a thoughtf ul planning and strategic understanding of the training to be executed will make the whole process very smooth and hassle f ree. T he dif f erent areas or aspects which should be taken into consideration bef ore we plunge into translating the courseware is mentioned below,
Translat ion f riendly cont ent development In the f irst place itself , the content should be simple and complicated text should be avoided as the translation of the complex content will cost more money, in turn make the process more expensive. As the enumeration of short and crisp paragraph will contain less words then the complicated textual explanation of the same, resulting into more cost of translation. Concise and crisp content will be conveniently translated into any other language without burdening the client. So basically creating English neutral content that is easily translated will be less time consuming
and cost ef f ective.
Select ion of language T he other critical aspect would be the selection of the language, which has to be decided depending upon the strength of the employees using any particular language working f or the company, as the E-learning content should be developed or translated in the language used by the majority of the employees or at least used by considerable number of them. So it is important to critically think, visualize and decide about the important languages used by the employees of the company as the company cannot af f ord to get the E-learning course ware translated f or one or two employees as it would be incurring high cost.
Cult ural dif f erences when the E-learning course ware is developed keeping in mind the aspect of translation and localization, we need to understand that it has to be as neutral as possible as the content would be utilized in dif f erent social and cultural backgrounds. When we talk about cultural dif f erences, we shouldn’t be only worried about the text but we should be really particular about the images as well as they inculcate dif f erent f eeling and reactions in dif f erent cultural scenarios. T he simple example is the thumps up gesture which is used in a completely derogatory way in Middle East. So we have to be consciously neutral in terms of texts and images while developing content f or translation and localization.
Changing t he Audio Visual st rat egy It’s a universal f act that the absence of trainer is compensated with the help of audio visual support, while designing E-learning course-ware. But when we are planning the course f or the purpose of translation and localization into dif f erent languages, it has to be borne in mind that use of more audio visuals will incur more cost in translation while dubbings and subtitling. So the use of audio visuals should be done in a more sensible and concise way. T he other aspect which has to be mentioned here is the dif f erences in languages. It’s imperative that the E-learning content is designed in a way to accommodate the translation of the content in the dif f erent target languages and the horizontal navigation bars and menus are f lexible enough to accommodate the text into dif f erent languages as the translated text might vary in size so constricted dimensions will make the translation dif f icult and taxing. it would be important to implement Unicode in the courseware to make sure all the desired alphabet are supported. We at Swif t E-learning services have the expertise to match up with best in industry of f erings.