OLT provides translation services in eLearning and believes that the following material is valuable for developing the source text. OLT also offers free online support after delivery for clients to provide feedback and make adjustments. Good translation begins with creating good text in the first place. Many organizations recognize the importance of translating eLearning courses for diverse learning communities. However, how can you ensure accurate eLearning translations? Over the years, common mistakes have been made during the translation process, but they can be easily avoided by following these steps:
Prepare content: Before translating your content, you need to understand your localization strategy. Consider your target audience, foreign market, messaging, and branding. Basic guidelines should be created for eLearning content creators to adhere to, such as avoiding idioms, colloquialisms, and cultural analogies, being clear, concise, and simple, avoiding redundancy in messaging, and paying attention to visual content.
Analyze project: Ensure all eLearning materials, including project-related files and content, are gathered. It is recommended to use a Content Management System such as Storyline or Captivate so that either platform can ‘house’ the script with every slide and screen. If there is any video or audio embedded, the original video or audio files must be submitted. Building eLearning content within a custom platform requires accessing an LMS for the context of the material.
Develop glossary and style guide: A glossary provides a list of terms that the linguist must follow for the sake of completeness and is useful when translating industry jargon, terms requiring clarification, and non-translatable terms. Consistent eLearning translations help build trust and credibility in your brand. A style guide is equally important, explaining linguistic information, tone, and style that should exist throughout all translated materials.
Review expectations with the client/Subject Matter Expert (SME): Translation is a human endeavor, and different opinions may arise, so it is essential to ensure all project collaborators are on the same page. The linguist works with the client SME to understand each other’s expectations and preferences for the translation. Additional expectations, preferences, dos, and don’ts may be provided by the SME.
Provide necessary training: Providing linguist training in your product functionality gives the translator contextual references and improved understanding, especially valuable for software localization and website content.
Sample the translation: Select a limited amount of content to translate and test accuracy and consistency. The translation sample gives all project collaborators an idea of how the process works and establishes expectations for all future translation projects. Ensure the previous six steps have been completed before sending the sample over.
Translate the eLearning content: Use native, professional linguists to translate your eLearning courses into the target languages. A proprietary translation management platform allows linguists to see all the proper reference materials, glossary, and style guide in a centralized system.
Client/Subject Matter Expert reviews translation: The SME is invited to review the translation and make comments within the platform, providing suggestions directly to the linguist. The SME and linguist can then have a dialogue about changes, and the best solution should be implemented. The feedback is recorded for future reference.
- Quality Control and Deliverables
This final step ensures the highest quality of eLearning translation. Once the translation is completed, it will undergo quality checks to verify that all project instructions have been followed, comments have been reviewed and addressed, and that the glossary and style guide have been adhered to and updated as necessary.
If additional formatting is required, the materials will be checked to ensure that they mirror the source material without omitting any content. For Captivate and Storyline, the formatting will also mirror the source, audio will be synchronized if needed, the output will be published in HTML5, and a rendition verification will be performed to ensure that everything is working correctly.
- Delivery
Congratulations, you’ve made it to the end of your eLearning translation project! All final deliverables will be gathered and verified to ensure they meet the translation standards. The deliverables will then be expedited according to the agreed conventions and archived.
If you’ve completed a translation project in the past, you know how frustrating it can be without these steps for translation preparation. Although it may take a little more time and effort to set up these processes initially, it will definitely pay off in the long run.
- After-Delivery Service
Last but not least, some modifications or changes may be necessary after delivery due to the nature of the work. Therefore, OLT provides after-delivery online support to ensure that you receive consistent help from them easily and economically.
Source: By Seth Craven April 7, 2018
“When it comes to the localization of IT/Software, one thing that often comes to mind is how programming for IT/Software can be compared to the process of replacing high-level human language with low-level machine language. Due to this, many programmers tend to approach things in an analytical manner, fragmenting and dissecting the message in order to simplify their work. However, this approach often leads to the opposite result – making it difficult to see the big picture. While machines cannot understand human language, humans communicate in a different way than machines, and our goal should be to deliver the message clearly, rather than simply reducing it to binary code. Therefore, our approach to localization should be integrative and comprehensive.
We often encounter confusing software that has been translated, which defeats the purpose of localization, which is to make the software more intuitive and user-friendly. We believe that localization is a creative process, and the result should be innovative and advanced. By focusing on the message and creating software that is both easy to use and effective, we can create a better experience for users in different languages and cultures.”
OLT can help you expand your reach to the Korean market with ease.
As an experienced localization service provider, we ensure that your message is easy to understand for your Korean audience.
We also go beyond traditional translation to validate your message through our linguistic validation process.
Your message will remain the same, but with a different tool of language: Korean.
By working with us, you can expand your domain into Korea at a competitive rate.
We are interested in learning more about your business and how we can help deliver your message effectively to the Korean market.
Let’s work together towards a bigger world!