Training a multilingual workforce is no easy feat, especially when your teams are spread out across the world. Any issues found in your training programme are multiplied by every new member brought in and it does not take long for such problems to cause a significant drag on business growth.
Effective multilingual training starts with quality eLearning translation and, in this article, we look at seven of the most common translation mistakes that can compromise your training programme and the performance of your entire business.
eLearning translation mistakes to avoid
eLearning translation is a specialist field where you need language professionals with proven experience in creating multilingual training material.
Here are seven issues companies definitely need to avoid when translating eLearning materials:
- Poor planning: Almost every eLearning translation mistake can be solved by one of two things: experience and planning – so don’t skip this crucial stage of the project.
- Low-quality translations: Without the correct quality control processes in place, the risk of low-quality translation is substantial for large projects of this nature.
- Inconsistent language: This is another common challenge on large-scale projects, especially when technical or niche language is present.
- Embedded text: This text cannot be translated, forcing you to reproduce materials without embedded text – at a time and financial cost.
- Layout breaks: Failing to design for text expansion often leads to layout breaks and UI issues.
- Images & video: not creating and localising images and video content with translation in mind, can result in serious problems post-production (planning is essential here as mentioned above).
- Poor localisation: Good localisation helps with content optimisation, allowing you to make translation more efficient and deliverable; poor localisation can bring the entire eLearning project to a standstill.
Again, careful planning can prevent all of these mistakes, but it is difficult to plan for the unknown, so it is important to work with the right team of language experts or with a highly experienced translation agency that can help you put the necessary processes in place.
Creating rich eLearning experiences
The purpose of eLearning training is to empower people with new knowledge and skills. With digital content, it is key to use all of the multimedia tools at your disposal to maximise engagement and deliver information that is both comprehensible and retainable.
This requires a careful mix of text, audio and visual content to stimulate different parts of the brain while allowing others to take the occasional break.
The vast majority of our time working on eLearning translation projects is spent in our multimedia studio, where our language experts are translating and localising a rich mix of audio, video, animation, on-screen text, images and other visuals to create the most immersive experience possible in each target language.
This involves text translation, subtitling, transcription, voice overs, video and audio synchronisation, editing, localisation and an equally rich mix of translation methods using different technologies to achieve the same level of quality across the entire project.
If you need help with managing your eLearning translation project, you can speak to our training experts by calling +44 (0)20 7324 0950 or by filling out the form on our contact page.