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E-learning materials pose special challenges to content creators and translators alike. As we’ve mentioned before, e-learning courses offer much in terms of interactivity, communication of business ideas, and consistent training. They can also be cumbersome to handle, with all of the functions, graphics, and moving parts they can contain. Using current e-learning applications, content creators can load their courses with moving images, slideshows, games, quizzes, embedded video… it’s important here to remember the difference between can and should.
Our previous post about e-learning was quite general – today, we’d like to share some more specific thoughts about crafting your courses effectively, leading to the best possible experience for your trainees and your translators.
Small bites: Think of your e-learning course as an evolved textbook… and now, think back to the enormous textbooks you may have had to lug around with you at school. Bulk may not be an asset when designing your course. Unless you’re in a position to bring trainees to your facility and administer the training on-site, it will be to your advantage to break a large course into separate, smaller modules. Trainees working outside of a scheduled in-house training session will need to work the course into their existing schedules; if they can schedule four one-hour blocks of time for online training, as opposed to one four-hour block, they’ll be happier, less stressed, and liable to retain more of the training.
Reasonable size: Even if you break your large course into reasonable portions, there’s only so much information you can expect your trainees to absorb. Evaluate your curriculum, and see if there aren’t some areas of information that can be removed, or handled alternatively. In addition, don’t overburden your modules with all those slideshows, games, quizzes, videos, and other widgets mentioned above. All that extra flash can also tax older operating systems, and make the course too large to manage comfortably.
Color scheme: Your course will have to be visually appealing, which is no problem when you’re designing courses for domestic use. E-learning suites come with a variety of attractive templates to choose from. However, consider customizing your design choices for courses that will be taken by international trainees. Something as simple as your color palette may have a strong effect on your audience, for better or worse. As an example, consider the color green. You may use it in your design to indicate wealth and prosperity, but it’s also a color of great religious significance in Islam – if you’re designing materials for majority-Muslim markets, use green with respect.
Balanced tone: If you have teaching experience, apply it liberally here! We’ve all had teachers who taught badly, regardless of how thoroughly they knew their subjects. Teachers who come off as dry and pedantic won’t reach their students, and neither will teachers who try so hard to be playful that they lose their authority. In writing your course, strike the proper balance between authoritative and approachable, and aim your text at the widest possible audience. A course written in strong, correct, uncomplicated English will be accessible to all, and will also translate smoothly.
Polished voice: Will your course have an accompanying voice track? Probably so – a human voice makes a warmer impression, and is highly advisable in case of trainees with visual impairments. We always engage professional voice talent when providing translated audio for e-learning courses… and if you have it in your budget, we recommend working with a pro for the source audio, too. If you do need to use in-house talent for your voice track, be honest about accents, speech and breathing habits, and other minor vocal tics that will be amplified by a trainee’s headphones!
