The stay-at-home and work-from-home order—due to the 2020 pandemic—has led to an increase in the number of internet users. And more people have adopted the alternative to take most of their courses online. Although most e-learning platforms have their courses written in English, this can be a barrier to non-English speakers.
Recent research showed that 25.5% of the global internet users are Anglophones, and the number of non-English speakers using the internet is increasing rapidly. Users of languages like Chinese, Arabic, and Spanish are fast rising in the internet space. Therefore, due to the multilingual growth of internet users, there is a need to have online courses in other languages. These can be easily achieved by translating the already written courses into any preferred language.
To effectively translate your e-learning courses, here are five proven tips to follow:
Know Your Target Audience and Their Needs
Who is your audience? This should be your first question to answer if you want to translate any online course to your audience’s satisfaction. You must do the necessary research and pay close attention to details to better understand your learners’ cultural backgrounds. Some countries speak more than one language; know the preferred languages of your targeted audience and create content based on this. On your platform, allow your audience to pick their preferred language rather than their nation.
Create a Translation-Friendly E-learning Course
Your online course, which is in English, must be designed to facilitate hassle-free translations. It must be written in clear content for easy and detailed translation. When designing an online course, you should consider these three things:
- Use internationally accepted English without idioms.
- Use only neutral images that do not depict specific cultures.
- Your e-learning design strategy must be culture-agnostic.
You can create visual content to convey your message but avoid culture-specific signs, colors, and gestures. Also, the text of the translated e-learning course can be longer than the English version. Thus, ensure to provide adequate whitespace when creating the English version of the e-learning course.
Follow Internationally Accepted Standards Only
To facilitate easy and effective translation, you must follow the international standards and conventions when designing the content of your online course. Elements such as the User Interface, the date, and the currency display formats are some of the content that needs to be internationalized. This will prevent the learner from getting confused when taking the course. For instance, 14 September 2021 is written in the USA in this format 9-14-2021, while the same date is written in India as 14-9-2021. This would have been clearer if the internationally accepted format was followed (YYYY-MM-DD), that is, 2021-9-14.
Create Content with Great Reading Experiences
Your content must provide the learners with good reading experiences. Unfortunately, this aspect of online course translation is often neglected. The way a text is read differs in each country. Thus, when translating, you should create your content only in the preferred pattern for the targeted audience. Ensure that all reading orientations are considered when translating the e-learning courses to facilitate good learning experiences. For instance, people from West Asia and North Africa read their texts from right to left, while the Chinese, Japanese, and Korean read theirs vertically. So, you must pay attention to details like this to create good reading experiences.
Hire Translation Professionals
For effective translation of your online courses, use the service of professionals such as Las Vegas Translations. E-learning materials are different from the usual online content that can be easily translated. It would help if you had firms with professionals that are experienced in dealing with online courses. Las Vegas Translation services have the necessary tools required to translate your online material efficiently. They use their experience in this field to give you content with good reading experiences. They also use the services of native speakers to give your audience the desired content.
Takeaways?
Online courses can be difficult to translate if you don’t know the necessary steps to follow. Its translation is different from the usual online content. Therefore, you need to diligently follow the laid down steps to create content with good reading experiences for your e-learning courses. For efficiency, you can hire the services of firms like Las Vegas Translation.
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