Localizing E-learning Courses and Materials to Suit Your Target Audience

welocalize February 18, 2019

Learning is core and an imperative for any organization. Training and safety are also critical components in the life sciences industry. Everyone, from healthcare administrators to clinicians to consumers, can benefit from on-demand access to the latest information—whether it is to improve patient retention or efficiently train an offsite team. This is where e-learning becomes useful and important.

To be effective across languages, cultures and learning levels, e-learning courses and materials should be localized to suit the target audience. Localization in the e-learning industry consists of translating texts and learning resources, translating voice-overs of training videos and modifying the interactive components of the training.

The fact is learning is always more effective when you are consuming it in your own language. Welocalize Life Sciences is experienced at localizing e-learning, and points to several significant trends establishing themselves as noteworthy aspects of the e-learning industry.

Gamification: One of the latest trends for the e-learning industry is the introduction of gamification to the learning process. Learning gamification is the method of utilizing gaming techniques in the development of learning content to increase usability and retention. This process involves making learning engaging, motivating and more entertaining with a game-like interaction.

SPOTLIGHT: Gamification in the U.S. healthcare industry. What is driving U.S. healthcare organizations toward gamification? One answer, according to research firm ICF, lies in legislation, specifically the Affordable Care Act, which mandates a reduction — estimated at more than $2.5 trillion annually — in the U.S. annual spend on healthcare. To meet this objective and remain competitive, healthcare players are leveraging game theory in their consumer engagement strategies.

Personalized Learning: Another interesting trend in the learning industry is the idea of personalized learning. Personalized learning consists of allowing the learner to make their own decisions and choices about what they learn and the method in which they learn it, allowing them to tailor the learning to suit their own style and pace. This form of learning also allows the user to pull the information they need to them, opposed to having information pushed towards them.

Mobile Learning Apps: Another key trend for localization in the e-learning industry is the increased introduction of mobile learning apps. This form of learning involves the introduction of new designs which can accommodate the small screen sizes of mobile devices and making it more comfortable to use by mobile learners. It also allows users to learn wherever they are, even outside of work, saving them time for when they are inside the workplace.

Translation tip: When creating English source content where character restrictions are required, such as a mobile learning app, be mindful of languages such as German where, due to text expansion, the same character restrictions may not be as feasible as compared to English. A tightly-designed user interface may present problems later down the line. Welocalize Life Sciences recommends designing the source format with these character restrictions in mind.

Augmented Learning: This is the introduction of virtual reality to create a learning environment for people to learn wherever they are at any given time. It includes both the advantages of entertainment like gamification and mobile learning, similar to mobile learning apps. Because of these advantages, augmented learning is a growth area in the e-learning market with massive appeal for learning professionals. This method could also become one of the most effective forms of learning, as it can replicate situations employees may encounter when at work or distributors pitching a new product to a consumer.

In the end, whatever the content type of method for delivery, when delivered in the language of choice, all these forms of training need to be designed around providing the optimal learning experience.

Contact Welocalize Life Sciences for information on how we can help you build a localized e-learning solution.