Going Global eLearning Best Practices

Going Global eLearning Best Practices
Summary: Picture this scene: you are the eLearning guru at your small to medium sized company. Your company grows, which means more work for you and maybe even additional staff to share the burden, this is great. However with growth comes a wider audience. With International growth comes an even more diverse audience with potential language barriers and connectivity issues. But this is not a problem for you, eLearning Guru. You can handle anything that comes your way!

3 Helpful Tips For Revising/Creating eLearning Courses For International Audiences

1. Writing for International Audiences

Whether you are creating a new eLearning course that will roll out to international audiences, or you have to revise an eLearning course to meet the needs of international audiences, always consider your writing! Although you may not have to translate the content, there will be issues for whoever does. Also, consider the English-as-a-second-language (ESL) audiences members and how well they understand the nuances of our language. What we native English speakers may think of as creative, entertaining script conversation has the great potential to translate horribly wrong. Unless you can assist with the translation, I highly recommend writing in a manner that makes it easy for translation as well as easy for ESL audience members.

2. Non-LMS Users

Another thing to keep in mind is how your international audience is going to access your training. Sometimes with eLearning courses that will live outside of the LMS, we tend to forget that small bit of crucial information. Will they have immediate access to your LMS? Will they be integrated into your LMS at all? This information dictates how the eLearning course will end and how to track learner progress and success. This should be clarified in the beginning, so you are aware of how to configure your eLearning course.

3. International Audience eLearning Course Review

Finally, before you roll out your global powerhouse eLearning course, don’t forget to get it reviewed by your international training affiliate! You don’t have one? Well, you should find someone qualified, using your organization's procedures for eliciting content reviewers, and designate that person to be your reviewer. They will be the one who can tell you definitively whether or not your eLearning course and content will communicate the intended message. This will save you agonizing rewrites and reproduction in the future.

This list should hopefully get you started the right path from growing with your expanding eLearning company. Best of luck, eLearning Guru!