The online learning market has boomed in recent years, with the eLearning industry expected to be worth nearly $331 billion by 2025, making eLearning localization more important than ever. With the rise of remote work and globalization, companies are expanding their teams internationally, and global training is becoming essential for organizational growth. Whether you’re aiming to tap into the global eLearning market or share internal courses with multilingual employees, full-course eLearning localization—including video localization—is critical. In fact, 72% of internet users engage with online content in their native language.
Adapting your eLearning content—whether it’s video, interactive modules, or quizzes—to different languages and cultures opens doors to wider audiences and increases engagement. However, localization requires careful planning, attention to detail, and quality assurance to avoid delays, overspending, and poor results. To help make the process less overwhelming, here are our best practices for localizing the entirety of eLearning courses, including videos, text, interactive elements, and more.
If you don’t already have a source script, then transcribing your script in the source language is a great place to start. This will provide a basis for all future voice-over and subtitle translations of that particular video content. When you’re searching for an eLearning video localization service, it’s a good idea to check if they provide transcription services as well so you don’t need to look for multiple platforms to complete your projects. Once you have your transcribed script, review it to be sure you’re happy with the script before it gets embedded into your video and gets translated.
There cannot be a quality translation without a quality source text first.
When it comes to localizing your video content, compiling a glossary of terms and a style guide to share with your video localization service is also highly recommended. Taking the time to review your glossary, style guide, and transcribed script before beginning the translation process will give your translators the best context possible for great results. This helps you avoid extensive revisions in the future, which will save you time and money in the long run.
Localizing the entirety of your eLearning course involves more than translating video scripts—it also requires adapting any on-screen text, navigation menus, and user interface (UI) elements. Be sure to include all text-based content in your localization scope, such as:
Additionally, consider how language expansion may impact the layout. For example, text in languages like Spanish or German may take up 20-30% more space than English. Leave room for text expansion and test localized content to ensure nothing gets cut off or misaligned.
Animations, quizzes, and interactive modules are key components of many eLearning courses. Localizing these elements involves more than just translating the text—it requires adjusting the timing and functionality to suit different languages. For example:
Coordinate with your localization provider to ensure these elements are adapted correctly for each target language.
Even if you opt for dubbing or voice-over options, providing a subtitle option to viewers makes your eLearning content more accessible to people that may be deaf or hard of hearing. When designing your videos, account for the space you’ll need to include subtitles on screen – the standard recommendation is to include white space in the bottom 20% of the screen. This way, your animations and supers (including titles, texts, and graphics) won’t interfere with the captions.
Also, consider the visual experience for viewers watching with subtitles. Avoid overcrowding the screen with too many text boxes and animations because it may be visually overwhelming when combined with subtitles, causing viewers to lose focus.
A consistent tone and terminology are essential for effective learning. This means using the same terms and instructional language across videos, text modules, and quizzes. Working with a comprehensive glossary and style guide ensures uniformity in all localized content.
Consistency is especially important when translating technical or industry-specific terms. Ensure your localization team is familiar with your field and has access to a glossary of terms to maintain accuracy and coherence.
Animations and graphics are great ways to make eLearning content engaging for the user. To save yourself time and money, anticipate the files and program access required to localize the assets for different markets. Having to recreate complex infographics can easily overextend your timeline and budget.
Similarly, embedded images and screenshots can be a great aid for visual learners, with images often used to support course material. When it comes to eLearning video localization, embedded images will need to be translated by your translation provider. These snippets of text can usually be extracted by XML (Extensible Markup Language) files which can then be translated and imported back into the video.
Lastly, some symbols and pictures are universally understood and expected, which can be useful. Just make sure you choose culturally appropriate color schemes.
Whenever the language of your eLearning video course changes, the video will need to be synchronized. This is due to text expansion, contraction, and syntax differences. You can use cue points to indicate where a certain word, image or visual animation needs to land. This helps ease the process, but all localized modules should be checked by native speakers to ensure accuracy. Synchronization will need to take place whether you are using subtitles or audio narration.
Since this can be a time-consuming process, it is recommended to work with a trusted localization platform that can take care of synchronization for you. A good video localization provider should be able to edit your PowerPoint files directly before exporting as a video. Some video localization platforms might even be able to synchronize traditional video files as long as they have source file access, or possibly work directly within your eLearning platform.
Before delivering your localized eLearning course, thorough testing is essential. This includes:
Testing ensures that learners have a smooth experience in any language and helps identify any issues before the course is fully deployed.
For the best eLearning localization results, working with industry experts that can take care of the entire project for you makes things a whole lot easier. BLEND’s team of over 25,000 linguists and voice talents are experienced professionals that you can rely on to make your content natively local. BLEND’s eLearning localization experts offer translation, voice-over localization, transcription, subbing, dubbing, and quality assurance services.
Contact BLEND for reliable, cost-effective, and quality eLearning video localization.
With over 18 years of experience, starting as an audio engineer and advancing to Sr. Director of Sales Engineering & Operations at BLEND, Mike brings extensive expertise in audio, voice-over, and AI — helping clients localize multimedia for gaming, eLearning, software, IVR, and more.
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