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Today’s global business environment creates a need for corporate training that meets the needs of global learners. When designing training programs for any medium – eLearning, instructor-led training (ILT), or mobile learning (mLearning) – it is important to keep localization in mind. As a provider of eLearning and training localization solutions, we wanted to provide global training tips to put into your practice.
TIP #1 – BE SCALABLE
Scalability is a word frequently talked about in the business world, but what does it mean in this context? Scalability can be defined as the capability of a system, network, or process to handle a growing amount of work or growth. In the case of corporate training, this means handling the growth of global learners. Is your course or training program designed for multilingual learners? The best way to design a scalable training program is to begin designing with localization in mind. For more detailed information for your global training tips, check out one of our previous posts “eLearning Localization Tips for L&D Pros.” Can your course support multiple languages? Are your materials translated? Do have audio and video components? Will those components be localized? This are all questions to ask yourself in your planning.
TIP #2 – KEEP CULTURE IN MIND
Your training program may involve activities or gamification. What you don’t want is for learners to be offended by any activities that accompany your training. All learners are not the same; they are influenced by cultural factors. We touch on six cultural factors for a contributedarticle featured on eLearning Industry’s website. Teaching styles are not the same across cultures. In Asian cultures, the teaching style is more formal. The instructor controls the conversation, and speaking out is discouraged. In Western culture, the teaching style is much more informal. Keep this in mind when building in peer critiques to your course. Also consider learner characteristics and gender roles. If you are looking for help regarding culture, consult employees of your organization as a guide or work with your language translation partner oncultural consulting.
TIP #3 – CHOOSE IMAGES AND VISUALS CAREFULLY
Not all symbols are universal. For example, using a road signs as navigation to tell a learner to stop or move on in the course. The red hexagon sign is not universal. In addition, take a look at your image choices. Bringing in pictures of people adds a human element to your training. Personalizing your image choices is a part of localization. For a good resource, visit the international cutout people library on eLearning Brothers’ website. Consider what examples you are using to depict something. Using a baseball team as an example of teamwork won’t work for learners in China, where the sport is relatively unknown and not as popular.
TIP #4 – CONSIDER EVERY DETAIL
Certain components are often overlooked. For example, dates and times. We suggest using military time and also spelling out dates; May 18th, 2016 and not 5/18/2016. Why? This seems to be the most universal. Not every country uses the MM-DD-YYYY format. In fact, the United States and the Federated States of Micronesia are the only regions to use the MDY format exclusively! Other details to consider are currency, color choice, and measurements.
TIP #5 – USE REGIONAL EXAMPLES
Scenario-based learning is a great way to engage learners. Within an organization, a process or an idea is streamlined so that it is globally relevant to learners. When providing scenarios in your training, try to use local and regional examples. Substitute city names and bring up current events in that particular region. Relating the content to learners at a local level can really draw them in. Resources for this could be in-country linguists and cultural consultants who may read your source content and suggest replacing it with something more relevant.
TIP #7 – USE THE RIGHT LANGUAGE
Of course – language is very important! The best way to engage learners is to provide content to them in ways they best understand. When writing content, avoid slang, idioms, or colloquialisms wherever possible. Common idioms may be understood by English-speaking Americans, but they may not be by English-speaking Indians or English-speaking Brits. Such is true across different regions of the world. Beyond English, of course, it is recommended that you find a partner for your training translation and localization needs! At E-ging, we have worked in 200 languages thus far!
We hope you find these seven global training tips helpful when designing scalable corporate training programs for global learners. Any questions?
