Trying my hand at designing e-learning courses. I would like to know how does one design a bilingual course. I have been asked if I could design one in English/Arabic.
I just need to prepare the course in English and they would get the content translated in Arabic which I need to put up on the storyline/scorm based file for a Moodle LMS.
Do share any links or discussion posts on the same.
One option open to you is to start your course with a bilingual introduction slide that has, for example, a text box in the left half of the screen with the intro in English and another text box in the right half with the same intro in Arabic. You then have a button underneath each text box, which the user can click in order to select the language for their course.
You then run two parallel scenes with the same content in each and have one with English text / text-to-speech and the other scene with Arabic text / text-to-speech. Depending on which button the user selects on the introduction slide, they then get jumped to the appropriate scene for the remainder of their course.
There are many different ways to do this. The first thing you'll want to decide is whether to create one course with multiple language options or create separate courses for each language. If you decide to create one course with multiple languages, there are a few ways to go about it. Here's an article that walks through your options. There's also an example here that you can check out and even download and use as a starting point.
I hope that's helpful! :) Let me know if you have any other questions.
Whenever we've worked on bilingual courses it has almost always been the client's preference that we develop the base module first, usually in English. Once the base version has been approved the content is translated and the subsequent language varients are developed.
One consideration if you're planning on creating one big file to house both langauges is the player labels. To my knowledge you'd have to select one language for the player at the outset, meaning any player buttons or messages will only display in English or Arabic, not both.
Personally I prefer developing a course for each language. I think it is easier to develop this way which reduces time and costs in the long run. Developing a multi-language version definitely adds a layer of complexity to the build and makes it more likely that errors will be introduced, meaning any time you think you might save could be swallowed up by additional reviews.
Thanks a lot Ned. Sincere apologies for the delayed response. I was in firefighting mode so used the help from the discussion on this site and got some basic assistance.
I realised I could use what you suggested but ran into difficulty because of the quiz result slides for both the courses. The LMS could track only one result slide.
My current status is I use separate scorm courses for both languages that could be tracked by the LMS.
My query now is: Is there a better way to design a multilingual course with quizzes?
Whenever we've worked on bilingual courses it has almost always been the client's preference that we develop the base module first, usually in English. Once the base version has been approved the content is translated and the subsequent language varients are developed.
One consideration if you're planning on creating one big file to house both langauges is the player labels. To my knowledge you'd have to select one language for the player at the outset, meaning any player buttons or messages will only display in English or Arabic, not both.
Personally I prefer developing a course for each language. I think it is easier to develop this way which reduces time and costs in the long run. Developing a multi-language version definitely adds a layer of complexity to the build and makes it more likely that errors will be introduced, meaning any time you think you might save could be swallowed up by additional reviews.
Thanks a lot David for your response to my query. My sincere apologies for the delay in acknowledging. I got busy getting my course ready with whatever I was learning that I could not check this page again.
Similar to what you suggested, I had created the English course before working on the Arabic version. As mentioned in my reply to Ned, I'm still figuring out how to create ONE bilingual course with quizzes so that it can be tracked by the LMS. Will appreciate it if you can share anything from your experience.
There are many different ways to do this. The first thing you'll want to decide is whether to create one course with multiple language options or create separate courses for each language. If you decide to create one course with multiple languages, there are a few ways to go about it. Here's an article that walks through your options. There's also an example here that you can check out and even download and use as a starting point.
I hope that's helpful! :) Let me know if you have any other questions.
Dear Allison, Thanks a lot. I cannot thank you and this community for the help that I received so far. The discussion forums have given me the initial push to start my learning journey.
As shared in my reply to Ned, Im still looking to solve this tracking bilingual course with quizzes. Let me know if you have anything on this.
Thanks, Allison for your prompt reply. I read the article you shared but looks like I need to have a storyline 360 to use this tracking feature. Currently working on Storyline 3. Any help with this???
Thinking out loud: If I use a branching scenario for a bilingual/multilingual course, how will I go about publishing the file? Which result should the scorm file report to the LMS? I guess this will be the issue even with 360. Isn't it?
Ah yes, if you're working with Storyline 3 then unfortunately you won't have access to these new features. I'm sorry!
You'll find the answer to your second question in the article I linked to in my last message. The new quizzing features make it possible to report branched quizzes (but once again, only in Storyline 360).
If you're creating a lot of courses like this it may be worth the upgrade for all the time you'll save! But I totally understand that that's not always possible. In any case, if you want to give these new features a try and see if it's worth the upgrade, feel free to sign up for a free, 60-day trial.
11 Replies
Hi Sheetal,
One option open to you is to start your course with a bilingual introduction slide that has, for example, a text box in the left half of the screen with the intro in English and another text box in the right half with the same intro in Arabic. You then have a button underneath each text box, which the user can click in order to select the language for their course.
You then run two parallel scenes with the same content in each and have one with English text / text-to-speech and the other scene with Arabic text / text-to-speech. Depending on which button the user selects on the introduction slide, they then get jumped to the appropriate scene for the remainder of their course.
Hi Sheetal,
There are many different ways to do this. The first thing you'll want to decide is whether to create one course with multiple language options or create separate courses for each language. If you decide to create one course with multiple languages, there are a few ways to go about it. Here's an article that walks through your options. There's also an example here that you can check out and even download and use as a starting point.
I hope that's helpful! :) Let me know if you have any other questions.
Whenever we've worked on bilingual courses it has almost always been the client's preference that we develop the base module first, usually in English. Once the base version has been approved the content is translated and the subsequent language varients are developed.
One consideration if you're planning on creating one big file to house both langauges is the player labels. To my knowledge you'd have to select one language for the player at the outset, meaning any player buttons or messages will only display in English or Arabic, not both.
Personally I prefer developing a course for each language. I think it is easier to develop this way which reduces time and costs in the long run. Developing a multi-language version definitely adds a layer of complexity to the build and makes it more likely that errors will be introduced, meaning any time you think you might save could be swallowed up by additional reviews.
Thanks a lot Ned. Sincere apologies for the delayed response. I was in firefighting mode so used the help from the discussion on this site and got some basic assistance.
I realised I could use what you suggested but ran into difficulty because of the quiz result slides for both the courses. The LMS could track only one result slide.
My current status is I use separate scorm courses for both languages that could be tracked by the LMS.
My query now is: Is there a better way to design a multilingual course with quizzes?
Thanks a lot David for your response to my query. My sincere apologies for the delay in acknowledging. I got busy getting my course ready with whatever I was learning that I could not check this page again.
Similar to what you suggested, I had created the English course before working on the Arabic version. As mentioned in my reply to Ned, I'm still figuring out how to create ONE bilingual course with quizzes so that it can be tracked by the LMS. Will appreciate it if you can share anything from your experience.
Dear Allison, Thanks a lot. I cannot thank you and this community for the help that I received so far. The discussion forums have given me the initial push to start my learning journey.
As shared in my reply to Ned, Im still looking to solve this tracking bilingual course with quizzes. Let me know if you have anything on this.
HI Sheetal,
With our new enhanced quizzing features, you should be able to track quizzes in multiple languages with no problem. Check out this article for more details: 4 Ways to Use the New Quiz Tracking Features in Storyline 360
:)
Thanks, Allison for your prompt reply. I read the article you shared but looks like I need to have a storyline 360 to use this tracking feature. Currently working on Storyline 3. Any help with this???
Thinking out loud: If I use a branching scenario for a bilingual/multilingual course, how will I go about publishing the file? Which result should the scorm file report to the LMS? I guess this will be the issue even with 360. Isn't it?
Hi Sheetal,
Ah yes, if you're working with Storyline 3 then unfortunately you won't have access to these new features. I'm sorry!
You'll find the answer to your second question in the article I linked to in my last message. The new quizzing features make it possible to report branched quizzes (but once again, only in Storyline 360).
Thanks Allison. hmm, for now without 360, I'll have to find a way around to solve this on Storyline3.
Thanks all the same for your time.
Hi Sheetal,
If you're creating a lot of courses like this it may be worth the upgrade for all the time you'll save! But I totally understand that that's not always possible. In any case, if you want to give these new features a try and see if it's worth the upgrade, feel free to sign up for a free, 60-day trial.