Forum Discussion
Best Practices for Multilingual Courses
Does anyone has experience creating courses with multiple languages?
As of now, I have courses in: English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, and Japanese. What I've done in the past is have an original course in English and then save new version for each language I need.
- Import translation file to correct language storyline file
- Import language storyline files into the original English version and save it as an International file containing multiple languages
- Add a new scene to the International file with language selection buttons
- Clicking a button and choosing a language takes you to the first slide of the selected language
I track course completion by 100% of the slides viewed (legal purposes, I know I could add a course complete trigger on the last slide), so I have to look at the number of slides of just the original course and then add 1 for the language selection screen.
Curious how other people have approached this situation and if anyone has suggestions or best practices they'd like to share.
Attached is an example of the language selection screen.
The issue with having multiple languages within one .story file is this: You can only designate one language for the Text Labels (that is, the text used for system messages, such as the invalid-answer and prompt-to-resume messages).
Thus, it's better to use a separate .story file for each language, and publish those to separate SCORM packages. Those could be handled with one of these methods:
- Combine the separate "courses" into a "curriculum" in the LMS, and indicate that only one course has to be completed to successfully finish the curriculum. The user chooses the appropriate course to launch. (Obviously, the ability to do this depends on the LMS.)
- Have a programmer "wrap" all the SCORM packages into one SCORM package. That package starts with a language-selection page, which then links to the appropriate files for the chosen language. (Sorry, I don't have any recommendations for who does this sort of programming. I do know it can done, because one of my clients did this.)
Agreeing with Judy and Sarah here,
if you want to work around the issue with your international version using a singular language for the player labels, you would have to not use any labels from the player at all and use control buttons (Next Slide, Previous Slide etc.) that are build into the slides themselves.
But generally, I'd underline Judy's initial reply about publishing a single SCORM package per language and let the LMS handle language selection.
I used to create a course with multiple languages, including English, French, Spanish, and Arabic. Considering text labels as Judy metioned, and the different reading direction for Arabic. I utilized separate .story files for each language and published them as distinct SCORM packages. I then consolidated all the SCORM packages into a single package. This package begins with a language selection page, similar to yours, which subsequently links to the appropriate files for the selected language.
Joanne,
Yes! "Consolidating all the SCORM packages into a single package" is what I meant by the suggestion to "wrap" them. That's just not in my skillset.
Perhaps you could provide more information about how you do that (and ways to contact you if that's one of your freelance services). I'm sure there are many folks in the community who would appreciate it.
- If you post a discussion about this, I'd definitely bookmark it to share when this topic comes up.
would you mind sharing how you packaged everything into one SCORM package and adding the language selection screen?
I'm sorry not to reply earlier, I was too busy to check this thread again. I might find time to share a post about it.But for your question, the simple answer is to open URL/file by a relative link.
For example: you will have three packages if there are two languages.
1.Home package (this will include the lanuage selection screen)
2.Language A package
3.Language B package
Set trigger to open the URL/file when clicking the language BTN. The link will be like:
" ../Home package file name/Language A package file name/story.html"
Then put language packages(unzip file) into the home package file (same level as story.html of the home package file)
Didn't think about the text labels... Even the Menu/Notes tabs and the Next/Previous buttons.
I wonder if there's a way to tie a variable to the language button that would then adjust the language of the player?
Storyline doesn't provide a way to change the Text Labels after a course has been published. (I suppose there might be a JavaScript workaround. But it would have to include all of the language variations for all of the labels...)
Hi David! 👋 Judy is right. You can only choose one language for the course player text labels. But there are some tips in this article that might help: How to Create One Storyline 360 Course with Multiple Languages
Be sure to check out the Additional Considerations section for course player alternatives. Not sure if that will work for your needs, but thought I'd share just in case.
Hello everyone,
can we do the same for microtrainings? We have created all of our lesson as microtrainings and now we want to translate them. The great solution Judy provided applies to microtrainings? Because I cannot find a way to combine different microtrainings into one.
