Best Practices for Multilingual Courses

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.) 

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?

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. 

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.

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.