Human or Machine Translation? What you should choose to localize your e-Learning content

When you need to provide translated content, it seems the key question these days is whether to choose human or Machine translation.

When it comes to e-learning, what is the best option?

The decision may depend on factors such as language pair, audience, budget, and timelines.

Human or Machine Translation?

Here are some things to help you decide:

  1. Course material: Depending on the subject and language, it’s possible to use a combination of machine translation with human post-editing (review). Keep in mind that machine translation is not yet available for all languages and if it is, it may not be suitable for the topic your course relates to.
  2. Subtitles: Machine-translated subtitles may work for major languages, but if the budget allows, we recommend a review by a human translator. If subtitles are going to be used as voice over scripts, then human translation may be required.
  3. Audio: Voice-overs can be the most expensive part of your localization project. AI has come a long way and may be a good choice to replace human voice-over talents, but only in some instances. For content that goes fast from frame to frame or for cases when inflection must be mimicked, then human talents may still be the way to go.
  4. Marketing content, course descriptions, and FAQs: Marketing content needs to resonate with the target audience. This means that at time it should be “recreated”. This is called “transcreation”, which requires very skilled native linguists with marketing/copyrighting expertise. Course descriptions and FAQs may be machine translated and then post-edited, depending on the language pair.
  5. Tests and quizzes: Questions and answer options should be accurately translated by linguists with subject expertise, especially if certificates depend on test results.

Successful e-Learning localization starts with an experienced team

It requires translators, editors, localization engineers, voice artists, and project managers who understand the complexity of each step of the process. E-learning localization doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. With the right team on your side, you can make decisions on what to localize, how, and when.

Targem Translations has over 25 years of experience helping clients succeed globally. Our team of veteran e-learning localization professionals is ready to help you navigate the process. Ready to start your new project? Contact us today.

2024-07-19T03:33:39+00:00 |1 Comment

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