Welcome to the second part of our two-part series on how OttoLearn can help you create multilingual eLearning content for a global audience.
As workplaces continue to become more remote, the diversity of their employees continues to expand. Fortunately, OttoLearn’s wide range of language options (over a hundred) and built-in automatic translation tool make creating multilingual eLearning content easier than ever!
Last week, we talked about how you can take any Module and make it available to learners in multiple languages. As part of this process, we also showed you how to use our automatic translation tool and add your own custom translations.
Now that you know how to create multilingual training content, we’ll take a closer look at how you can deliver it to your learners. Specifically, we’ll look at how you can set up the default language settings for your account and then customize them on a user-by-user basis. We’ll also look at how your learners can manage these settings from within the learner app.
Before we dive in, there are a couple of terms that we need to define: interface language and content language.
What is the difference between an interface language and a content language?
When we refer to the “interface language,” we are talking about the text that appears in the OttoLearn system. For example, button names, settings, and explanatory text that OttoLearn generates. While you can’t edit this text, you can control the language in which it displays.
When we say “content language,” we are referring to your training content — everything within your Mastery Profiles, Modules, Topics, Concepts, and Activities. The content you have written and translated, either using your translations or ones generated using our automatic translation tool.
Set up your default language settings
You can pick one or more primary content languages for your account. These languages will be listed first in any language-related dropdowns when creating your users or content (more on user default language settings later).
To add a primary content language, follow these steps:
- View your Account Settings.
- Select the Languages tab.
- In the Primary Content Languages section, select a language from the dropdown menu.
- Click +Language.
- Click Save.
You can select one of your primary content languages as your default interface language. The default interface language is used when displaying your login page and creating new content. It is also selected as the interface language when creating new users. (We’ll talk about overriding these settings in the next section.)
To set the default interface language for your account, follow these steps:
- View your Account Settings.
- Select the Languages tab.
- In the Default Interface Language section, select a language from the dropdown menu.
- Click Save.
While you can select multiple primary content languages, you can only select one default interface language.
Set a user’s default language settings
What if you have employees across the globe with different native languages? For example, what if you have retail stores in the United States, Brazil, and Japan? How can you ensure the employees in each region receive training in their preferred language?
In the last section, we looked at how to set up account defaults, but you can also set up the default language settings on a user-by-user basis. For example, imagine you recently hired several employees at one of your Japanese retail locations. When adding these employees to your OttoLearn account, you can customize their user settings to ensure they are presented with their training in Japanese. Let’s look at how to do this.
To set a user’s default language settings, follow these steps:
- Navigate to the Users View.
- Create or edit a user.
- Select the Attributes tab.
- In the Interface Language dropdown menu, select the language in which you want the OttoLearn interface to appear. Recall that this refers to all the system-generated text and buttons in OttoLearn.
- In the Preferred Content Languages dropdown menu, select one or more languages in which the user would like to receive content.
5. Click Save.
You can customize the language settings for each user to ensure they receive their training in the best possible way.
Let learners manage their language settings
What if you don’t know an employee’s language preferences? Just because they live in a specific region doesn’t mean they prefer to receive content in the language native to that area. No worries. OttoLearn allows learners to customize their language settings from within the learner app.
To change their language settings, learners can follow these steps:
- Log in to the learner app (on a desktop or a mobile device).
- Select the Settings tab.
- In the Interface Language dropdown menu, select the language they want the OttoLearn interface to appear.
- In the Preferred Content Languages dropdown menu, select the languages in which they want to receive content in order of preference.
- Click Save.
OttoLearn will remember the learner’s settings, so they don’t have to change them each time they log in. In addition, the learner’s user profile on the admin side (what we discussed in the last section) will also be updated based on their selections.
The importance of multilingual eLearning content
There are many benefits to delivering multilingual eLearning content to your learners:
- Delivering eLearning content in multiple languages ensures that every employee has access to the same information and training opportunities, regardless of their location or native language.
- Providing multilingual eLearning content options expands your global reach and opens the door for a more diverse, international workforce.
- When employees can access information in their preferred language, there’s less room for misunderstanding or misinterpretation of instructions or processes. Higher knowledge leads to improved productivity and efficiency since everyone knows what they should be doing and how.
- Creating multilingual eLearning content shows a commitment to a diverse workforce. It can help foster a sense of belonging within your company, ultimately leading to higher engagement in the workplace and more inclusive workplace culture.
Everyone deserves access to high-quality eLearning materials. Whether you need translations in multiple languages or just one, OttoLearn allows you to create and deliver online training to your global audience. So why wait? Start creating multilingual eLearning content today!
Questions? Contact us at support@ottolearn.com.
ProTip: By default, the languages you add will be inactive until you finish inputting all your translations. Having each language set to inactive until it’s ready to use prevents learners from being presented with a Module in multiple languages. For example, you don’t want learners to do a Learning Session and read one Concept in English and the next in French.
Once you have added all your translations, you can set a language to active using the toggle. You’ll also be able to change the Module’s primary language (the language in which it is presented to learners by default).
In our next post, we’ll look at how learners can set up the language(s) in which they receive content. Stay tuned!
- For learning content to enter and remain in a learner’s long-term memory, the learner needs multiple exposures to the content. Long-term encoding “needs opportunities for rehearsal and repetition,” Jan Breckwoldt et al. wrote in a study on mass vs. spaced learning.
- Repeated exposures alone are not as helpful as spaced repetitions that ask learners to recall and apply information — and especially when learners have to use that information in different ways, many studies have found (for example Rohrer, Lin et al., and Bjork and Bjork).
- The ability to remember information depends on the number of times a learner encounters it and the interval between repetitions, according to Tabibian et al.
Intrinsic
Extrinsic
Access to knowledge or performance support tools
Achieving a worthwhile or meaningful goal
Achieving a reward — a grade, a badge, points, a prize
Receiving an unexpected reward
Contributing to improving a project or a product
Wanting to be perceived as a team player, wanting to be liked
Improving performance or effectiveness relative to own past performance
Improving performance or effectiveness relative to coworkers; “winning” or being the best
Knowing enough to avoid making mistakes and do better work
Losing status or levels within a gamified framework as the result of making a mistake
Feeling of completing a task, accomplishing a goal, finishing a project
Doing the “right” thing — following rules or norms, being ethical
Is the corporation’s compliance training program well designed?
Prosecutors will look at whether the training is designed to prevent and detect wrongdoing and whether management is enforcing the program by means of training, incentives and discipline.
Is the program being applied earnestly and in good faith? In other words, is the program being implemented effectively?
Prosecutors are expected to directly investigate whether a program is merely a “paper program” or a sincere effort. Evidence of a company-wide commitment to ethics and compliance, promoted by senior and middle management, is needed.
Does the corporation’s compliance training program work in practice?
Good intentions and training don’t count if they don’t work; in assessing whether the program “works in practice,” prosecutors will look at how the suspected misconduct was detected, what the company’s investigation process is and how the company is trying to correct the problem.
Microlearning delivers small, narrowly focused bits of information.
Adaptive microlearning tailors that content to each learner’s knowledge gaps and learning goals, ensuring the training is relevant.
Continuous adaptive microlearning conditions each learner to engage with relevant training every day — for just a few minutes.
Read More Burning Questions
Current Rank
Previous Rank
Technology
1
1
Personalization/adaptive delivery
2
3
Artificial intelligence
3
new
Learning analytics
4
2
Collaborative/social learning
5
5
Micro learning
6
new
Learning experience platforms
7
7
Virtual and augmented reality
8
10
Mobile delivery
9
4
Consulting more deeply with the business
10
6
Showing value
11
new
Performance support
12
11
Neuroscience/cognitive science
13
13
Video
14
9
Curation
15
12
Developing the L&D function
When people have a question or don’t know how to do something, what do they do?
Whip out a smartphone and look for information. What they don’t do is sign up for a 1-hour seminar.
Microlearning brings corporate eLearning into the modern paradigm. Microlearning describes eLearning content that is:
- Narrowly focused
- Short
- Available on demand
- Mobile-first or mobile-friendly
It must answer a question, meet an immediate need, or help the learner solve a problem.
In the City of BigTown, there was held a conference,
One of training professionals — those making a difference.
A difference to company ROI by delivering training,
From many perspectives — like Manufacturing.
And, too, there were call centers, colleges, corporate sectors,
Each chiming in about outcomes and metrics.
All shipped their training through an LMS platform,
But were desperately seeking true training reform.
One was Antonio, who hated the manuals —
For his product revisions and updates, they were annual.
Plus his printing costs? Oh, they were crazy!
And he truly believed that franchisors were hazy.
None knew how to train in an effective way,
"There’s too much to read, to do!” they’d all say.
For there were many levels of training to assign,
From the top at head office, down to those on the front-line.
Trainers Helen and Abinash nodded, “We agree!”
Said Feng, "Paper and handbooks? Just another dead tree.
On the job, not everyone will have the info they need,
Because the content changes and updates they never did read.
They never learned the content added along the way
That may apply to their region or division today.
Plus, in the field with team members in many locations,
Mobile-first training would make a stronger foundation!”
Said Sales trainer Jane of her PDFs stored online,
“They’re rarely revisited after onboarding time.
I need content delivered in snack-sized bites,
And the ability to test them until they get it right.”
Ursula chimed in, "Onboarding’s a pain for new hires,
With most feeling like their hair is on fire!
Plus, promoted reps must refresh what they know
To be properly prepared to perform their new role."
"I deal with compliance," sighed Manal the Banker.
Abinash nodded, Frank turned to thank her,
For she’d raised the ugliest concern of them all —
That certifications aren’t based on year-long recall.
“To maintain the standards and follow each rule,
We need more than one test that comes out of the blue.
When it comes to things like health & safety, it's a game-changer
Because if their training is lacking, they could be in danger.”
Continuing he asked, “Could training be location-specific?
As learners move through the plant, alerts would be terrific!”
Helen asked who used traditional classroom training
Combined with online to keep interest from waning.
Did they have workshops, seminars, or events,
The kind that take workers away from their desk?
"They learn at that moment, then likely forget —
is there a way to get long-term retainment?”
Rachel had been quiet, she’d said not a word,
When suddenly she leaned in so her voice would be heard.
"We solved these concerns after ditching binders and books —
We use daily drip training and our learners are hooked!
When we update our content, it gets to them faster,
And metrics and KPIs reveal the content 'masters.'
We use OttoLearn for microlearning and we’ve been thrilled,
for all of our training needs — and more — are fulfilled."
So ends our tale of the nine trainers complaining
about the problems they had delivering training.
Training that mattered, with metrics and firm ROI,
Based on data analysis of prime KPIs.
Many problems they shared, with no clear resolution,
Found Agile Microlearning with Otto was the solution!
Microlearning both adaptive and agile saved them from disaster,
Making trainers and trainees learn happily ever after!
- Arabic
- Chinese
- Dutch
- English
- Filipino
- French
- German
- Hebrew
- Hindi
- Indonesian
- Italian
- Japanese
- Korean
- Persian (Farsi)
- Portuguese
- Romanian
- Russian
- Slovak
- Spanish
- Thai
Content Studio
- Combining the question and activity tabs
- New WYSIWYG editor which is “inline” with the text
- Ability to include media (images, video, audio) within activities (question, answers and feedback)
- Icons to indicate correct answer, position locking, whether or not the answer is visible to learners (active), and override feedback
Recently Released
- Learner password reset
- Streamlined data entry into the content studio, by being able to quickly add
- Numerous small updates and bug fixes
- Check out our most recent updates and add yourself to be automatically notified when we push updates
Option
Pros
Cons
Seats
- Super easy to understand
- Very predictable cost, if you have a specific number of users (eg: employees)
- Doesn’t differentiate between users that have different volumes.
- Have to purchase seats for your maximum number of users.
Active Users
(Typically the number of users that log in during a month)
- You don’t need a license for every specific user, you can often only license half of your users (since perhaps only half ever log in during a month)
- Typically there is a large cost for going over your licensed number of users, which can be incredibly expensive (eg: 5-10x more than your licensed cost)
- You often have to “play games” as an administrator, not wanting to do a mass course enrollment if you have only have your users licensed in a month
Trend
What It Means
Why It Matters
Adaptive Learning
An algorithm determines each learner’s knowledge gaps and feeds them practice activities to close those gaps.
Efficiency. Learners learn the material faster because they spend less time on what they already know.
Personalized Learning
Learners can follow a scaffolded learner path or self-direct their learning.
Learners are inquisitive. We all Google for information when we need it, so why lock learners into a particular learning path?
Learners engage the most when they are allowed to deviate from a set path and explore available content.
At the end of the day, as long as each learner reaches their mastery goal, the particular path they took to reach there is unimportant.
Microlearning
Delivering content to the learner in smaller chunks.
Chunking content is important only if it is paired with the ability to search for and find specific content chunks “on demand” and the ability to consume just the chunks a learner needs. With these features, training doubles as a performance support.
Learning Experience (LX) Design
Using science and art to create experiences that help learners fulfill the learning outcomes they desire, in a user-centered and goal-directed way.1
Have you used Google? If so, then you have benefitted from Experience Design (XD): When you search for something, you rarely have to go past the first result.
With good XD, you don’t think about the design; it “just works.”
With poor XD, your learners will disengage. They’ll say they “don’t have time.” What they are really saying is that they “don’t have time for the poor experience.”
Artificial Intelligence
Typically, when used in relation to L&D, AI actually means “machine learning.”
Machine learning algorithms learn from data and “get smarter” over time.
Have you used Netflix or Amazon recommendations? They are based on machine learning.
The algorithms look at a ton of data, including your past choices and choices made by others who are similar to you, to make predictions as to what you will want to watch or buy.
In L&D, machine learning principles are being integrated in much the same way: to provide recommended content for a learner to consume.
This reduces the burden on training administrators to try to predict or guess what is relevant for each learner. It also provides a more personalized experience for each learner.
Imagine that you are a salesperson, and your training mix subtly and automatically shifts, based on the nature of opportunities in your sales pipeline. You are offered training only on available products that you have not already mastered. That would be a training program that is driven by machine learning.
Learning Analytics
An algorithm determines each learner’s knowledge gaps and feeds them practice activities to close those gaps.
Use learning analytics to make better decisions by converting data into insights.
The true value is not just in providing more data, more charts, and more graphs. The value is in leveraging AI to search for and surface insights that you’d never think to look for.
Combine the analytics from learners’ performance with key KPIs for the outcomes you desire, and have the analytics engine generate predictions such as, “Learners who reach mastery in the Objection Handling module will close 3.4 percent more deals.”
Now that’s actionable intel.
- English
- Chinese
- French
- German
- Italian
- Portuguese
- Romanian
- Slovak
- Spanish
Hi Josh,
About a week before I began getting my Ottolearn Mastery Moments, I had a popup window from Adobe appear on my screen as I was working on another project, prompting me to update my version of Flash. We do use Flash, so like an idiot, I clicked on the popup and asked it to start the update—and only then noticed that the url was not an adobe address. Of course, I closed the popup window using the X in the upper corner, which didn’t solve anything. Our IT guys did the best they could for me, but my computer is still compromised, and is being replaced.
Fast forward to Ottolearn and your Online Security for Employees course. After completing several mastery moments, I have now learned what to do with popups like that. This morning, as I restarted my computer again, that same Adobe popup appeared and this time I was ready! I opened task manager and killed that little $%^&^ dead in its tracks.
I know the point of letting us try out OttoLearn as participants was for us to experience the power of this platform from the learner’s point of view. I can tell you that I personally am very grateful for the training you provided to me, and the fact that I was able to let others in my company know how to kill off those nasty virus-carrying popups. Yes, it works. Yes, it’s fun! And yes, I have a true feeling of accomplishment.
I can’t wait for the point at which we can talk more about developing courses for our clients.
Thank you!
Experience
Exp.
High
New accounting rules
Workplace violence & harassment prevention
Low
Framing a basement
Changing a tire
High
Low
Perceived Relevance
Retrieval practice is the key to retention.
Your brain wants to be as efficient as possible. Why would it try to encode information for long term storage if it thinks you don’t need it? You need to actually practice retrieving memories (information) in order to have your brain store it in long-term memory.
Spaced retrieval radically improves learning efficiency.
You not only need to practice retrieving information from memory, but you need to wait until you’re on the edge of forgetting it. This is why cramming is so ineffective at generating long-term retention.
Interleaved learning feels strange at first, but dramatically improves retention and skill.
Interleaved learning—mixing up material while learning and practicing, such as mixing up practice activities while learning WHMIS and supervisory skills, will improve your retention of both.
Depending on your organization, some holidays may apply to most, if not all, of your employees.
When this happens, we recommend the following:
- Turn off notifications for your OttoLearn account. This will pause all notifications for everyone.
- Set a reminder to turn notifications back on upon return to work.
Suppose you have a global organization or employees located across multiple regions. In that case, you likely don’t want to turn off notifications for your entire account whenever one region has a government holiday.
Instead, we recommend the following:
- Set up and assign different engagement schedules for employees based on their region. For example, if you have employees in the United States and Australia, you should set up two engagement schedules and assign them to learners based on location.
- Whenever there is a holiday in one area, edit that specific engagement schedule. An easy way to turn off notifications without your learners losing access to their training is to set the engagement schedule to “Anytime”.
- Set a reminder to change the engagement schedule back to your regular settings upon return to work.
With summer in the Northern Hemisphere, you may notice more employees starting to book vacations. Everyone needs time to recharge and take a well-earned break.
When an employee books a vacation, we recommend the following:
- Turn off notifications for that specific learner, starting the day they leave. This is another time when it is helpful to set a reminder for yourself so you don’t have to remember everyone’s vacation schedule.
- Set a reminder to turn notifications back on when the learner returns to work.
There may be times when employees need to take a more extended leave period. For example, when on maternity or paternity leave, a sabbatical, or medical leave.
When an employee is gone for a longer period of time, you have a couple of options.
If the leave is temporary, we recommend the following:
- Turn off notifications for that specific learner, starting the day they leave.
- Set a reminder to turn notifications back on when the learner returns to work.
If the employee will be gone for many months, or may not return, you might want to remove their access to your training. In these situations, we recommend the following:
- Set the learner inactive in your account. To do this, edit their profile and toggle their status to inactive. This will prevent them from accessing your OttoLearn account and stop notifications.
The most challenging scenario to manage is when an employee takes a single day off. Sometimes you may know in advance; other times, the employee may call in sick on a day they were expected to work.
In these scenarios, we recommend taking no action. Employees can simply delete any Ottolearn email notifications when they return to work, or ignore push notifications on their mobile device (or even temporarily silence them).
If you do not want notifications to go to learners when they are off for a single day, you can also do the following:
- Turn off notifications for that specific learner.
- Set a reminder to turn notifications back on when the learner returns to work.
Option
Pros
Cons
User-based
(Seats)
- Cost predictability. Each seat costs you $x/month
- Typically more expensive than a usage-based license
Usage-based
- Typically less expensive than a seats license
- Cost variability tempered by pre-purchasing usage credits that never expire and consume them over time
Engagement Factors
Experience
Exp.
High
- Best possible quadrant for engagement
- Will overcome learning obstacles
- Will find a way to learn, even if materials are poor
- Won’t need nudging or incentives
- Text is great
- Can easily learn something
- May need to work up the energy to engage in low quality materials
- May procrastinate, so incentives can help motivate.
- Text is great
Low
- Wants to learn
- Has little experience so can benefit from more instructional quality
- Greatest benefit of video and other rich media
- Worst possible quadrant
- May not have experience in the topic
- May not really care about it
- Will require a lot of motivation to see engagement
- Video can help
High
Low