Adapting Training Modules in Articulate Storyline

As part of a training program on the Management of Difficult Situations set up on Articulate Storyline, the Académie du Service, a French consulting and training firm specializing in customer culture, customer relations and customer experience, wanted to adapt several modules into English for English-speaking employees.

The objective of the course is to allow participants to train themselves in customer relations best practices and know how to deal with difficult situations and ask the right questions.

Académie du Service turned to Acolad to manage the project. Their expectations were clear: they wanted high-quality work that matched the editorial tone of the original version, reproduced in the same way in terms of sensitivity and style, all within a short period of time. (The topic is of great interest, and the company wanted to start training its employees right away.)

The solution: Work with a team of adaptation experts

The company chose to work with Acolad because of our ability to provide multiple services (voice-over, subtitling, graphics, etc.), maintain high quality, and conform to style and editorial guidelines.

This was particularly valuable on this project because e-learning module adaptation requires expertise in several areas, including:

• Audiovisual: subtitles, voice-overs, and motion design
• Desktop publishing: designing visual content in different languages
• Translation: ensuring consistency between voices, subtitles, text and other elements
• Website localization: making the module searchable in Articulate Storyline

Project Challenges

A team working on a project like this is likely to run into challenges. Here are the challenges our team faced:

A tight deadline

Because so many people were working on this project – and had a very short time to complete it – we needed a timetable to keep everyone on schedule. Our digital localization expert, in collaboration with the sales and project management teams, stepped in to create one. This timetable included due dates for each individual contributor, including voice-over actors, graphic designers, transcribers, translators, and audiovisual technicians. This was a major challenge, as any delay in one area could have a snowball effect and delay the rest of the project.

Repeated testing

Testing a digital asset sometimes requires running many unsuccessful tests before achieving the desired result. To test a page on a website, you simply need to refresh it (e.g. press F5 on your keyboard). By contrast, when adapting training modules, you sometimes need to roll out the entire module to test it, which can take several minutes. This time was built into the schedule, and our teams worked hard to ensure that the module was usable and that the animations, voice, text and subtitles all flowed smoothly.

Project implementation, step by step

Coordination between teams was essential, so the project managers and localization experts worked closely to implement solutions during each stage of the project.

1. Files from the client were sorted and sent to the appropriate business expert.
2. Source content was extracted from the module in .xliff format, and then translated and re-imported.
3. Visuals were adapted. We translated the content, and our graphic designers adjusted the layout according to typographic and graphic guidelines. The visuals were then re-imported into Storyline.
4. Voice-overs were created. As the client pointed out, the choice of female and male voices used in customer service interactions convey emotions, so it was important to reproduce the tone of the French version. Once the voice-over actors were chosen by our audiovisual technician, and the choices were approved by the client, recording could begin. We extracted the French voices, transcribed and translated the dialogue into English, and prepared the files for our actors. When they had finished recording their voice-overs, we mixed the audio and re-integrated it into Storyline.
5. Motion Design animations were adapted. Using the After Effect files sent by the client, we extracted the texts, translated them and then re-integrated them into the platform.

Once all these steps were completed, we conducted technical acceptance testing to confirm that all the steps had been handled properly.

One particularly useful feature for us was Articulate Review. We used the feature in Articulate Storyline to send a link to the client, and the client used it to provide feedback to our team. This helped facilitate the process of gathering client feedback and making corrections to the project.

The Benefit: Turnkey support for our client

“I am pleased to note that quality is high on these first 2 deliverables!”

Académie du Service expected tailor-made support and ongoing communication throughout the project, and our team worked together to deliver it.

The translation of this training module demonstrated our ability to:

• meet expectations related to the quality of translation and compliance with editorial guidelines;
• understand the technical and linguistic challenges of adapting training modules and master the process within a short timeframe;
• coordinate collaboration between graphic designers, audiovisual technicians, localization experts, and linguists, to make a project a success.

Do you use Articulate Storyline to train your team? Contact us to learn more about e-learning translation, or request a quote to start a project.