Category: training

by Jen Weaver

Adding voice-overs to your eLearning lessons can increase the interaction a learner has with your content, often boosting the lesson's overall effectiveness.

Providing high-quality voice-overs is a tremendous feat in only one language or accent. It can grow into a monumental task when including regional dialects or alternate languages. Here are some facets to consider when casting cross-cultural voice talents.

• The desired voice-over role. A voice talent may function as a narrator, instructor, spokesperson, or actor in a storyline.
• The preferred demographics. This includes the age and gender being portrayed.
• The language, dialect and accent. This may go without saying, but the voice talent must be fluent in whatever language your eLearning materials will be provided in. Beyond the language requirement, there are also dialects and accents that may impact how your message is received by your intended audience. For example, English voice-overs may be provided in English (language) for the United States (dialect) with a southern twang (accent). It is valuable to identify how important accent accuracy is to your project. Many people may impersonate accents that seem acceptable to an unfamiliar listener but are entirely inaccurate (and even offensive) to recipients from that area. For example, a poorly executed fake accent may decrease receptivity from your target audience. Additional dialect and accent examples include:
  • Chinese in Mandarin (commonly referred to as "Northern dialect") perhaps with a Beijing accent.
  • Portuguese for Portugal.
  • Spanish for Latin America.
• The desired tone. The voice may be conveyed in a playful manner, factually, formally or informally.
• Localization of the voice-over script. Depending on your content, it may be valuable to localize the script for the target location, changing phrases or vernacular to be more conducive to that area. This can be done formally before the script is provided to the talent; or you may simply allow the talent discretion to make minor changes (such as changing "pop" to "soda") directly as they see fit.
• Voice-over experience. Ideal voice talents have multiple years in the industry and in providing the type of voice-over services necessary for your project.

The key for casting cross-cultural voice-over talents is to include appropriate requirements in your initial project scope. You should also allow time for your language service vendor to gather demos for approval as a part of the overall project timeline. Keep these facets in mind and you can rest assured that you will find the perfect talents for your project.

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If you would like to learn best practices for managing translation projects, contact Jen at Carmazzi Global Solutions.

by Jen Weaver 

Let's be frank, most people know at least some English.  It is one of the most common languages in the World, and many countries outside of the U.S. teach English in schools as standard curriculum.  Given these facts, it can be difficult to justify the expense of translation for training materials, especially when your learners are able to communicate in English with marginal clarity. So the question remains: what benefit does translation bring to your students?

It is not a stretch to assume that it is easier for students to learn when materials are provided in their first language; however, research indicates that the consequences of monolingual education for bilingual students may be harsher than previously realized.

Difficulties Second Language Learners May Experience

• Learners may lack knowledge of English grammar and syntax. In this case, they will read text word-by-word, resulting in lower overall comprehension.
• There may be challenges for learners when reading idiomatic expressions and unfamiliar grammatical construction, especially with more complex sentence structures.
• There may be too much unfamiliar vocabulary to grasp the overall concept.  Learners may also lack appropriate "repair strategies" to use when meaning is lost or misinterpretations occur.
• Connectives may be overlooked or misunderstood, resulting in a loss of the relationships between concepts and ideas.
• Learners may not be familiar with a specific genre, story "grammar" or the literary devices used in text.
• Symbols may differ.

From a Cultural Standpoint, These Factors May Come Into Play

• Different conceptual frameworks may misguide the learner's reading.
• Cause and consequence chains can differ and/or be more emotional, evoking strong reactions in the reader.
• Second language readers often use strategies that are applicable to the orthographic system and the grammatical and syntactic patterns of their first language. These may or may not transfer into the second language text.

These challenges, together with the finding of other published research, support the view that educational materials provided in the student's second language are not as effective as those given in the student's first language. Additionally, second language readers consistently fail to realize how much of what they think they understand is, in fact, wrong. Translation voids these learning obstacles by making materials available in the first language of learners, thereby increasing comprehension, retention and application; thus adding a substantial return on investment for translation. Indirectly, this benefits your rapport and customer satisfaction as a training professional as you enable clients to better educate second language learners.

What is your experience with the impact of language on training? We'd love to see your comments below. 

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If you would like to learn best practices for managing translation projects, contact Jen at Carmazzi Global Solutions.

by AJ George 

Copyright in the eLearning biz can get confusing. Can you use that awesome image you found on Google in your eLearning course? What if it's just for internal view? What if you're going to sell it? What if it's for a paying client to use internally? What if it's Creative Commons licensed?

I've previously written quite a bit on copyright and image usage as it applies to eLearning, but I frequently get inquiries about it, so I thought I'd compile what I've shared thus far here. 

Copyright information:

Is Using Copyrighted Materials Okay for eLearning? 

More on Copyright 

Image and Media Resources:

Free Image Sites 

Finding Google Images You Can Actually Use 

YouTube Adds Creative Commons Content 

Photopin, a New Stock Photo Resource 

Additionally, I have found a couple more interesting resources about Creative Commons licensing. The first is a video produced by Mohawk Media of New Zealand for Creative Commons Aotearoa New Zealand that does a great job explaining how Creative Commons licenses work.

The second is another stock photo resource that I hadn't previously heard of: Foter. Every time I try out a free stock photo resource, the first things I search for are "business man" and "business woman," because conservatively dressed and put together adults are always good choices for eLearning images. Foter didn't disappoint, as I was instantly led to a decent selection of free images that were licensed for commercial use. I definitely recommend this site. And check this out: one of the best things I found there is a blog post on How To Attribute Creative Commons Photos that includes this great Creative Commons infographic that gives you a decision-tree on how to proceed when you are planning to use Creative Commons material in any way.

Image source: http://foter.com/blog/how-to-attribute-creative-commons-photos

by AJ George 

Do you have a large
amount of information you'd like to teach quickly and effectively? While
most trainers would agree that it's not a good idea to teach lots of
information over a short amount of time, one learning method suggests
the opposite.  

In an article first reported in Scientific American in 2005, R. Douglas Fields explored how temporal patterns of stimuli create long-term memories. These timed patterns formed the basis for a 2008 book by Paul Kelley called Making Minds, in which Kelley used the information reported by Fields to develop and test what he called the Spaced Learning
method. The general idea of Spaced Learning is that large amounts of
content are condensed and then repeated to students in brief sessions,
separated by 10-minute breaks. During this time, learners perform
unrelated motor activities.

In a previous article I wrote about Knowledge Guru and the use of repetition in eLearning. The article explored if the simple act of repetition is the key to learning. One of the comments I received about that article (from
someone at Knowledge Guru, in fact) said that repetition is only part
of the picture. Repetition in conjunction with spaced chunking of the
content is more likely the key.

Here's how Spaced Learning works:

1. Present all the information you want your students to walk away
   with together in one big chunk. Try to do this in about 10 or 15
   minutes. This learning theory doesn't give specifics on how long is too
   long or short; however, 15 minutes or less has been shown to work in live classroom settings. (In an eLearning setting you might do even shorter lessons.)
   The information could be presented live on PowerPoint slides or on a
   large board by a classroom or online instructor. In an asynchronous
   situation, the information could be presented using any of today's
   eLearning tools such as Captivate, Camtasia or Storyline.
2. After
   all of the information has been presented, take a 10-minute break. But
   not just any break. Use this 10-minute break to have your students do
   something completely unrelated to the core topic. Juggle. Make
   something with play-doh. Draw. Do anything to stimulate a different
   part of the brain.
3. Following the 10-minute break, return to the
   lesson. Start from the beginning, but present the information in a
   slightly different manner. For example, show the same slides, but with
   essential points and keywords left blank. Encourage your students to
   fill in these blanks. Work in a group and out loud if applicable. Don't
   hold back on giving hints or clues if your learner gets stuck. This
   session will probably go even faster than the original session.
4. Then
   take another 10-minute break to do something else unrelated. Make
   something else with play-doh. Dribble a basketball. You get the idea.
5. After
   completing the second 10-minute break, give your students an
   unassisted quiz (or similar assessment) in which they are able to apply
   the facts and information.

According
to the Spaced Learning theory, information moves into long-term memory
easier if the human brain gets a short break. The repetition of the same
neural pathway sends the message to the brain that this information is
important, which makes information retrieval easier.

The Space Learning method is being used and developed at Monkseaton High School in England (where Paul Kelley
is Head teacher), and appears to be working out pretty well. Their
curriculum consists of presentations developed by teachers using Spaced
Learning as part of Innovation Unit's Learning Futures program. Learning Futures provides free open-source tools and guides to help schools implement the Spaced Learning method.  

What's
your take on Spaced Learning? Are you using Spaced Learning in your
training initiatives? Is it having a positive effect on student
retention? Is it just a learning fad? Please feel free to post your comments.