One course, three languages
The same four-step micro-lesson in English, Spanish and Arabic. The narration, the captions and the layout direction all change with the language, not just the body text.
Switch language from the buttons in the header. Choosing Arabic flips the whole interface to right-to-left, including the progress bar and the navigation, which is the part most translated courses get wrong.
The four steps, in every language
Protecting customer data
The opening screen sets up why the lesson exists in four short steps, with narration you can play and captions you can switch on.
Three habits that protect data
Three cards to open: lock it, limit it, report it. The Continue button stays shut until all three have been read, so nobody skims past the content.
Try it
The practice step, where the learner applies the three habits instead of recognising them in a list.
Lesson complete
A close that confirms what was covered. In the Spanish and Arabic builds this screen is translated too, down to the button labels.
Localisation is not the same as translation
Sending a course to a translation vendor gets you translated sentences. What comes back frequently still behaves like an English course: the narration is missing or left in English, the captions are the old ones, buttons overflow because German and Spanish run longer, and Arabic is poured into a layout that still reads left to right.
This sample exists to show the difference. It is one micro-lesson on handling customer data, built once and delivered in three languages, where everything a learner touches changes with the language choice.
What actually switches
- Body copy, headings and button labels, including the step titles
- The narration track, recorded per language rather than left silent
- The captions, matched to that language's audio
- Layout direction, which becomes right-to-left for Arabic
- The progress indicator and navigation, which mirror along with the text
That last pair is the giveaway. Plenty of courses translate the words and leave a left-to-right progress bar running against the reading direction, which quietly tells an Arabic speaker the course was not really built for them.
Why one build rather than three
The alternative most teams start with is one course file per language. It works until the first content change, at which point every edit has to be made three times and the versions drift apart. Here the language strings sit in one table and the module reads from it, so a correction to the English is a correction everywhere and a fourth language is a new column rather than a new project.
How it would be delivered
This is the published HTML5 build. For a rollout, the same lesson is packaged as SCORM or xAPI, with language either chosen by the learner as it is here or set from their LMS profile so they never see the switch at all. Completion reports back the same way regardless of which language was taken.
It belongs to our e-learning development services, and our guide to mobile-first learning for global enterprises covers the wider problem of delivering one programme across regions.
Frequently asked
What is multilingual e-learning?
What is the difference between translation and localisation?
Does Arabic need a different layout?
Is it cheaper to build one course or one per language?
Can learners switch language partway through?
Rolling one programme out across several regions?
Send us the course and the language list. We come back within one business day with a scope and timeline.