Digital Learning Content Localization: Skillsoft Global IT & Business Training Case Study
This case study details how we successfully localized Skillsoft's complex IT and business training content for the Korean market, leveraging a high-precision SME (Subject Matter Expert)-based verification system.
Project Summary
Skillsoft is a global leading online learning platform providing a wide range of professional education content in knowledge-intensive fields such as IT capability building, leadership development, and business skills. With the rapid increase in demand for professional education content in the Korean market, Skillsoft aimed to go beyond simple translation and provide high-quality Korean content that fully realizes the professionalism and practical applicability of the original materials. To achieve this, the project was launched with the goal of establishing a high-end localization governance structure that could maintain brand credibility and maximize learner understanding.
Challenges
Reflecting Extensive Specialized Domain Knowledge
The range of content was vast, spanning from highly technical fields like cloud computing, cybersecurity, and data analysis to business leadership and industrial safety regulations. Standard translation resources alone were insufficient to accurately reflect the specialized terminology and latest industry standards unique to each sector, requiring in-depth understanding of each domain.
Ensuring Integrity of High-Difficulty Technical Content
Minor mistranslations in professional IT training courses could not only convey incorrect technical information to learners but also lead to critical errors in practical application. This issue was directly linked to the credibility and trustworthiness of the global brand Skillsoft, making it imperative to achieve technical accuracy without a single error.
Building an SME-Centered, Highly Advanced Quality System
There was a need for a multi-stage quality assurance process going beyond simple translation and proofreading, directly involving field experts (SMEs) in “Translation → Proofreading → Expert Review → Final Editing”. The core challenge was to build a sophisticated management system that could organically integrate feedback from experts like incumbent developers and managers into the translation output and operate stably.
Integrated Consistency Management of Complex Multimedia Content
Educational content is seamlessly linked across various forms of assets, including video scripts, subtitles, lecture slides, and practical guides. High-level project operational capabilities were required to maintain perfect consistency in terminology and context across different formats to ensure an uninterrupted learning flow.
Our Solutions
Establishing a Strategic Collaboration System Between Domain-Specific Translators and SMEs
To ensure content professionalism, we formed a hybrid team linking professional translators optimized for each industry with field SMEs (Subject Matter Experts), not just standard translators. The SME group, consisting of IT developers, security experts, and business practitioners, participated throughout the translation process to perform technical verification, thereby simultaneously securing a depth of specialized knowledge and accuracy of industry standards difficult to achieve with ordinary translation alone.
Upgrading Language Assets to Ensure Knowledge Consistency
To maintain a high-quality learning experience across the entire platform, we established Skillsoft-specific integrated glossaries and style guides. By standardizing core terms for each domain, such as IT, leadership, and industrial safety, and setting brand-unique tones and manners, we laid the foundation to deliver consistent messages and brand images to users even when vast amounts of educational content were produced at different times.
Designing an SME-Verified End-to-End Quality Assurance Process
To minimize quality risks, we introduced a strict multi-stage quality management governance system consisting of “English SME Pre-review → Professional Translation & Language QA → SME Post-review → Final Editing”. In particular, by having SMEs analyze the original’s technical intent before translation and re-examine actual field applicability and conceptual consistency after translation, we maximized the public credibility of the educational content.
Integrated Contextual Consistency Management of Multimodal Content
To ensure a Seamless Learning Flow across various assets such as video scripts, subtitles, lecture slides, and practical guides, we applied a production process based on integrated context analysis. Instead of processing individual resources independently, we first identified the flow of the entire educational course and then synchronized each media element to derive optimal localization results that reduce learners’ cognitive load and enhance educational effectiveness.
Outcome
Maximizing Learning Effectiveness and Trust by Securing Technical Integrity
Educational content that underwent high-precision SME verification recorded top-level quality in terms of technical accuracy and practical applicability. In pre-tests targeting actual Korean learners, we confirmed overwhelming positive feedback such as “enhanced understanding” and “increased professional trust,” which directly led to the core result of strengthening the public credibility of the entire Skillsoft platform content.
Selected as a Standard Global Localization Best Practice
Skillsoft evaluated Hansaem Global’s SME-based process, stating, “It not only elevated translation quality by a level but also completely transplanted the core brand value of knowledge professionalism into the Korean market.” In particular, the collaborative system encompassing various fields’ professional translators, proofreading experts, and respective SMEs was recognized for its excellence and was officially selected as a company-wide best practice to be benchmarked in projects for other languages.
Establishing 3 Essential Elements and a Success Model for Knowledge Content Localization
This project became a representative success model proving that ‘Professional Translation + SME Expert Verification + Multimedia Synchronization’ are essential in high-difficulty knowledge content localization. Based on these achievements, Hansaem Global has established itself as a strategic advisor to Skillsoft beyond a simple localization partner and is currently solidifying the partnership by expanding the scope of work to advanced technical courses requiring high levels of expertise, such as security, AI, and cloud computing.