Transforming eLearning: How RWS and FLOWSPARKS are simplifying global training

In today’s fast-paced, digital-first world, companies need learning solutions that are not only engaging but also easily adaptable across cultures and languages. However, traditional eLearning localization has long been a complex, time-consuming and often costly process. That’s where the partnership between RWS and FLOWSPARKS is making a difference.

We sat down with Jose González Mediero, Senior Learning Solutions Consultant at RWS, to discuss how this collaboration is transforming corporate training. From seamless content localization to AI-powered efficiencies, find out how RWS and FLOWSPARKS are reshaping the future of eLearning.

Jose, firstly tell us about your role here at RWS

As a Senior Learning Solutions Consultant at RWS , I help global organizations design, develop and deliver effective and engaging learning content that works across cultures and languages. I manage a multi-function team of eLearning experts including Instructional Designers, Consultants, Project Managers and Developers, with a global presence. Our team offers end-to-end development and localization services for corporate training, we act as an extension of the training teams for our customers. Our focus is to proactively analyze and identify gaps in our customer’s content that could lead to unsatisfactory or costly localization experiences or inefficient training outcomes, as experts also in localization and cultural nuances we aim to help our customers create training that is localization-friendly and culturally relevant and engaging for all target learners and markets.

Could you tell us more about FLOWSPARKS and what makes them particularly interesting?

FLOWSPARKS is an eLearning software and services provider headquartered in Belgium with a strong presence in the Benelux. They have developed a very flexible and robust platform that incorporates both Learning Management System (LMS) capabilities and an unique authoring tool that is very simple to use and allows creation of engaging and distinctive courses, unlike other template based tools that over time become very repetitive. With FLOWSPARKS no two courses are the same as the user can mix and match an extensive library of learning formats, templates and programs.

What makes FLOWSPARKS particularly interesting for RWS are its advanced localization capabilities. Historically eLearning authoring tools have handled localization as an afterthought. Many of the tools rely solely on an import-export functionality that do not allow translators and customer reviewers to see the final translation in-context until after import. This means that any additional edits or linguistic changes need to be made manually in the final authoring environment. and the translation memories also updated manually, it is a costly process that often delays release of localized trainings. FLOWSPARKS incorporates an array of features to simplify and help linguists and in-country reviewers, including an in-context review tool which allows edits directly. It also incorporates a very smart feature that allows updates to content simultaneously across all languages once a course has already been translated. Few other authoring tools on the market have proactively considered the challenges of localization and developed solutions like this. Additionally, the platform simplifies content maintenance, making it easy to update and adapt courses instantly across any LMS platform, ensuring training stays relevant and fresh with minimum effort.

We recently partnered with Flowsparks to deliver end-to-end training solutions. Can you tell us more about how this works for customers?

We are very excited about this. RWS and FLOWSPARKS have integrated our flagship translation tool, Trados, with the FLOWSPARKS authoring platform. Trados is the world’s leading machine-first, human optimized AI-powered translation platform, that helps localization professionals translate everything. What this integration means is that organizations that develop and author their courses in the FLOWSPARKS tool will be able to effortlessly translate their courses online without any need to export content manually or transfer assets over email as in the past. With a few simple steps, those customers that use FLOWSPARKS as their authoring tool and RWS as their localization partner, will be able to select the languages they require and the workflow or localization process they prefer, from full machine translation with our groundbreaking AI-powered Language Weaver tool to a more traditional human translation approach.

Depending on the translation approach selected, the translated course will be back in the FLOWSPARKS platform in a matter of minutes or a few hours. Customers will then be able to review and edit the translation in-context in FLOWSPARKS eliminating the cumbersome and time-consuming review in bilingual tables. And regardless of the approach taken for translation it will always be employing the customer’s translation memories ensuring consistency and quality aligned with the linguistic preferences and glossaries previously provided to RWS.

How will customers ultimately benefit from the partnership?

With this partnership and integration gone are the days when localizing eLearning courses could become a terrifying experience. There will no longer be any need for customers to request source assets and exports from their development teams, the risk of version errors is removed as FLOWSPARKS incorporates a feature that avoids users from updating the source content while the courses are in translation. Tasks such as file preparation and quoting can be atomized significantly reducing the efforts and time required to have the translations started.

Personally, I love the in-context review feature that will save hundreds of human work hours for both RWS language specialists and project managers as well as for customer linguistic reviewers.

What does the future look like – any exciting developments on the horizon that you can share?

I think it is no secret that everyone in the industry is excited about the changes that AI is already bringing to how we can curate and author content. FLOWSPARKS for instance already incorporates an AI-powered Co-Author feature that significantly reduces the time traditionally required by an instructional designer to familiarize themselves with the content, create storyboards etc. Similarly, there are already dozens of tools available that use the power of AI to generate training videos and avatars that can be incorporated into learning journeys.

The quality of synthetic speech has increased exponentially in recent years making it a cost effective and quick to market solution for audio-driven training. And lastly, the gigantic steps in AI-powered translation solutions, such as RWS’s groundbreaking linguistic AI solution Evolve. This revolutionary human+AI solution delivers up to 65% efficiency gains- accelerating time to market for translated courses without sacrificing quality. After decades of eLearning development and localization being handled in a pretty much standardized and non-transformative way we are at a historical moment of change and evolution that will impact how L&D departments approach future training strategies.

Sign up here if you'd like to learn more about our partnership and see a demo of the technology in action!