Voice-Overs In eLearning: A Guide To Choosing The Right Voice And Style

If you were to reflect on these memories, you would find that the way the speaker spoke or delivered the message drastically impacted the experience you had. And this applies to eLearning modules as well. As you plan them, you may want to consider whether you are going to use a voice-over in it. Using voice-overs can enhance both the learner’s overall experience and the return on the company’s learning investment.

When To Use Voice-overs

However, some courses may not require audio or may be designed with an intention of not using audio at all for several reasons. In most cases, however, audio can make the learning more memorable and engaging to the learners, therefore leading them to greater knowledge retention and absorption. Here are some examples of using audio effectively in an eLearning course:

·       Listening to a conversation between/among characters

·       Showing illustrations or process animations where a narrator is explaining the concept

·       Having someone presenting the content to make the course more interesting and engaging

How To Generate Voice-overs

So, how can you generate voice-overs? Here are some of the most common methods:

·       Standard text-to-speech engine, typically available with authoring tools or free online tools

·       Premium AI engine trained on human voices to get AI-generated voices

·       In-house talent (or yourself) to record a voice-over

·       Using a professional voice-over artist to get studio-quality output

The level of audio and the voice-over quality needed depends on your goals and the objectives of your eLearning course. Sometimes having a text-to-speech generated voice-over gets you to where you need to go. At other times, you may want to consider having a professional human voice-over artists to ensure that the emotional and memorable experience comes through. If your eLearning is somewhat complex, or you want to ensure that your audience truly understands and relates to the materials, you may want to use more audio components to help engage your learners, reduce overall training time, and increase learner satisfaction.

What is the best choice for your eLearning? That depends on many variables. Some of these variables can include budget, audience requirements, animation, etc. Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of each option.

Options To Generate Voice-overs

Standard Text-To-Speech Engine

Benefits

§  Free with your authoring tool

§  Convenient workflow

§  Easy updates

Considerations

§  Mechanical sound

§  Can get annoying and distracting after a while

Best use case

§  When budget is very tight

§  To record short strategic sentences

§  For alpha versions of a module

AI-Generative Audio

Benefits

§  Can replicate human voice and intonations to a better degree

§  Easy to update

Considerations

§  Needs a separate subscription

§  Needs a separate workflow, as it is different from your authoring tool

Best use case

§  To strike a balance between budget and quality

§  Limited narration; can get monotonous if heard for longer periods

§  When the script is not highly emotive

In-House/Self-Recorded Audio

Benefits

§  Using already available talent

§  Additional authenticity if using a Subject Matter Expert

Considerations

§  Quality can be highly variable, based on equipment available

§  Taking away resources from their full-time role

§  Difficult to update if the employe leaves the organization

Best use case

§  When you need to add an authority’s voice (like expert comments)

§  When you need to be assured of high-quality recording

Professional Human Voice-over Artist

Benefits

§  Highly trained and talented voice-over artists

§  Lots of types of voices and accents to choose from

§  Can showcase emotions and inflections to maintain interest

§  Great for projects to be translated into multiple languages

Considerations

§  High cost compared to other options

§  Could be difficult to update after a long time, if the original artist is no longer available

Best use case

§  High-quality, high-visibility courses

§  Courses with scenarios or stories where emotion in the audio is important