March 31, 2023
Use of narration and machine voice in e-learning
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(11)
March 31, 2023
Use of narration and machine voice in e-learning
(11)

Hi folks! I have been working in the e-learning industry for about 8 years and have recently taken up to Captivate. Currently, I am working on an e-learning project for University learners(most of them are auditory and visual learners. Don’t know if that matters here though). Just wondering if there’s any standard approach for narration. Should I narrate everything on the screen, or should it be different from the on-screen text? I am also confused about using machine voice.

Any suggestions from Captivate Champs will be helpful!

11 Comments
2023-04-27 10:19:39
2023-04-27 10:19:39

Audio narration should be an add-on to the on-screen text. Screen readers are there to read the text on-screen anyways! 

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Ishan_Kabir
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2023-04-27 10:24:40
2023-04-27 10:24:40
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Ishan_Kabir
's comment

Allow me to disagree, and this is based on many conversations with my students in college.

Audio narration is MUCH more important than text on screen. I never consider it as an add-on and that is the reason why I hate using TTS and prefer recording all narration personally.

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2023-04-05 11:17:54
2023-04-05 11:17:54

I have been using text-to-speech in most of my modules as my clients requested for it.

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Adam_Smith
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2023-04-05 18:01:26
2023-04-05 18:01:26
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Adam_Smith
's comment

I always recommend to my clients the best solution; however, in the end, it’s their eLearning course I’m constructing.

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2023-04-04 05:07:41
2023-04-04 05:07:41

I feel you…every eLearning developer’s dilemma.

I personally don’t prefer machine voice to my modules as they make it sound very dry. But the cost and time factors favor the machine voice. For level 1, voice may work as the content is linear. For modules with higher interactivities complementary voice-overs from professionals definitely take it a notch higher! Happy development 🙂

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2023-04-03 07:06:55
2023-04-03 07:06:55

Here’s my 2 cents. Well, for me, mostly an audio narration complementary to the content on-screen does the trick. I use asynchronous narrations for L3 modules like simulations.

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2023-03-31 14:41:49
2023-03-31 14:41:49

When I see someone say “Auditory or Visual Learners,” I hope you mean that your students seem to prefer one methodology over another and not to suggest that different people can only learn with one learning style. This belief in learning styles was debunked many years ago, and unfortunately, the concept of learning styles has been perpetuated.

Human narration is always the best choice, but it should be left to the professionals. I came from a corporate background, and I’m reminded of an incident where we asked volunteers from the organization to come into the recording studio and record the narration for an important course we launched. Because of the difficulties one volunteer had reading the script and sounding authentic, an hour of recording became half a dozen, and we blew the recording budget on this one person’s lines.

Another consideration organizations often make to hire voice actors to provide the voices is what happens if employees leave or are terminated. Do you want a former employee to represent the company in their official training courses? Could there be legal ramifications if you continue to use those recordings? Possibly. I think hiring a voice actor who can get the job right the first time and maintain their anonymous nature is better.

I use WellSaid labs when a client doesn’t have the budget for proper narration. While I can record a middle-aged-sounding male English voice, you can’t use the same voice for all if you have developed scenario-based training with multiple characters. Also, one of the nice things about voice synthesis is that the voices never get sick, tired, or unavailable. Check out this video I prepared on Wellsaid labs. If you are interested in trying them out, I have a link in the video’s description where you can let them know I sent you: https://youtu.be/zLGzhghUilc

 

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2023-03-31 11:41:04
2023-03-31 11:41:04

That is a pity! You only need a good microphon. I have several but even a good headset (like my Plantronics C720 M) is fine. I record my voice often with the headset, especially for a Video Demo where the first draft audio needs to be done while capturing the screen.

I was a professor in a university college here in Belgium. When I started to add audio to my tutorials, I observed that most of them listened and didn’t really read much anymore. That was the reason for my comment about the synchronisation between text on slide and the audio. Sorry, but I don’t believe that much in difference between auditory and visual learners, combination is best for both but ‘text’ is not what I mean by ‘visual’.

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2023-03-31 10:38:56
2023-03-31 10:38:56

Personally I rarely use machine voice (TTS) myself, only for drafts. Human voices, even if not professional, are always better.

Another personal preference: What is on the slide itself should not be duplicated in the audio? If you need a literal transcription of the audio use Closed Captioning. What is on the screen is very important but you can keep to core words, images, if you have a more extensive audio explaining.

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Lieve Weymeis
's comment
2023-03-31 11:04:46
2023-03-31 11:04:46
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Lieve Weymeis
's comment

Wow…that was real quick Lieve! Thanks for your response. I can’t agree more to your human voices comment. In fact had floated the idea of selecting few University students for recording to save on the cost of professional VO. The permissions from the University were difficult to get so had to give up on the idea

 

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Lieve Weymeis
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2023-03-31 11:12:36
2023-03-31 11:12:36
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Lieve Weymeis
's comment

Thanks for your quick response Lieve. Can’t agree more to your views on human voices. In fact had floated an idea of using few amateur student artists from the University for recording, but somehow the permissions didn’t work out.

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