When eLearning moves, as it often must, from mere text andstill images to video, animations, or simulations, content takes on newdimensions. Storytelling, formerly done through text or PowerPoint animations,moves to the next level: sound.
This poses some choices: Do you want to narrate? Usevoice-over? Create a full-fledged soundtrack? This article will help you makethat decision by explaining the differences and the pros and cons of each.
First, some definitions:
- Narration or voice-over is the easiest tocreate. You can do this yourself or hire a professional. It consists of asingle voice or multiple voices telling a story, or narrating or describing avideo or presentation. You can use a voice-over track with a slide deck, suchas a PowerPoint or Prezi presentation, and with videos, games, and animations.
- Dialogue involves the characters in avideo, game, or simulation; the actual audio track might be created usingprofessional voice actors or members of the eLearning design team. In thiscase, however, each character has a unique voice.
- A soundtrack generally refers to an audiotrack that is a composite; it includes more than just voice-over or dialogue.The soundtrack might include music as well as dialogue or narration, and italso has ambient sounds. If the video is filmed in an outdoor urban location,for example, you might hear traffic or a siren or people talking in thebackground. In a restaurant, you might hear background music, murmuredconversation, and the clinking of silverware.
Choosing an audio approach
Instructional designers face many considerations andconstraints when deciding how—or even whether—to add voices to their eLearningcontent. Using text or subtitles in slide decks, animations, and even shortvideos is inexpensive and relatively simple. Someone writes a few short linesof text, the designer chooses a font and colors, and away they go. When addingaudio, budget and time constraints are definitely factors. To use a voice-overor dialogue, the designer needs a script. Creating a soundtrack requiresrecording or generating other sounds as well.
When using voice-over with one or more voices, the questionarises: whose voices? The designer can voice the audio track, of course. Manycorporate eLearning videos and animations use designers, developers, and otherstaffers to create voice tracks in-house. Alternatively, hiring one or moreprofessional voice actors is an option.
For lengthy web-based training, even if the eLearning is aseries of very short videos, it’s often a good idea to use more than onenarrator for voice-overs. Why? Listening to one person gets boring. The idea isto engage learners, not have them tune out. Alternatives to voice-overs includehaving the videos feature interviews with different experts or conversationbetween characters, as in a simulation or game, or presenting content andperspectives from two or three experts.
Going pro
Hiring a voice actor offers significant benefits, not leastof which is a polished project. “If the point of eLearning, in all its ever-changingforms and genres, is to engage the listener so that they might absorb thecontent and learn from it, why spend so much time and money on the software,design, layout, and content only for it to sound awful?” Amy Fisher, a voiceactor, asks. It’s important to have a professional who can respond to the typeof content and intended audience, “someone who is experienced and sensitive tothe entire process,” she said in an email interview.
In addition, a trained professional can take on a variety ofaccents, personas, or tones. “One of the toughest for a non-pro to achieve issounding conversational, believable, real—which is often needed for testimonial-typemodules,” Fisher said.
There are technical reasons to go pro as well, Fisher pointsout. Training teaches the voice actor to enunciate, use proper inflection, paceappropriately, and avoid “plosives (popped p’s, t’s, etc.) or sibilance,” whichis a sort of hissing sound that can occur with repeated soft consonant sounds.
While it is possible to assemble a sound studio on site, thetrained voice actor is likely to have a setup already—as well as the experienceand practice a polished presentation demands. “Pros have learned how to build ahome studio, record, edit, and sometimes even engineer their audio files anddeliver them in a very timely fashion,” Fisher said.
Hiring a pro doesn’t have to break the bank; and audio is asessential to the success of the project as the user interface design, thenavigation elements, and the actual content. “Rates are all over the placesince new technology has made it easier for anyone with a mic and a walk-incloset to proclaim themselves a working voice talent,” Fisher said. “You canget a quote most easily if you provide a budget based on a number of things—wordcount or length of your project. We have all kinds of online tools forconverting word count into length to estimate a rate. Some voice talent use perfinished minute (pfm) or hour (pfh) of audio rates, and others, like myself,prefer a sliding scale based on word count,” where the per-word rate drops asthe length increases. “Rates should include recording and editing but don’talways,” and some voice actors charge a small per-file fee for splitting,especially on larger projects, she said.
The amount of time to build in to the schedule for selectingand recording a voice actor varies. “It’s going to differ greatly depending onthe length of the project, and whether or not you hire a vetted pro who canaccommodate you into their schedule, and if they have experience with long-formeLearning,” Fisher said. “I’ve turned around shorter modules in hours andmoderately long projects in a couple of days.”
“The voicing of your modules should never be left to the very lastminute, however,” Fisher cautioned. “Rush jobs will add to the cost and mightlead to more ‘pickups’ or revisions as well. Along with audition samples ordemos and rate quotes, ask for turnaround estimates in your hiring process.”
