Sharing some advice to all you course creators out there, this post includes our four tips to help you become an eLearning Voice Over Expert. This week’s blog comes from the Courseware Corner, as the team shares the impact of voiceover and narration on eLearning content and learner engagement…
eLearning Voice Over Setting The Tone
An essential factor of voiceover and narration is delivering the right tone to provide information. Most importantly, the target audience should play a significant role in determining the delivery. To help you to narrow this down, ask yourself these three simple questions:
- Should the voice be male or female?
- Should the voiceover tone be delivered by a subject matter expert or light-hearted delivery?
- Is it appropriate to have subtle music over the narration?
How to Record eLearning Voice Over
As well as voice tone, it is critical to understand “how” to record the voiceover. Things to consider when recording an eLearning voiceover are: Is the voice artist pausing at the right time? Are their speech patterns upbeat and inspiring?
Top Tip: We don’t want learners to switch off! The listener needs to relate to the voiceover artist and trust what they are saying.
Tips to be an eLearning Voice Over Expert
Taking all of the above voiceover planning points into account, here are our best tips to be an eLearning Voice Over Expert:
1. Your Voice Recording Environment
It would be best to have an environment that is conducive to recording audio. Not everyone has access to, or space to create a recording studio. If your options are limited, there are still things you can do to improve the sound.
Walls can deflect sound; soften them by adding curtains, blankets, or acoustic materials. If the need arises to record while traveling, a cheap yet effective way to absorb sound while in a hotel room is to put a blanket over your head while recording!
Top Tip: Try to eliminate hard surfaces; carpeted flooring absorbs sound better than wooden floors.
2. Use a Pop Filter for Voice Over Work
Popping sounds occur when pronouncing strong consonants at the beginning of words, such as the P in “parade”. A pop filter is a protection filter for microphones that reduces or eliminates those sounds and is relatively inexpensive.
3. Use a High-Quality Microphone for eLearning Narration
Rather than using a laptop, phone or computer’s built-in microphone (which typically has inferior audio quality), use a high-quality headset with a boom mic or desktop microphone (aka Streaming Microphones); designed for narration and voiceover recording.
4. Use a Noise Reduction Filter on Your Voice Recording Software
It’s rare to have complete control over environmental noise, such as HVAC systems, appliance sounds, cars going by, etc.
If your audio recording software has a noise reduction filter, you can create a “noise profile” of the segment containing the offending noise. The software then finds and replaces all instances with silence, resulting in a dramatic and favorable impact on the audio quality.
Becoming an eLearning Voice Over Expert
We hope you find these tips on being an eLearning Voice Over Expert helpful. The narration of your eLearning courses is just as important as the content, so be sure not to scrimp when it comes to recording this well.
Intellek (formerly TutorPro) is a founding member of the learning technology industry. With a presence in the USA, UK, Canada, and the EU – for over 30 years we have pioneered the development of cutting-edge eLearning software and online training solutions, with a large and diverse portfolio of international clientele.
Disclaimer: We use all the tools available including generative AI to create relevant and engaging content.
