Most people when engaged in an Elearning course have given up their hard earned cash and their valuable time. For what? To learn, to improve themselves and in some cases because they are being told to do it by their employer or an institution.
I am a voiceover artist from Ireland and have been lucky enough to have recorded hours of Elearning courses for companies around the world.
Elearning projects come in many forms and I have lent my voice to many varying texts ranging from software development to health and safety courses, heavy duty legal texts all the way to explainer videos for air conditioning!
The one thing I always have in my mind when planning the voiceover style is the listener. This guy or girl will be listening to material they may not be familiar with and may not even want to be listening! How do I engage them and importantly keep them interested for a long period of time. I have been involved in Elearning projects in Ireland where the spoken word is well over 100,000 words! You had better like the voice!
My 5 top tips when choosing the right voiceover for your Elearning project:
1. Delivers in a clear voice that can pronounce all kinds of strange words. Learners need to learn so first and foremost they need to hear every word delivered in a clear way.
2. Advanced reading style that won't make you nod off or tune out, or worse - make you want to smash the laptop....This is where a good voice over artist earns their money. With practice and skill they can read black and white text and bring it to life with the correct intonation, can vary their speed and have a sense of when to reinforce key aspects of the content.
3. The correct tone for the Elearning content. This is easy to figure out who wopuld you listen to more when listening to your course? Authorative, fun, serious, corporate, conversational, casual? Get your VO artist to give you options in a sample upfront - that way you will know the right tome when you hear it.
4. You need speed wth accuracy. Some Elearning projects can be BIG so you need a professional voiceover that can work fast but is accurate. With so many words you need to be able to trust your voiceover they are getting it all right.
5. Professional voice recording equipment. I am a voiceover in Ireland for television and radio so know the audio quality required to deliver advertisements needs to be perfect. Again get a sample from your voice over - this will allow you gauge the quality.
Good luck in finding that golden voice for your project - when you find them, keep them!
Richard Skelton
www.skeltonvoiceover.ie