On Narration and eLearning
April 3, 2008
The debate rages among eLearning design professionals about the value of narration in eLearning. How much narration is good? Is it good for all courses? Is it good for any course?
I can’t answer any of those questions conclusively, but I can give you my opinion.
As a learner, I’m a big fan of narrated eLearning (note: when done right – more on that in a moment). For me, narration adds an important human element typically missing in eLearning. My most profound (and most enjoyable) learning experiences in school were found in listening to my favorite teachers or professors, not poring over some dry, lifeless textbook. What makes eLearning any different?
And I tend to see eLearning not as a textbook replacement, but more as a classroom-based teacher replacement. If you have a large quantity of technical information for me to absorb, don’t throw it up on click-through screens in an eLearning course. Just email me a document to read. Or better yet, give me an actual book. It’s faster. It’s easier. It’s less irritating.
Text-heavy eLearning page-turners are a mental turnoff. Period.
There are very few eLearning courses I’ve been involved with (or have taken) that didn’t benefit, or wouldn’t have benefitted, from some verbal narration.
So let’s presume for the sake of argument that narration, in most cases, can be a good thing. And let’s examine some things that can make good narration bad.
When I say “narration,” I don’t mean putting long blocks of text on screen that a narrator reads to me. As a learner, it’s frustrating to have on-screen text narrated verbatim. I (like most people) read much faster than I listen (or better said, I read much faster than the narrator can speak). So my eyes want to read ahead of what the narrator is saying. My brain eventually tunes out the narrator entirely. Either let me listen or let me read; don’t expect that I can successfully do both.
This may be a “no duh” argument to many of you, but it’s exactly what our big-dollar eLearning development vendor often creates for us (my organization, to my dismay, does outsource some of our development work – despite my protests). I may not have a Ph.D in eLearning Design, and I may not get paid $50,000 per delivered course hour, but I usually do know what works and what doesn’t work for me as a learner. And I can tell you that reading on-screen text to me does not work.
My personal experience as a learner is backed up by Richard E. Mayer’s Multimedia Learning, in which he reports that removing spoken text from the screen increases learner retention 28% and learner transfer 79%. Those are significant numbers. So if you’re going to narrate, please don’t dictate to me what I’m reading on the screen. It’s annoying. It’s frustrating. And I’ll be scrambling for the Mute button.
Or the Next button.
Now let’s move past the excessive on-screen text gripe and focus on the narration itself. Is there such a thing as good narration and bad narration? Of course.
A poor-quality narration is obviously a buzzkill. No one wants to hear a SME (or eLearning developer) breathing heavily into a $10 headset microphone patched through his budget-line corporate laptop’s cheap audio circuitry with the janitor vacuuming the office in the background. And no one wants to listen to a mumbler or to someone who sounds like they’re spitting out scripted speech. But hey, it happens. To avoid this type of problem, voice work is often outsourced to a professional. Which, in my personal experience, can create new issues.
Professional narrators in eLearning can (and often do) sound synthetic and unnatural. Too smooth, too polished. Too…er, “professional.” In fact, I think the guy who narrates many of the eLearning courses I’ve experienced is the exact same guy who narrated all those horrible science filmstrips back in school. Filmstrips??? Wow, I’m getting old. But not Filmstrip Narrator Man. That man is ageless! And he is now eLearning Narrator Man.
I wouldn’t in my wildest dreams claim to be a fantastic narrator myself, but I prefer listening to someone who sounds like a real human being (even if it’s a little rough) to some anonymous script-reading automaton who’s trying way too hard to replicate the voiceover for a summertime action movie trailer.
Am I alone in feeling this way?
And don’t get me started about those ridiculous text-to-sythesized-speech services. If you don’t care about your learning material enough to get a real human being to narrate, it must not be important enough for me as a learner to pay attention to it.
Robo-voices should be ostracized by the eLearning development community. Ostracized with extreme prejudice.
“Look Dave, I can sense you’re getting really upset about this eLearning course…”
HAL 9000, the eLearning course narrator.
I would have a hard time believing that any organization doesn’t have enough in-house talent to narrate an eLearning course. Sure, you don’t want Monotone Bob in Accounting ruining your course with his stilted, mind-numbing drone, but Veronica in Marketing has a silky-smooth voice. Or perhaps Jake the eLearning development intern would do. He has great vocal energy and can read out loud without sounding scripted. Hey, why not? “Pull up a microphone, Jake. Afterwards I’ll buy you lunch!”
eLearning narration is not a dramatic reading. It should sound natural. It should sound like, well, a really good instructor teaching a really interesting course.
Some people have the ability to read a script without sounding like they’re reading a script. And all of them aren’t professional voiceover professionals. And some of them are right there in your office! Find them. Use them.
Yes, there will be a bit of equipment and software to buy. No, you can’t record in the middle of the company cafeteria. You’re going to need some quiet space (I do mine at home). You may even want to build a poor man’s portable sound booth. Fortunately, technology has bridged the previously-wide gap between affordability and quality when it comes to audio production, and you can get set up for great-sounding narration work for a few hundred bucks. Seriously. I’ll discuss my own approach in future posts.
Many of you probably do narrate your own eLearning courses. And for that I salute you (if you do it well, of course). For those of you who do tap professional voiceover people, there’s nothing wrong with that. Not at all. But for the sake of learners everywhere (like me), try to find a narrator who knows how to, um, “keep it real.” They are out there. Really.
I’d love to hear some of your experiences with eLearning narration. What’s your approach? What do you like or dislike? Are my gripes simply the lunatic mutterings of a raving narration-obsessed madman?
Please share. I can take it.
Sidenote: and please, if you do use a professional narrator, please don’t include some cheesy stock photo of a foxy model and pretend she is my instructor.
“Hi. I’m Carmen at Corporate HQ. And not only am I a knockout with perfect teeth and a professional headshot, but I’ll also be teaching you about our company’s ISO 9001 quality management system today. With my sultry, yet flawless, professional narrator’s voice.”
Puh-lease.
It’s just insulting.
Posted in Audio, Rants, eLearning Design
content rss
April 4th, 2008 at 1:29 am
Chris,
I enjoyed your post very much. I especially sympathize with your preferences about narration in e-learning.
However, I’d like to set the record straight about using text-to-speech (TTS) voices in e-learning.
First, advances in TTS technology have replaced the old robotic computer voices with new, amazingly realistic ones synthesized from human voices. These TTS voices can read books aloud beautifully without a mistake, guided only by grammar, sentence structure and punctuation; people use them to learn and review while driving.
These articulate TTS voices can be used to empower authors to add (and change) professional narration in e-learning presentations easily from narration text alone.
I agree that they do not replace the human voice 100% but there is a tradeoff: with the TTS voices, e-learners are more likely to have the latest information in their courses because it is so easy for authors to make changes in narration by just editing text; the tireless TTS voices will record new narration quickly and faithfully without complaint at any time of day or night. In addition there are all kinds of tricks authors can employ to make TTS narration more interesting like combining male and female voices.
Our product Speech-Over (www.speechover.com) launches TTS voices from within PowerPoint to record professional narrations from narration text alone. Have a look at the demo on our site and see if it doesn’t change your mind…
Joel
Joel Harband
Tuval Software Industries
http://www.speechover.com
April 7th, 2008 at 6:20 am
Hi Joel,
I gave the demo a chance, but I remain *far* from convinced. As I mentioned in the post, even human narrators can give your narration an artificial vibe that repels learners. With a synthetic narrator, that artificial vibe is a given. I’m quite certain anyone could identify the synthesized voice 10 out of 10 times. Perhaps someday this technology will reach a level of believability, but we’re nowhere close yet.
But readers can take a look (and a listen) at your site and decide for themselves.
Chris
April 7th, 2008 at 6:37 am
I did think of one reasonable use of synthesized voices – reviewing your narration before recording. I usually read my narration out loud to find the problem spots – things you don’t really notice in a written format but stand out when verbalized. Having a synthesized voice read the narration back to me during the review process would be helpful.
April 8th, 2008 at 9:07 am
You are 100% not alone on the narration gripe. I’ve seen that a lot too (verbatim narration of presented text) and I always shake my head asking “why?” I prefer, when I’m writing my body text, to partly summarize the visuals and what’s happening, but also to introduce a couple other points in order to make the body text more informative and useful, and to use the body text area as extra content space.
As far as human versus synthesized, I REALLY prefer human. Synthesized IMO makes content feel canned, robotic, passionless. I’ve done some narration myself, but by no means consider myself very experienced in the practice. This is one area I do want to improve on though.
April 10th, 2008 at 10:56 pm
Hi Chris. Great post! I am reasonably new to eLearning so all of this stuff is really interesting. I agree with your take on the synthesized voices, yuck.. Although I did come across a really great sounding tool called Loquendo (www.loquendo.com). It was out of our price range though so we did not buy it.
I do my own recording using a $15 microphone and head set with a PC (not a Laptop). I record using Audacity (free download from the web) the export recordings a wav files and I think I do OK. I agree with you that it is very important not to sound scripted, however I have found that a lot of time has been saved writing the script up first.
I do have one question. Do you think it is better to put more content on the page and make your narration short and to the point or make the content short and to the point with the narration expanding on each point?
Regards, Andrew
April 11th, 2008 at 7:58 pm
Andrew – I agree that scripting is a must. I have tried narrating using “talking points” and improvising – this approach did not work for me. At all.
So scripting = good, but sounding like you’re reading a script = bad. And there’s the challenge.
Regarding the amount of on-screen content vs. the amount of narration: this is my personal opinion, but I prefer more narration (but not too much!) and less on-screen content. It works better for me as a learner, so I tend to lean that way when I develop.
April 21st, 2008 at 8:53 am
Chris,
As a narrator, and occasional writer, who does quite a bit of elearning narration, this has been a valuable insight to what creators of programs look for.
I’d also like to offer this tip; if the narration is sounding ‘read,’ (no matter who is doing it, either in-house or out-sourced) try loosening up sentence structure. By that, I mean short, informal, sentences along with the use of contractions. For example, change a sentence like, “In this lesson, we will cover the basics of remote desktop access using remote desktop programming, RDP, along with installation, setup and configuration, and user access,’ to, ‘This lesson is about remote desktop access. Specifically, we’ll cover RDP, which is the acronym for remote desktop programming. We’ll start with installing RDP. Next, we’ll cover setup and configuration. And, finally, we’ll look at user access.’ Short and simple.
Best to all,
Steve
April 21st, 2008 at 9:04 am
Steve, thanks for the insight from a real voiceover professional. I agree – making the narration script more “casual” definitely helps it sound more natural. And using contractions is key.
By the way, I listened to the samples on your site and found them to sound very natural and appealing – not at all like the synthetic-sounding professional voiceovers I described in my post.
I’ve bookmarked your site for future reference if I run into a need for pro voice work – your style would certainly fit the bill for many of my projects. Thanks again.
July 15th, 2008 at 11:25 am
Hey Chris,
Good stuff here. My team recently started down the path of creating narrated eLearning courses and our user feedback has been quite good. For some, the skills necessary to record good narration just come naturally. For others, it’s a bit of a struggle. Are you aware of any online courses or other resources that might give some instruction or tips and tricks on how to record GOOD narration.
Thanks!
July 22nd, 2008 at 2:09 pm
Todd, I’m not aware of any courses, but I did reference some good “how to” resources in my subsequent post here:
http://www.equixotic.com/2008/04/21/more-on-narration/
December 18th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
Hello Chris – nice post. As far as professional voice talent sounding unnatural or ‘too polished’, that’s more a problem of casting than an argument against using a pro.
I work with lots of voice talent, some are great at being announcers, others excel at sounding like the guy (or girl) next door. Hire the right voice and you’ll get someone who can sound knowledgeable, compelling, and engage your audience better than most untrained voices.
If you’d like another resource for voices, I’d invite you to check out ProComm Voiceovers.
Cheers!
March 5th, 2009 at 12:50 am
Ok, Chris…your post here made me giggle….a lot. It was clever and informative and I enjoyed reading the feedback and experiences of the others who wrote in. As a professional voice talent and narrator, I can understand how frustrating this whole process can be. I have some “inside scoop” on how to select a good narrator if you are interested! I’ve been doing this professionally for over 10 years and have my own recording studio, so I’ve seen and heard it all.
You and Steve both hit on a really good point when you talked about the importance of a natural read. That is key!
Thanks!
Debra Ball
TheVoiceActress.com
July 8th, 2009 at 8:41 am
Voices can be so varied in style. Have you ever visited http://www.voices.com ? You can browse through eLearning voice over demos.
July 8th, 2009 at 10:01 am
Great topic!
Yes, one could wax poetic on the many reasons why TTS will never replace the human voice or custom recorded voice over recordings.
That being said, there is a big difference between narration and voice over for say, commercials or animation. You really have to have that natural, “real person” read down and the stamina to record for such long periods of time.
Thank you for sharing. This is a hot topic in our circle and I’m glad you touched on it.
Best wishes,
Stephanie Ciccarelli
Co-founder of Voices.com
http://www.voices.com
September 30th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
[...] one to write off ideas or methods so easily. Maybe there is a reason for this technique. Although Chris over at eQuixotic quoted some stats from Richard Mayer’s book, Multimedia Learning, in which he notes that [...]