eLearning

What are your goals in writing scripts for your eLearning programs? Apart from transmitting the kernels of info essential to your training or learning program in the most engaging and effective way, that is. Did your program end up sounding as good as it looked? As a voiceover artist, I’ve literally read and performed the spectrum of eLearning writing styles. My experience with scripts, good and really bad has left me with some pretty strong opinions about the best practices for eLearning scripts intended to be spoken aloud.

Who better to give advice on how to write better eLearning scripts than someone who has been hired repeatedly to narrate tens of thousands of them? 

Keep it Conversational

You’ve probably noticed. You might have asked for it yourself. A whopping majority of jobs requesting voiceover, including at least 50% of eLearning programs, are seeking a conversational voiceover style, as opposed to the “instructional”, “authoritative” or the very out-of-current-style “announcer” reads. But in order to make your script sound casual, it should be written in an informal style. Conversational writing for the ear is often more informal, and should match the way you speak.

A few years ago, a client essentially sent me a medical product monograph pretty much lifted word for word from the product insert from the packaging of the drug. And I was told to make this medical script as conversational as possible. I actually love challenges like this. Making dense vocabulary-rich material palatable and easily digestible to laypeople is one of my sharpened skills.  But this one stands out among challenges, since conversations don’t usually include having a dictionary handy.

To write organically you have to do the same thing I (and other voiceover actors) must do to speak conversationally and with strong intent. A.k.a: Keep your audience in mind. Top of mind. As if they are in the room with you. Try to keep the language easy to comprehend and relatable. Avoid rambling on in long sentences. Employ storytelling to get your point across. And be respectful of your listener – keep the tone pleasant and interesting. You want to sound like a wise friend imparting information instead of the boring professor who drones on in monotone sentences stuffed with jargon while rarely taking the time to take a breath in between sentences.

Get into the habit of reading your script out loud as you’re writing it. How does it sound to your ear? Listen to your word choices and the cadence of your phrases. When you’re writing to be listened to and not read, keep in mind that audio content is processed by working memory, so when it comes to scripting, less is more. 

Myriad Ways to Pronounce What You Write

Another important facet of writing better e-learning scripts is to pay attention to times when what you write can be interpreted or pronounced in myriad ways.  For example, a common pronunciation pitfall occurs with numbers. 2019 can be “two-thousand nineteen” or “twenty-nineteen” in the context of a date. If it is not a date, “two-thousand nineteen” or “two-thousand AND nineteen” are choices.  675.98 could be “six-hundred seventy-five point ninety-eight”, “six-hundred AND seventy-five dollars ninety-eight cents”,  “six-hundred seventy-five and 98 hundredths”, etc.

Additionally, you may include words that are commonly mispronounced in certain vernacular, such as “etc” being pronounced “EX-cetera” rather than the correct “ET-cetera” (decide which you’d prefer). Or words such as “biopic”, which looks like “bye-op-ick”, when it is actually “bio-pick”. Clarifying what you need for the performance of your script makes it easier for your voiceover artist to get a more accurate word count and will save time (and money) on back and forth with pronunciation questions and misunderstandings that can delay production. 

It is also important to provide the intended pronunciation of any extremely complex or medical terminology.  Words like “ischemic” could be pronounced multiple ways depending on the doctor you’re speaking to, so knowing what your medical SME intends for the voiceover on your e-learning project is extremely helpful. 

Lastly, should extra emphasis be needed, especially in longer, complex or technical phrases, it can be helpful to indicate with italics where’d you like the emphasis. Keep in mind that the voice actor may be unfamiliar with your subject matter and may not intuitively understand what needs to be billboarded in your scripts.

Acronym City 

Ah the Acronym.  If your script includes acronyms, you’ll be saving a lot of time for everyone involved if you provide the intended pronunciations as well. Do you want the letters read as letters, or as words? For instance, SPAC which stands for Special Purpose Acquisition Company is commonly pronounced “spack”, but the ASPCA acronym is read as letters. A helpful notation if you want the letters pronounced as letters is often to add a dash between them, i.e. S-I-P-C.

And speaking of “i.e”, “e.g”, when you use these abbreviations in your script – items that when read are completely understood in context but lack that comprehension when only heard – let your voice actor know if you prefer “for example” or “in other words” or “that is” instead of the abbreviation.  

Slashes are another visual item in your script that need some attention when spoken out loud. Be sure to communicate if you want the slash read, as in a web address, or if you’d like to substitute “or”, “and/or” or leave it unsaid. For example, input/output is often read “input output” without voicing the slash and good/bad is often read as “good or bad”.

We Don’t Talk in Bullet Points 

Lists are also common to e-learning scripts. They’re so easy to create in linear writing because, again, our brains are able to integrate the visual cues of lists.  But we don’t talk in bullet points. Even when we’re speaking in lists – “hey, when you go to the store, can you pick up eggs, milk, flour, and some vanilla?” – there aren’t any visual cues hovering above our heads making that list understood. The context of the sentence makes the list understandable. 

So if you incorporate lists in your e-learning scripts, try to keep as much of that conversational tone as possible written into them. Incorporate transition words in your lists to clue in the listener that you’re approaching the end of your list (“eggs, milk, flour AND some vanilla”) and that a change in thought is up next. 

Keeping this advice in mind as you’re writing your e-learning scripts will ensure your project sounds as good as it looks and avoids the common pitfalls that delay the project in back to back clarifications, or require revisions to the audio after the recording is delivered to correct mistakes that could have been avoided. 

A popular benefit for employees in the corporate world is the opportunity to advance their careers with on-the-job training. This is often in addition to the requisite skills acquisition and corporate policy and procedural training employees are provided. Long before the global pandemic changed the paradigm for much of human interactions, corporate eLearning was on its way to existing almost exclusively online and away from classrooms, both as a time and cost savings but also because people actually prefer it. Through the spring of 2020 and beyond classroom learning in the corporate world has become nonexistent. And this actually seems to be a positive, as classroom lectures are less effective than interactive learning at one’s own pace, where and when you want.

So because corporate eLearning is still growing and changing (and is one of my favorite things as a voice over artist to narrate), let’s take a look at how corporations are saving money and improving their workforce with eLearning.

ELearning Saves Time And Money

It’s no surprise that implementing a business strategy that aims to remain ahead or on top of rapidly changing markets requires continued training. And training isn’t cheap. Especially in-person, where training office space is needed, equipment to learn on required, and travel expenses, hotels and meals are incurred for any geographically diverse workforce to attend. Not to mention the loss of productivity while employees are traveling and attending the training.  ELearning saves corporations time and money.

In fact, corporations who replaced face to face instruction with eLearning saw a cost reduction as high as 50-70% in some cases. eLearning means custom content delivery is possible on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. This easy to access and quick to digest chunks of information enables learners in a couple of ways – they can seek training anytime, anywhere, and even on the go, and employees who are geographically diverse can share the same training experience and participate as a group.

Because time is almost more valuable (or at least as valuable) as money, this group learning is an important saving. Workplace experience research and analyst firm Brandon Hall says online learning takes 4-6% less time than classroom learning experiences and corporations as large and with as many franchises as McDonald’s, for example, found that with eLearning, employees were spending less time onboarding (66% in the case of Mickey D’s) and that time translates into dollars that can be spent elsewhere.

ELearning Sees Higher Retention Rates & Better Employee Performance

In addition to saving time and money, companies benefit from the flexibility and immediacy that eLearning can provide and this in turn can lead to higher retention rates and better employee performance. According to Forbes, the Research Institute of America concluded that eLearning boosts retention rates by 25% to 60%, compared to retention rates of 8% to 10% with traditional training. Once created an online educational offering can be deployed simultaneously company wide, allowing employees to gain the information quickly and efficiently and collaborate with other team members who are also consuming the course at the same time. Also noted by Forbes, “Every dollar invested in online training results in a $30 increase in productivity. Companies that use eLearning technology achieve an 18% boost in employee engagement.”

Employees stay engaged when they can take their education with them and take in lessons in bits and bytes on a device of their choice (work computer, home computer, iPad or other mobile device). And it is easier than ever to keep them engaged with videos, animations, podcasts, games, and other choices for interaction.  This in turn ups their skill set and makes them available for other internal opportunities to advance. A recent HR elearning program I narrated stated it costs 1-2 times an employee’s salary to find and train a new hire vs the 5-15% of that same salary to promote someone within the organization.

Interesting and fun options for learning also make retention easier, such as gamification.  According to eLearning Learning, a resource curated by the Learning Guild, “game-based corporate e-learning, with its badges, leaderboards, and avatars, brings an element of healthy competition between peers and increased engagement amongst learners. Including gaming into your corporate e-learning experience can raise participation and retention of information.”

Opportunities For Narrators Abound

If you narrate online training, then you’ll be happy to know that the educational offerings needing skilled eLearning narrators is always expanding. Here are just some of the types of corporate elearning programs seen in the business world:

• HR – onboarding
• Safety
• Software
• Legal
• Compliance
• Health
• Improve Skillset
• Improve knowledge base
• Sales
• Marketing

Knowing the trends in this industry will give you an advantage when it comes to seeking out opportunities to match your voice over skills with eLearning projects.  Because with this much benefit to corporations, eLearning is definitely here to stay.

My posts for the last month have all been performance-oriented. Today, I’d like to add another in that vein with one of my favorite genres. eLearning is a big wonderful market to play in for voice over actors. It has seen exponential growth over the last couple of decades and is on track to be worth an estimated $325 Billion by 2025. And this might be a low projection in the face of Covid-19, which has brought an uptick in the production of e-learning as much face-to-face instruction has been replaced with online education. To be hired consistently in this arena requires a certain skill set. I’ve been narrating eLearning weekly for the past 20+ years and believe the secrets to a successful career in eLearning narration lie in this list of 10 must-have voice over acting skills.

Skill Number 1 – Consistent Sound

When I started working in this genre of voice over twenty-odd years ago, I had the good fortune to work on a particularly difficult 100+ hour medical eLearning project. Needless to say, there were a lot of pickups. In these long narration marathons, energy needs to be smooth all the way through and I wasn’t quite nailing it. My sound engineer remarked that I always came in hot at the beginning of lines, settled down midway through and sometimes dropped off quite low at the end of lines (when I was running out of breath). Check your sound waveform to see if this is you too. It was a quick learning curve for me. Work on softening your in-cues and maintaining energy in your out-cues so your sound is consistent.

Skill Number 2 – Maintaining Flow

Flow in acting refers to being present and attentive in the moment. Related to maintaining consistent sound, staying in the flow helps you read in large (natural) phrases – not choppy little bits and pieces – and makes it sound conversational and avoid (the dreaded word) “robotic” and unnatural speech patterns. Performance tip? Learn to look longer in the phrase. Rather than seeing only 4-5 words at a time, see the whole 10-14 at once while concentrating on delivering that one that you’re speaking.

Flow is extremely important to performance and the transmission of the writer’s message to the listener’s ear.

Skill Number 3 – Expand Your Vocabulary

You’re going to read words for a living.  Having an expansive vocabulary is like saving money for a rainy day – you never know when it will come in handy.  So build your stockpile of words – read widely for enjoyment & research – play GRE vocabulary games – listen to Merriam Webster pronunciations. Pick an area you want to work in (IT, financial, medical, engineering, etc) and search industry terms. Make this part of your regular research work. You waste your time (and your client’s if it’s a live directed session) if you stumble repeatedly over vocabulary. So expand yours.

Skill(s) Number 4 – Stamina and Accuracy

This is a two-pack of skills needed for long-form narration projects.  Stamina and accuracy can be strengthened with cold reading – reading out loud for long periods of time. You need to sustain your energy through eLearning much in the same way as for audiobook work. (Even though the trend for eLearning has of late been broken up into shorter and shorter modules, there will likely still be many of them to accomplish in a session). And accuracy directly impacts your stamina.  The less stopping, rewinding and repeating you can do, and the quicker you can get through the information, the easier it will be to maintain your stamina.

Skill Number 5 – Emotional Intelligence

It is scientifically proven that we learn better when our emotions are engaged. Though it has been long thought that intellect had to be free of emotion, new, more multi-faceted theories suggest that emotional intelligence (in addition to interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligence) works in concert with cognition rather than in opposition.  Or in less geeky terms – how you feel about what you’re learning may contribute to learning it (or not learning it).  So, in order to effectively engage learners, you’re going to have to appeal to their better emotions, as well as their smarts. In order to achieve this, you have to apply your own emotional intelligence to tap into positive emotions in your learners that encourage excitement and attachment to the subject matter.

Good actors employ this on stage and screen by listening to the other actors in a scene, determining their wants/desires/emotions and then interacting with them (either positively or negatively) to propel them to action. Because you won’t have direct access to your learners, you will have to discern from the material what is exciting and interesting to keep the listener engaged.

Skill Number 6 – On The Fly Script Analysis

Unless you sit with a script and read it over a few times and analyze it before you deliver it (which is recommended for those new to eLearning voice work, and is definitely part of the work for film, theatre and tv roles, but much less so for VO industry vets), you likely won’t have the best delivery.  “But..!” you say, “analysis is time-consuming and I have to be in a session tomorrow!” This is why you want to be able to analyze the script on the fly (as you are narrating it) to best know where to emphasize certain words, phrases, and expressions. Where are your power words and anchor points? Where are your transitions, connections, and moments? In my experience, good on-the-fly analysis happens when it can function like a reflex.  When your first thought is to look for beats, or break down the scenes (or sections) of a script. This only becomes second nature with practice. The more you do, the better you get.

Skill Number 7 – Connection To The Text

The next 3 skills go hand-in-hand.  First, connect to the text. Do you understand it? Understanding comes from not only understanding the words on the surface level, but understanding the subtext. Especially if the subject matter is not one with which you are familiar…your listeners will disconnect if you don’t transmit the message with the correct nuance and meaning. 

Skill Number 8 – Connection To The Role

Next, connect to the role. Who are you? The teacher? The manager? A character? One of the reasons some eLearning content creators prefer hiring a prof or an SME (subject matter expert) is that they bring great authority about the subject to their reads…you must do that too. You have to connect to your role (and the subject matter) as much as an SME would – that’s where your acting comes in. If you’re uncomfortable or unfamiliar with this – read up on how actors connect with and prepare their roles. Good voice actors do the same with their “narrator” roles. 

Skill Number 9 – Connection To The Learner

The last of the three is, connect to the learner. Who are they? Why is it important that they learn this? What will it mean to them in the short term? Long term? They are your audience. Your audience of one at a time. Actors think about how to connect with audience(s) in plays and in film. 

Skill Number 10 – Passion

Remember your favorite teacher in school? Why were they so great? Did they inspire you? How? Passion. Passion for their subject, passion to share knowledge, passion to see and enjoy your aha moments. Channel their love for teaching and bring that same passion to your eLearning performance. Your learners will love you for it.