\n

Text-to-Speech in E-Learning #223: Challenge | Recap

\n

I feel like I’m seeing a lot more text-to-speech examples lately.

\n

In part, Storyline 360’s integrated text-to-speech feature is likely a big reason for the increased use. But the examples I’m seeing aren’t only in e-learning courses.

\n

Industries outside of e-learning, like online marketing, are using text-to-speech in their projects. The adoption of text-to-speech makes sense to me: as the quality of synthetic voices has improved, it’s created an irresistible opportunity for cost savings versus using professional voice talent.

\n

Whatever the reasons, text-to-speech is a great way for course designers to quickly and easily create narration for their courses.

\n

Some common-use cases for text-to-speech in e-learning:

\n

\n
• Placeholder audio - Use text-to-speech to sync your audio with object animations while you wait for the professionally recorded audio. You’ll have to tweak the timings of the animations, but this approach can be a huge timesaver in the long run.
\n
• Character scenarios - If you need some quick voices for short scenarios or interactions, text-to-speech is a go-to resource for many designers. It’s easier than rounding up co-workers to record. And text-to-speech gets it right in one take!
\n
• Language and vocabulary training - A lot of learners prefer when text-to-speech is used sparingly. In those cases, courses that focus on language training and vocabulary are good candidates for text-to-speech narration.
\n

\n

Character Soundboard Using Text-to-Speech

\n

Here’s a simple demo that showcases a handful of voices from Storyline 360’s text-to-speech features. The project was originally created for a recent workshop to show ways to control multiple audio files and avoid overlapping audio in a single slide.

\n

\n

View the project | Download the source

\n

Text-to-Speech Voice Demo

\n

Here’s an example of a demo Tom built for his article on using text-to-speech narration in e-learning courses.

\n

\n

View the project | Learn more

\n

Challenge of the Week

\n

This week, your challenge is to share an example that uses text-to-speech voices in e-learning.

\n

Your example can be anything from an actual course you built to a quick mockup of an idea to show how text-to-speech can be used.

\n

Resources

\n

Here are some examples and ideas for using text-to-speech in your courses:

\n

\n
• Storyline 360: Converting Text to Speech
\n
• Add Polished Narration to Your Courses with the Text-to-Speech Feature in Storyline
\n
• 3 Examples That Showcase Text-to-Speech in E-Learning
\n
• Top Tips for Using Text-to-Speech (TTS) in Storyline 360
\n
• When to Use Text-to-Speech in E-Learning
\n

\n

Not using Articulate 360? You can still join this week’s challenge. Here’s where you can find some text-to-speech resources:

\n

\n
• Let Amazon S3 Do Your Text-to-Speech for Free
\n
• Here’s a Free Text-to-Speech Application for E-Learning
\n

\n

Share Your E-Learning Work

\n

\n
• Comments: Use the comments section below to share a link to your published example and blog post.
\n
• Forums: Start  your own thread and share a link to your published example..
\n
• Personal blog:  If you have a blog, please consider writing about your challenges. We’ll link back to your posts so the great work you’re sharing gets even more exposure.
\n
• Twitter: If you share your demos on Twitter, try using #ELHChallenge so your tweeps can track your e-learning coolness.
\n

\n

Last Week’s Challenge:

\n

Before you share your text-to-speech examples, check out the creative ways course designers use text variables to capture and display learners’ names in e-learning:

\n

\n

Use Learner's Name in E-Learning Course #222: Challenge | Recap

\n

Wishing you a speech-tastic week, E-Learning Heroes!

\n

New to the E-Learning Challenges?

\n

The weekly e-learning challenges are ongoing opportunities to learn, share, and build your e-learning portfolios. You can jump into any or all of the previous challenges anytime you want. I’ll update the recap posts to include your demos.

\n

Text-to-Speech in E-Learning #223: Challenge | Recap

\n

I feel like I’m seeing a lot more text-to-speech examples lately.

\n

In part, Storyline 360’s integrated text-to-speech feature is likely a big reason for the increased use. But the examples I’m seeing aren’t only in e-learning courses.

\n

Industries outside of e-learning, like online marketing, are using text-to-speech in their projects. The adoption of text-to-speech makes sense to me: as the quality of synthetic voices has improved, it’s created an irresistible opportunity for cost savings versus using professional voice talent.

\n

Whatever the reasons, text-to-speech is a great way for course designers to quickly and easily create narration for their courses.

\n

Some common-use cases for text-to-speech in e-learning:

\n

\n
• Placeholder audio - Use text-to-speech to sync your audio with object animations while you wait for the professionally recorded audio. You’ll have to tweak the timings of the animations, but this approach can be a huge timesaver in the long run.
\n
• Character scenarios - If you need some quick voices for short scenarios or interactions, text-to-speech is a go-to resource for many designers. It’s easier than rounding up co-workers to record. And text-to-speech gets it right in one take!
\n
• Language and vocabulary training - A lot of learners prefer when text-to-speech is used sparingly. In those cases, courses that focus on language training and vocabulary are good candidates for text-to-speech narration.
\n

\n

Character Soundboard Using Text-to-Speech

\n

Here’s a simple demo that showcases a handful of voices from Storyline 360’s text-to-speech features. The project was originally created for a recent workshop to show ways to control multiple audio files and avoid overlapping audio in a single slide.

\n

\n

View the project | Download the source

\n

Text-to-Speech Voice Demo

\n

Here’s an example of a demo Tom built for his article on using text-to-speech narration in e-learning courses.

\n

\n

View the project | Learn more

\n

Challenge of the Week

\n

This week, your challenge is to share an example that uses text-to-speech voices in e-learning.

\n

Your example can be anything from an actual course you built to a quick mockup of an idea to show how text-to-speech can be used.

\n

Resources

\n

Here are some examples and ideas for using text-to-speech in your courses:

\n

\n
• Storyline 360: Converting Text to Speech
\n
• Add Polished Narration to Your Courses with the Text-to-Speech Feature in Storyline
\n
• 3 Examples That Showcase Text-to-Speech in E-Learning
\n
• Top Tips for Using Text-to-Speech (TTS) in Storyline 360
\n
• When to Use Text-to-Speech in E-Learning
\n

\n

Not using Articulate 360? You can still join this week’s challenge. Here’s where you can find some text-to-speech resources:

\n

\n
• Let Amazon S3 Do Your Text-to-Speech for Free
\n
• Here’s a Free Text-to-Speech Application for E-Learning
\n

\n

Share Your E-Learning Work

\n

\n
• Comments: Use the comments section below to share a link to your published example and blog post.
\n
• Forums: Start  your own thread and share a link to your published example..
\n
• Personal blog:  If you have a blog, please consider writing about your challenges. We’ll link back to your posts so the great work you’re sharing gets even more exposure.
\n
• Twitter: If you share your demos on Twitter, try using #ELHChallenge so your tweeps can track your e-learning coolness.
\n

\n

Last Week’s Challenge:

\n

Before you share your text-to-speech examples, check out the creative ways course designers use text variables to capture and display learners’ names in e-learning:

\n

\n

Use Learner's Name in E-Learning Course #222: Challenge | Recap

\n

Wishing you a speech-tastic week, E-Learning Heroes!

\n

New to the E-Learning Challenges?

\n

The weekly e-learning challenges are ongoing opportunities to learn, share, and build your e-learning portfolios. You can jump into any or all of the previous challenges anytime you want. I’ll update the recap posts to include your demos.

We have used text to speech in modules for new EMS dispatchers to get them used to the phonetic alphabet and deciphering radio traffic.
Here is a link to a portion.
https://360.articulate.com/review/content/9bd30897-5509-4db7-a5e6-5f0a67d6fe10/review

In Storyline Haterz I used both VO and TTS https://community.articulate.com/discussions/building-better-courses/storyline-haterz-with-animated-characters-and-state-changes
We'll have a new one added this week too

Meet the Team: TTS and Color Study Demo
Demo: https://bit.ly/2HansZo
Download: https://bit.ly/2NTKS5L

This little \"Meet the Team\" demo was conceived recently after one of David's and Tom's quick tips and tricks sessions. The session started with reminding us to use color and font style templates--which I always forget to do until it's too late. And the same day I was asked to demo text-to-speech for someone who needs a lot of audio for an international team. So this is just a demo I played with--now it comes in handy for a challenge! The TTS is from Notevibes--I was looking for some realistic sounding voices to make the demo friendlier. The animation is from Animaker, and the \"meet the team\" vector art comes from Graphic Mama. I'll be interested learn this week about some good text to speech resources. Have a good week!

Quick reminder: If you share a download in the challenges, please feel free to cross-post in either the BBC or Storyline forums. While we see crossover between the forums and challenges, the forums are by far the most active area in ELH. You'll get the most exposure when you share in both places.

Looking forward to your examples this week!

Thank you for the info about Balabolka. I hadn't heard of it and it will be very useful! I downloaded it and used it to add some audio to a piece of eLearning I made a few weeks ago for my niece. She's in Y6 and doesn't get algebra at all. My mum has been doing some revision with her each weekend and asked me if I had anything really easy to introduce algebra. I didn't have anything to hand so used the Pantone colour stuff and made this. This morning, I added the audio to it.

http://finnberrys.co.uk/Algebra/story_html5.html

Hi David,

Just thought I would have a bit of fun with text-to-speech to create a quick holiday essential phrases demo.

https://360.articulate.com/review/content/cb0ce0a3-5f20-453a-8eea-4d0ad115f196/review

Did you type in the phrases in English and it translates them or did you have to type them in the different languages?

Hi Nicki,

Unfortunately, Storyline doesn't do the translation for you, however, for short phrases, Google is just the job. Simply type, for example, \"English French translation\" and you will be presented with a box to enter your phrase and the translation will appear next to it.

There are also drop-down boxes where you can change the languages, so if you want the same phrase in several different languages you don't need to re-enter it, but can simply change the output language and copy and paste the results into your text-to-speech dialogue box in Storyline.

Hi all,
here goes my try,
I was trying to combine text to speech with some animations... needs some polishing, but it could work I think.

Demo: https://360.articulate.com/review/content/49578551-3c3e-4939-b7da-c7018e5682f1/review
Download: goo.gl/xQquA6

A text-to-speech message from the Queen, regarding Brexit. Demo: https://tracycarroll.net/Message_from_the_Queen/story.html

This example uses Plotagon animation, which allows you to export subtitles, which I imported into Storyline 360. The voices are Acapela digital voices, available within the Plotagon application.

Blog post: https://tracycarroll.net/using-text-to-speech-in-e-learning-challenge-223/

This was fun to watch Tracy. I've never used Plotagon-makes me want to give it a try. I liked the music you used at the beginning to set the scene.

Thank you, Jane!

After the failed vote today your observations might be coming true. Quite a good likeness of the Queen!

Thank you, Jodi!

What happens when we use robotic voices for actual robots? Find out here: https://360.articulate.com/review/content/cd7d4e7a-878e-44d4-bc36-226f16312323/review

Inspired by Alexander's Storyline Haterz.

I haven't used text-to-speech much but found I really liked many of the voices. As a reference, I built a soundboard to make testing all the voices easy:

UPDATE: http://elearningdesigner.com/storyline/text-to-speech/index.html
(added the source file)

That was fun to play with, Montse!

I mean, it's also an incredibly useful tool when choosing voices and I've already bookmarked it and will absolutely use it in development - but it's fun, too!

Thanks for the great job aid. (And look how little Ellie is in your avatar!)