Text-to-Speech in E-Learning #223: Challenge | Recap
I feel like I’m seeing a lot more text-to-speech examples lately.
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.
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.
Whatever the reasons, text-to-speech is a great way for course designers to quickly and easily create narration for their courses.
Some common-use cases for text-to-speech in e-learning:
- 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.
- 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!
- 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.
Character Soundboard Using Text-to-Speech
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.
View the project | Download the source
Text-to-Speech Voice Demo
Here’s an example of a demo Tom built for his article on using text-to-speech narration in e-learning courses.
Challenge of the Week
This week, your challenge is to share an example that uses text-to-speech voices in e-learning.
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.
Resources
Here are some examples and ideas for using text-to-speech in your courses:
- Storyline 360: Converting Text to Speech
- Add Polished Narration to Your Courses with the Text-to-Speech Feature in Storyline
- 3 Examples That Showcase Text-to-Speech in E-Learning
- Top Tips for Using Text-to-Speech (TTS) in Storyline 360
- When to Use Text-to-Speech in E-Learning
Not using Articulate 360? You can still join this week’s challenge. Here’s where you can find some text-to-speech resources:
- Let Amazon S3 Do Your Text-to-Speech for Free
- Here’s a Free Text-to-Speech Application for E-Learning
Share Your E-Learning Work
- Comments: Use the comments section below to share a link to your published example and blog post.
- Forums: Start your own thread and share a link to your published example..
- 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.
- Twitter: If you share your demos on Twitter, try using #ELHChallenge so your tweeps can track your e-learning coolness.
Last Week’s Challenge:
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:
Use Learner's Name in E-Learning Course #222: Challenge | Recap
Wishing you a speech-tastic week, E-Learning Heroes!
New to the E-Learning Challenges?
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.
