How are Course Designers Using Text-to-Speech in E-Learning? #223

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.

View the project | Learn more

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.