Forum Discussion
Voiceover or not?
Hi,
I'm looking to hear your thoughts on when it's absolutely necessary to add voiceover. In my last role, we didn't have the budget or the resources to hire voiceover actors, and we didn't have t...
I almost never use voiceovers, by choice (and, yes, often by budget, too).
If there's something to show on the screen, it's helpful to have a voice explain it (rather than describing the action in text on the screen). If a company can't/won't pay to hire a pro, then they'll have to accept the robotic quality of voice-to-text.
Otherwise, the audio doesn't help. In fact, it actually increases cognitive load if you include audio that's basically reading text that's on the screen.
Caveat: It can help some learners to have both. For example, if someone is taking a course that's not in their native language, hearing and reading the text could be useful. In such cases, I'd probably include the audio as optional, so someone would only hear the audio if they select to do so.
From what I've seen, I think some folks want courses narrated just to force learners to spend a certain amount of time on the slides. It drives me crazy when I have to listen to what I can read much faster...
Bottom line: Don't feel bad about not including audio when it's not needed to describe action.
Judy! I was hoping that you might have time to weigh in on my question. Savior that you are!
So, besides the budgetary issues, my learners were doctors and neurosurgeons and they were non plussed by reading text, as long as it was interesting. Thus, I would lean on the problem-based Learning method (PBL) to design courses that would appeal to the way they work and learn, and I figured the audio wasn't relevant. Now, in one course there was this super complicated visual so I used Vyond and TTS to explain it. Here's the link to see what I mean (click "Mechanism of Action in the menu).
The other thing is that I read Ruth Clark's book on Evidence-Based Training Methods which supports what you said about cognitive load.
I laughed out loud about what you said about audio when you can read yourself. I totally agree! I absolutely HATE when someone puts a ton of text on a PPT slide because then I'm totally distracted by it or their voice.
Thank you, Judy!! I appreciate you!
KK
