Forum Discussion
Voiceover or not?
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.
I agree. I don’t like it when I’m forced to listen to audio when I could have read the info much quicker!