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.

Character Soundboard Using Text-to-Speech

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.

Text-to-Speech Voice Demo

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:

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

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

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.

40 Comments
Jodi M. Sansone

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 t... Expand

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