Terminology Tuesday: Voice Over (VO)

Preparing a script for voice over, I thought to myself “have I ever talked about voice over on the blog?” – a quick search indicated no.

What is Voice Over?

Voice Over (VO) is a script-read and audio recorded narration that is often built into a project during or post-production. In e-learning, it is often referred to as audio narration. My stance on VO is almost exclusively “I hate it.”, but that’s because I don’t learn as effectively when I’m trying to read or pay attention to something onscreen while also listening to audio. I get overloaded. However, there are many examples of good VO in e-learning, and it is important to note that not everyone learns the same. Some people may learn better listening to audio. Some people won’t. For this reason, I like to give people options such as a mute button and/or an audio transcript.

VO is also often required to ensure ADA or 508 compliance, so it’s often a necessary evil.

E-Learning VO Tips

• For the love of all things holy, do not use robo-voice (e.g. the text to speech type of audio) in final e-learning projects. Your learners will want to kill you. Using it for scratch audio is fine in the interim, but not for final projects.
• Receive stakeholder sign-off ahead of sending VO scripts for recording – this will save you a lot of money in the event that the reviewers make considerable changes to the script during review. It will also streamline your production.
• Please, please, please, do not duplicate onscreen text and VO for the same slide content. It’s painful and unnecessary.
• Maintain the same voice throughout your script (e.g. active/passive, etc.) to ensure consistency.
• Include prompts to your narration, where necessary. For example, “Click each button to learn more.”
• Aim for brief and concise VO scripts per slide. No one wants to listen to 1-5 minutes of audio. Keep it simple and to the point, and supplement with onscreen text. Not the other way around.
• For complicated content, or content heavy in the acronym department: include a pronunciation table. Everyone pronounces things differently, and your VO artist will likely be unable to read your mind…because they’re humans too.
• For courses containing multiple modules, use the same VO artist for consistency.
• When you receive audio recordings from your VO artist, proof the recordings to ensure accuracy…because again, the VO artist is only human and humans make mistakes from time to time.