7 Tips To Choose The Best Voice For E-Learning Voice Over

 In life, you might have definitely come across at least someone who had a powerful voice to inspire or encourage people to take action. This is the power of voice, and you can now implement the same in your eLearning courses as well. Gone are the days of traditional teaching in classrooms, as most educational institutes are now launching eLearning courses for their students to upskill themselves. 

The brains of students are completely tuned for responding to the words and expressions of confident speakers or teachers. Therefore, it is important for you to get the right voice actor for narrating your eLearning course. Having the ideal voice is the most important factor of an eLearning course, which can either make or break it. 

Therefore, it is important to look out for an artist to give the best voice for your eLearning course. Undoubtedly, audio is meant to add a very engaging element to almost all eLearning courses. But before you hire any expert professional for the job, here are some tips to take your eLearning voice narration to the next level.

A] The Importance Of Professional Voice-Over In E-Learning

Voice is considered the key component in every eLearning course, which plays the role of grabbing and holding onto the attention of students. Even though you have the best script for your eLearning course, it is the narrator’s voice that decides whether the course is a success or failure. 

The eLearning courses are mostly sessions of one or more hours, and it is important for people to be attentive to them. The voice shouldn’t sound too amateurish or too complex for the students to understand. Therefore, a professional e-learning voice-over artist with certain qualities, such as good tonality, pronunciation and range, is what you must look for. 

B] 7 Tips To Choose The Best Voice For E-Learning Voice Over 

Here are the seven tips that you must take note of while hiring the best voice-over artist for your eLearning course.

1. Human Connection Is Important

You all might be aware of how virtual assistants sound, such as Cortana, Alexa, or Siri. They do answer your questions in a human-like pitch and provide you with the required information. But, no matter how refined their voices are, they still sound robotic and non-human. Therefore, using an automated voice for your eLearning courses might look like a cheaper settlement, which will repel students from opting for them. 

You must look out for professionals who have the right human skills to narrate the lessons and their concepts briefly, using the right tone, pronunciation, punctuation, and other such considerations, just like teaching in a traditional classroom. 

Avoid looking for cheaper alternatives, and raise your budget to get an E-learning voice-over done by a human artist. 

2. Look For Experienced voice actors

You might be absolutely tempted to have an eLearning course that’s voiced by your experienced teachers or faculty members who know the content better. However, you must be sure of the fact that your faculty members or the course designers are comfortable sharing their voices for the eLearning course. This is because teaching in a classroom and giving an audio lesson are two different things. 

As an alternative, you can consider hiring special eLearning voice actors who are professionals in this field. Such actors are trained specifically to handle all forms of delivery for the courses that are meant for kids and teens. These professionals can interpret the text in a manner such as to attain a playful or serious tone, depending on what’s required.

3. Select According To The Course 

The key to getting the right voice artist for your eLearning course is to follow the content strictly. Consider the subject matter as your prime factor for shortlisting a voice artist. For instance, if you are providing an online course with complex theories and concepts, you might need someone with a very authoritative voice. On the other hand, if the target group of your course are kids, the tone should be humble and playful. 

Beyond that, you must also consider the cultural backgrounds of the targeted audience, along with their societal norms. Depending on what your course demands, go for either a stern & intense or young & playful voice.

4. Fluency In The Local Language And Dialect Is A Must

When you are launching an eLearning course for a diverse audience across various countries or regions, you must ensure there are translations available to make the course understandable to varying students. Most people use software to make the translation, which is not the right approach. 

It is because the machine translation might be right in terms of words, but the voice delivery might seem clipped and asynchronous, which won’t be enticing for the students to continue with the course. 

This is an important tip because translations through machines won’t be able to replicate the phonetics and tonality of the original voice. Moreover, the meaning of some words gets changed in the process of machine translation! Therefore, it is better to invest in hiring a native voice artist for your eLearning translations. 

5. The Artist Must Be Easy To Work With

It is possible to encounter mistakes the first time, as you will be handing over a fresh script to the voice artist. However, individuals offering professional voice over services must accept revisions to understand the pauses required, expected tone, preferred rhythm, and other such parameters while recording the eLearning courses. 

It is because different courses have varying voice expectations, and even experienced professionals need multiple takes to master the tonality. Therefore, be clear with your artist about the possible revisions that will be required for recording the eLearning courses. But at the same time, do consider hiring a professional who has the right skillset to adhere to different voice requirements in minimal takes. 

Remember, a professional artist doing voice-over for an E-learning course will always share with you the best quality sound clips for your project. But, they will also be open to taking your feedback and making the necessary changes to meet your expectations on demand.

6. The Artist Must Have A Portfolio In Your Niche

What’s the niche you are making an eLearning course on? Well, this is not something that you will be asked, but you should direct your search for the best voice artist with this as one of your base considerations. No matter how experienced a voice artist is, if he/she hasn’t worked on your niche, you might have to spend a lot of time to make them understand your requirements. 

So, ask for your niche-specific portfolio from the shortlisted voice artists, and then review their samples to decide if they are worth the pick or not. 

7. Check The Artist’s Online Reviews 

Finally, the last thing you must count on before finalising the voice artist is online reviews. Do check the various web platforms to find reviews and ratings of shortlisted voice artists. Validate the reviews they have received from their prior clients, which would act as an indication of their professionalism and consistency. 

Check for both positive and negative reviews of the artists, and decide on what’s more relevant and important to judge the experience of the professional. Based on your personal assessment and project requirements, finalise your call for the best artist!

Conclusion

Your eLearning course is definitely impactful for the students to learn and grow in their academics and career perspectives. But, when you can’t express the lessons in the manner they are meant to, the conceptual understanding gets lost in the wind. So, if you don’t want your hard work to go wasted, it is time you look out for the right voice artist to record that course. 

If you are tired of looking for a suitable voice artist, look no more, as Peter Abraham is here to provide you with an astounding voice to make your eLearning course sell and be referred to in high numbers. Get in touch and get your price quote right away!

Peter Abraham

Peter Abraham is a versatile voice-over artist based in Mumbai working in the voiceover industry since 2009. With a passion for storytelling and meticulous attention to detail in every project, he brings scripts to life with his captivating voice and professional delivery, exceeding client expectations. Whether it's a commercial or an audiobook, Peter specializes in a wide range of voice-over work, ensuring the highest quality.