Fixing the problem with voiceovers

You will not experience a lot of voiceovers in digital learning resources developed by Sprout Labs. There are a few reasons for this but the main one is that we think voiceovers are just a lazy way of delivering information. It's an approach that is based on the bad face-to-face practice of someone talking to PowerPoint slides. Most authoring software makes these approaches easy – you build a slide then simply add a voiceover, just like you might in an average classroom delivery.    

I haven’t seen any evidence that this works. What we do know is that learning needs to be active, and that learning technologies offer many exciting and flexible possibilities for making interactive experiences.

What’s the problem with voiceovers?

They reduce learner control

When a learning experience is driven by voiceovers to which the learner must listen before they can move on to the next screen or activity their control is reduced. The learning experience is restricted to the pace of the voiceover. Removing the learner’s choice doesn’t fit with a learner-centered approach. Many organisations talk about developing a learning culture and enabling learners to be self-directed yet they make elearning resources with voiceover where the learner cannot freely navigate. It's a subtle way of saying to learners that they don't really control and direct their own learning experiences.

They’re boring

Often these approaches involve just one person doing the voiceover. In media like radio or documentaries there is usually a mix of people; rarely do they rely on a single voice. It's the repetition that makes it boring. Digital learning is about using rich media and very much needs to be more than what a presenter would usually say during a PowerPoint session. To illustrate this, consider the huge range of sound effects that accompany film and television shows as a means to convey emotion. If you take a close look at content that uses voiceovers like news or documentaries, the actual voice segments are brief and are mixed with interviews or other presenters talking.

They’re harder to maintain

Most of the resources that Sprout Labs build are maintained and updated by our clients. Voiceovers are hard to change and update. They involve skills around sound editing and an understanding of recording techniques. Our voices can change subtly each day, and this can be readily picked up in a voice recording. This means that it’s rarely satisfactory to replace small sections of content – the whole voiceover often needs to be redone.

They create accessibility issues

Learning resources with voiceovers need to have closed captions and text alternatives added in order to be accessible for learners with hearing difficulties. Closed captions are also often used by learners for whom English is not the first language. While relatively low bandwidth, audio can still create data usage issues on mobile devices. Using voiceovers is often seen as a way to address the issue of poor literacy, but in reality using clear, plain English can solve the majority of literacy problems.

In industries like healthcare, pharmaceutical, finance, engineering and information technology, and a variety of other professional services, the minimum entry requirement is a university degree. In these sectors, literacy is typically not a challenge.  

Beyond PowerPoint – mobile learning

The way we are interacting with digital content is changing. There has been a huge increase (especially in Australia) of the use of mobile phones. An Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) 2013–14 communications report says that mobile phone accounts now outnumber Australians: for every person in Australia there are 1.3 mobile phone accounts.

This is leading to a rethink of how elearning is being authored, with new tools like Adapt and Glasshouse inspired by web design techniques. They are not simply PowerPoint conversion tools. They use scrolling pages, and are responsive, so they work across multiple devices.  

When should voiceovers be used?

They can be great when they’re used for what I call ‘first person’ training experiences, for example for demonstrating a skill or process where someone is talking about how they would go about doing the task. This first-person style of narrative is common in software training.

What to use instead of narrative voiceovers

Written text

Written text is not necessarily a bad thing although problems can arise depending on how much text is used and the style of the text content. One of my frequent challenges to the Sprout Labs instructional designers is that they have an allowance of only seven words to use to explain a concept. We often use characters who act as guides for the experience, with speech bubbles (and therefore limited space for text!) If a learning experience does need lots of background information we’ll move it into an ebook or handbook.

Explainer style videos

Explainer style videos that are a combination of visual and audio can offer powerful and engaging learning experiences if they are not used too often. The important thing is to still give the learner the ability to choose to pause and control the video.

A mixture of people and approaches

Instead of the voiceover just being a single person talking try to use more speakers, or add interviews with other people (these could be audio or video).

Digital learning offers a rich set of possibilities for designing performance-focused interactions that use rich media. Hopefully, this blog post has given you some ideas about media that will prompt you to reconsider the use of written text in digital learning.