Everything E-learning is booming. E-learning courses, E-learning videos, blogs and more. We can see that from the many new jobs that come across our desks daily at Voicebooking. But no two e-learnings are the same. What makes an e-learning successful? That’s what we´re taking a look at in today’s blog.
1. Who is the target audience?
Imagine, you are making an e-learning for workers on a help desk. First of all, ask yourself what knowledge they already have. A few open doors per lesson can help of course, however if the viewer has the idea that they already know the subject inside and out, then it seems that they have no reason to continue to follow the course. On the other hand, if you overwhelm them with new information, then they may well quit too; because they get the feeling that they´re not yet ready for this level. In short: research your target audience.
2. Make sure you have a good script
Many e-learnings are written by people from the relevant profession. A departmental manager from customer service for example; someone who knows everything about the topic at hand, but little to nothing about education and communication. A good e-learning script is written as spoken language. It persuades, keeps people engaged with the lesson and makes them enthusiastic. That all starts with the writing of a good script, and that is a craft in and of itself.
3. K.I.S.S.
Keep It Simple, Stupid. In spoken language you need to be clear straight away. In most cases the viewer will not rewind if they don´t understand something. In many e-learnings that isn’t even an option. Here too, you see clearly the difference between written and spoken language. Your brain has been trained to move your eyes about when reading in order to understand something. When you are both listening and watching, everything needs to fall into place straight away. So, don´t use difficult vocabulary and keep words that belong together as close together as possible. In other words, don´t work with, as I am demonstrating in this sentence, because in written language it doesn´t make much difference, parenthetical sentences. No, don´t work with broken sentences, but rather write it down more like this.
4. One more S
Let’s add one more S to the K.I.S.S. principle, straight away. S for Short. Don´t make your e-learning too long, but rather break it down into bite-size chunks. In that way you´re not only keeping the maximum attention span in mind, but you can also add more definition to the lessons. You can more clearly show what the learning goal is for each video. According to Elucidat videos are best kept to no more than 15 – 20 minutes. Handy to know: on average 120 words fit into 1 minute of spoken language.
5. Passion
I can hear you thinking: today everything has to have passion in it too. That’s right. Think about your favourite teacher at school. What made them different to the rest? Passion, persuasion, storytelling ability… They made a show of it almost. With an e-learning most often the ´teacher´ is the voice over actor. They tell the audience what’s in the script. Imagine now that the subject is: ´everything you need to know about driving on a marshalling yard ´. Well, then bringing over a passion for the subject can be quite a challenge. How the text is interpreted then, is really important. A good voice over actor brings passion over in a consistent way, without it becoming a distraction.
6. No two voice over actors are the same
Communicating something with passion demands more than simply having a nice voice then. Let’s be honest: not every e-learning subject is in and of itself sexy enough to make people (want to) listen to it. Before you know it a voice over actor is talking like a robot. If you´re working with an inexperienced voice over actor at a time like that, then just listening along for 20 minutes can rapidly become a real chore. A good voice over artist has real textual insight, knows when they need to emphasise a sentence and when to let one go, and can bring tricky material over in a way that makes it seem that bit easier than it actually is. In other words, such a voice over professional can really bring a text to life.
7. Question
What else? In general e-learnings work really well when you regularly ask questions. Are you still there? There is no better way to keep your listener concentrating on the lesson at hand. Good teachers don’t dictate the whole lesson, but throughout their explanations, regularly ask questions. It doesn´t matter whether you’re even able to hear the students answer, so long as they are thinking about it themselves. It’s much nicer than listening to a monologue for 20 minutes and will keep people engaged with the lesson.
8. All writing is editing
When it comes to voice over scripts this is a tricky one. Don’t over edit, because conjunctions and connecting words like: so, and, because, are important in spoken language. However, working as a voice over myself, I also remember having to record: ´Do you want to close the screen? Then click on the little cross in the top left hand corner of the screen with your mouse.´…Hmm, perhaps a little more editing was necessary there.
9. Silence is golden
Pauses? But that will only make my lesson longer? Doesn´t matter. Dare. To. Give. Space. To. Silences… If you are watching an e-learning there is a lot of information to work through. So, give your viewers plenty of time for that. You can opt for a literal pause, or for an action that happens on screen with some gentle music under it.
10. With a smile
We´ll finish with an important one. Have another think about a teacher at school, this time one who taught that subject you never found very interesting. In fact, you found it dull as ditch water. That is, until another teacher brought it over in a way that made it interesting. That has a lot to do with enthusiasm and passion for a subject. Look for a voice over actor who can do bring those over. Good voice over actors can do that, even if it´s the very first time they’ve read about the subject in question.
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