It’s been around for almost a decade. E-learning remains a gold mine of voiceover jobs, maybe not the well paid ones, but you shouldn’t rule out earning a living with these long and mostly tedious recordings.
Today’s technology has opened up vast new job opportunities never imagined 10 or 20 years ago. Whereas most of these opportunities used to be limited to nearby companies or within commuting distance, now job seekers can surf the Internet and search for work far beyond their immediate localities, and even internationally.
For voice-over actors, this means a broadening of their options.
In the voice-over and voice-acting industry, the Internet is playing a vital role in providing unique and solid opportunities for voice actors to earn a living doing what they love. Voice actors would typically provide the voices for commercials and corporate narratives. They would dub character voices for cartoons and anime. But thanks to the World Wide Web, voice actors can now use their talents and skills online as part of the e-Learning phenomenon.
What is e-Learning?
E-learning is a fast and efficient way to teach courses online. Much of this information is normally learned in school, college and vocational settings and most commonly at companies, where getting a grasp of ethics or safety rules is part any job. Today, however, educators at all levels are seeing the benefits of providing at least some of this material on their websites or through the company’s Intranets, so that students can have easy access and learn more quickly.
A wide variety of e-Learning tools are available, from e-books and pdf’s, to videos and power point presentations, to interactive lessons and webinars. Webinars are instructional videos that bring the classroom to the student. They are seminars that take place on each participant’s computer simultaneously. Businesses have jumped on the e-Learning bandwagon because they recognize that this is probably the most effective way to teach their employees and to educate their clients on specific aspects of their business.
Many of these e-Learning methods need narrators who can bring the material alive and make the video personable. Expressive voice qualities and timbres can add creative richness to the video’s message.
This is a growing niche that most people off the street cannot do well. They may be great at sales or at the top of their careers and know the material like the back of their hands, but only those who have been trained to dramatically read parts can fill this void.
More and more companies that are offering e-learning services today are looking for voice actors who can record materials for them. Suddenly, with a whole new field opening up, the competition for what used to be only a few available jobs has dropped dramatically. This means that you will have a much greater chance of landing a good job if you consider using your skills as a voice actor for e-learning services.
Tips on Recording e-Learning Audios
Since this is a brand new field, jumping into e-learning voice-overs without some practical guidelines might put you at a disadvantage. So, here are some quick tips on how to record the audio for these videos in a way that will create a satisfying learning experience for the students.
Peter Drew, a famous voice actor, specializes in bringing e-Learning videos alive. He has practical tips for voice actors who are considering this exciting field:
- Make sure your script is properly formatted so it is easier to read.
- Watch out for page breaks in the script that split up sentences or paragraphs. Make a note so that you will be able to anticipate them, or else re-write the paragraphs on one page or the other
- Have pronunciation and acronym guides handy.
- Mark any words that need emphasis; underline them or change them to bold or italics.
Remember that e-Learning producers are looking for voice actors who know how to bring excitement and impact to the script without being overly melodramatic.
Put yourself in the viewer’s shoes. Say the script the way you would like to hear it if you were a student taking the e-Learning class or an entrepreneur trying to master a webinar. The right inflection and expressive flow can make even the driest material fascinating and memorable.
Give us your opinion:
With e-Learning exploding as an educational media tool, do you think that this is becoming a genuine job opportunity for voice actors? Why or why not? Share your thoughts below!
Nosotros grabamos, el pasado año, miles de proyectos de e-learning. Seguimos haciéndolo . Suerte Constantino.
Excellent, thank you for these valuable tips.
I specially like the point made that pro narration skills bring life to material (‘tedious’ or otherwise!). Yes, there is scope for that if you set out to find it. A further thought is that the boom in e-learning creates opportunities for people who have editorial skills to tighten up copy which, again, may not have been the work of a pro even if the compiler was ever so enthusiastic about the subject!
With a friend getting into creating content for e-learning, this article is more than timely. I’ve shared it with her and will pass it on, if I may, to others on her e-learning forums. On those forums, there is much discussion of how to make e-learning modules more professional. Some people do not see the value of investing in good video and/or VO work, while others do have the wisdom to see the advantage. This article will truly be helpful to the discussion. Thanks for the writing!
Where can I receive info. on available e-learning jobs for voice actors?
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