Paul Boucher - Blog , eLearning

eLearning And Padded Rooms

Mon, 22 Jan 2024 01:32:06 +0000

A voice actor with a track record of success in eLearning is NOT a one-trick pony in the conventional sense.

Undoubtedly, actors working actively in eLearning record that sort of content more than any other. That's a function of the time and dedication it takes to get it right.

They've arrived at their chosen way to spend time talking to themselves in a padded room via unique attributes and convergence of circumstances.

In a word: experience.

I should add here that by "unique" and "experience," I mean attributes that are unique to the specific voice actor's journey to the craft of narration - not just distinctive versions of expected voice acting skills like interpretation, clear enunciation, versatility, pacing, and some subject matter knowledge.

In my case specifically, since English was my second language, I LOVED, for lack of a better expression, "showing off" that I could get all the words right and knew what they meant. It meant incessant reading while learning the language. I still read voraciously on various subjects, which serves my clients well. I usually arrive with at least a notional frame of reference for the content, no matter how esoteric. This saves Instructional Designers and clients time by not having to explain anything other than jargon that may be specialized and client-specific.

It meant perfecting the accent (as in NOT having one in Canadian and Standard American English) and refining my Canadian French to reflect a Quebecois sound more than anything else.

As a successful broadcaster (I started speaking into microphones professionally when I was 15), I looked for work like commercials further afield. Still, it was natural for me to specialize in non-broadcast narration in the market I live in.

That specialization began for me in 1997 because Alberta, Canada, is home to the world's third-largest proven oil and gas reserves. The scale and scope of the energy industry assured a steady demand for onboarding, compliance, and many technical narrations on process, chemistry, engineering, etc.

Pause for a moment and think of everything within hand's reach that the energy industry produces: materials for your smartphone, technical clothing for your workout, the soles and fabrics of your runners, the paint used in your decor, and the hair products used in your next hair appointment.

You can imagine the variety of topics covered in eLearning related to the energy industry.

Talk to any eLearning narration professional, and you'll discover a remarkable, sometimes extraordinary, path to their daily work for their clients.

That experience is why they can make your content live and breathe for learners.

There's an old saying, "If I do a job in 30 minutes, it's because I spent 10 years learning how to do that job in 30 minutes."

That experience makes your chosen voice actor an expert and engaged narrator, which helps to complement instructional design with excellent educational fundamentals, often with winning results for companies the learning was designed for, and awards within the profession. I've been the narrator for two award-winning eLearning series for global and national companies.

Those recent successes are part of my journey to the next project. Perhaps yours. So, now, back to enjoying my padded room, and learning and teaching.

Contact Paul

Different Types of eLearning

Sun, 21 Jan 2024 22:33:32 +0000

My first involvement with eLearning was in 1997 narrating what was then called a “multimedia” course for Microsoft’s Office '97.

The art, craft, and science of creating eLearning has evolved and naturally specialized over the years. All of the educational and technological fundamentals need to be there, but the execution of the narrative matters more now than ever.

Differences in the narration approach of the learning, both subtle and dramatic, can help to make or break eLearning for different learners in different institutions or industries.

Education and infotainment consumers are more sophisticated and exposed to more forms of well-produced content than ever.
Generational differences present in most workplaces and how each accesses and digests information add another layer of complexity for instructional designers.
Government, medical, aerospace, heavy industry, and corporate sectors are all quite different not only in their content, but in the way the content is approached.

When a human voice actor conveys the content, they can adapt, and adjust the narrative style to suit the context.

The engagement style with the content is different for an ethics and compliance program or a citizenship exam that it would be if you’re performing to bring to life an animated avatar in a virtual reality eLearning setting. The level of empathy required for a medical narration is notably different than that of the narrator conveying how to disassemble and reassemble a rocket engine.

That’s not rocket science to imagine. Sorry, not sorry.

When scoping out prospective narrators make sure they’re able to address the learners your clients are targeting. Do they have examples of sector-specific styles you can listen to? That’s your first and best clue. Listen here to see what I mean.

Contact Paul

Narration By The Pound

Sun, 21 Jan 2024 22:13:21 +0000

Last time I addressed time and narration in the context of eLearning, it was to counter one of the most ridiculous practices in the industry: per-word pricing.

It got me thinking about time and eLearning in another way.

eLearning projects vary across the spectrum from a time requirement, from a few minutes of almost “explainer-video” style content, to tens of hours of training for various companies with complex education and training needs.

Whether it’s driven by the retail marketing technique of getting MORE FOR LESS, or other factors, why does more time equal fewer dollars in many cases? For example, if there’s a 12-16 hour project, the ideal scenario is that the professional voice actor selected should be JUST as engaged at hour 16 as they were at hour one.

In many businesses, when a prospective client offers that size of contract, there is often a “price consideration” expected for volume. That’s an expectation of a “discount” if you’re following along at home.

Let’s just deal with the logic of this. “…We’d like your full engagement for the full 16 hours, over multiple days, and multiple audio sessions, and expect perfect consistency from one session to the next, which we know involves both technical and performance craft, but we’d like to pay you progressively less as the project goes on, so that by the end, you’re essentially working at a 20-50% discount. How does that sound?”

A negotiation is just that, and education is as much a part of it as anything else. A lot of potential eLearning clients, with no professional narration experience never give a second thought to the enormous amount of experience, craft and technical skill involved in accomplishing a long project over multiple days, weeks or months. Just the continuity required in being the SAME PERSON for each of those 16 hours is remarkable. So, really, there’s an argument for paying a voice actor MORE as a project extends into multiple hours of finished narration, not less.

Among other things, both voice actors and eLearning clients should expect a negotiation on that length of project to include written requests for a guarantee on the amount of finished work, or failing that, perhaps offering/being offered a tiered rate structure that offers a progressive discount as the work materializes, with agreed upon thresholds at which discounts take effect.

Of course, then there’s just the possibility that an actor will quote based on the simple objective metric of the amount of narration provided, and the client will concur.

Thanks for reading. Respectful discussion is always welcome.

Contact Paul

Per Word Pricing: Absurd

Sat, 20 Jan 2024 01:04:25 +0000

Over the past decade, some clients have requested estimates for their eLearning projects based on a “per word” cost.

This practice originates outside of North America, and is an unfortunately ill-advised practice that works against an objective pricing structure arrived at over many decades of practice for non-broadcast narration.

Let’s start with the basics for both client and voice actor: as a voice actor, you’re not selling words. You’re selling narration. Your finished product is measured objectively in one of two industry-sanctioned ways.

The time spent doing the work (also flawed, but accepted practice with industry mandated “minimums”), or
By the amount of finished narration you provide, usually broken out into segments, of 5 to 10 minutes, or even “per-finished-minute”, with prices also affected by usage (online, or strictly non-broadcast).

Narration is not just “words”. If it were just words, certain words would have more value.

For example, the word “Otorhinolaryngologist”, has a bit more heft than the word “and”. Why shouldn’t a voice actor charge more for that word? Can you imagine THAT estimate process?!

Also is 1985 one word? MS Word thinks it is, but it’s actually nineteen-hundred-and-eighty five, or at the very least nineteen-eighty-five.

These sorts of semantics are to be polite, ridiculous.

When arriving at pricing in any field, the more objective the metric, the better.

In the case of narration that’s the amount of supplied “product”, or narration. So, the accepted practice of “per-finished-minute” pricing, or pricing by segment, with a minimum “get out of bed” charge is the fairest, most objective way to go about pricing narration for clients.

Thanks for reading. Respectful discussion is always welcome.

Contact Paul

Must-Haves In Voice Actors (2)

Sat, 20 Jan 2024 00:39:52 +0000

Most voice actors working outside major markets often do so without the support of a talent agency.

As a client, what that means to you is that your "solopreneur" voice actor is a one-person show in their business. You do not want a hobbyist at this point in the development process. The voice actor is often the last element selected or considered on many projects. Your turnaround requirements at this point are usually semi-urgent. Can they commit to your development timeline if they're a hobbyist or someone who does this part-time?

The voice actor you select will handle all of the messaging back and forth, draft a proposal/contract/contract response if required, conclude terms (if they set them, and inquire about yours). Then, they'll record your material, edit the audio, deliver it at the file spec you require, follow up to make sure you received everything, handle revisions if needed (did they include a free revision recording session per script?). Finally, they'll invoice and deposit the payment if it's not handled automatically. Do they offer a payment method compatible with your company? Do they have an online payment option that includes the opportunity for direct bank transfer/deposit, credit card, check?

This engagement is about the business as much as the performance. If you ignore that consideration, there will be trouble. Ensure your voice actor/business partner in the transaction can make the whole experience as delightful and friction-free as possible.

Finally – it's about the sound. People in the eLearning industry come from various backgrounds, many of them from technical or educational fields. What many are NOT, however, are audio professionals with the ability to discern (or create if they've added "narrator" to their ID job description) professional, broadcast-quality audio from …everything else on offer out there. Of course, we're not talking about audiophile quality recording here. Still, most learners will experience your content in one of the most intimate listening forums taken for granted in this era: headphones. They'll often be noise-canceling headphones that allow the listener to exclude external environments and focus on what they hear on the sound stage.

The audio stage is where the learner will experience all the hard work you put in. You and the visual artists, virtual experience designers, and of course, the client SMEs. That stage needs to be uncluttered and clear. The last thing you need is the sound of a plane overhead, a lawnmower next door, a furnace coming on, or a toilet flushing, never mind kids or dogs. Your eLearning isn't a pandemic Zoom meeting. It's a learning session.

The sound also needs to be consistent and replicable.

Your voice artist should be able to seamlessly replace pieces of training modules so it all sounds like it was recorded contiguously, even if done years apart. Is their studio setup stable? Are they using the same gear as when they recorded the original program? Have they kept that older gear or a process in place to accurately replicate the environment of your learning content they contributed to in the first place? Do they even know how to do that? A surprising number of times, when you ask that question, the answer will be no. Or worse, it will be a deflection similar to "How much can sounding the same matter? It's just a sentence or two in a 10-20-30-minute course."

That lack of attention to detail in the crucial part of their craft, their actual service/product to you is likely to be present in other parts of your dealings with them.

Experienced, professional voice actors will be able to point you to clients who could support their credibility. That's not simply a list of pretty logos on a web page. If you're embarking on a 10-20 module course for an international enterprise, shouldn't you want to vet this voice actor with someone else who's been in your position, counting on them to come through? Yes. Yes, you should.

All of the above represents a portion of what you need to establish, or what your voice actor needs to establish within a few short exchanges or in the opening minutes of a conversation about any potential project.

There’s more of course, things that might be important to you that aren’t broached here. It would be a privilege to discuss them with you. Feel free to reach out any time!

Contact Paul

Must-Haves In Voice Actors

Fri, 19 Jan 2024 00:10:25 +0000

The voice acting industry in larger cities worldwide has been mature for decades.

The voice acting industry in larger cities worldwide has been mature for decades. As a result, the industry has come to count on terrific performances captured brilliantly by professional studios using best practices, broadcast-quality recording environments, and a deep, skilled talent pool.

One of the dominant trends of the past two decades is talented voice actors joining the fray from "the regions," as one agent lovingly called anyone working from centers outside the top 5 markets in North America and regions across Europe, often to record eLearning projects.

However, the variability and quality of performances and business practices foisted on clients continue to be astonishingly haphazard to the detriment of every stakeholder in the process. That includes content producers, consumers (in this case of eLearning, learners), and over the medium to long term, the voice actors involved, and their community of peers who suffer because a significant minority of voice actors are hobbyists more than actual professionals in any genuine sense.

So, let's bring that definition out in the open to get to the first of at least three essential qualities producers should consider when hiring a voice actor. Are they professional?

pro·fes·sion·al| prəˈfeSH(ə)n(ə)l | adjective…

1 - engaged in a specified activity as one's main paid occupation rather than as a pastime.

2 - worthy of or appropriate to a professional person; competent, skillful, or assured.

In eLearning, the voice actor you hire is the end-stage project manager, working hand in hand with the other "shepherd or shepherds" involved on the development end.

A professional voice actor will:

Be reliable with the ability to deliver on time, on budget, and with above-average and adaptable communication skills (small company to large enterprise) because they do this every day, all day. It’s not an after-school special for them.
Have market-based pricing based on objective metrics.
Have traditional studio services best practices which include redundant backups, proper archival of documents and recordings, broadcast-quality sound with no extraneous noise.
Bring high-level performance craft, experience and current training, and of course a personality and point of view to the table to bring the content on the page to life

Contact Paul