by Rick Zanotti 
One of the key elements in multimedia and eLearning development is sound. Without it, the content is bland, boring and often forgotten.
If you're not using audio in your eLearning you are losing more than half your audience, and that is never a good thing. If you think audio is too expensive to use, think again!
The first step to consider is whether you do your own audio or hire a voice talent to do it for you. This will depend on your budget as well as your skill set. Another thing to consider is whether your content will change often or be pretty stable.
If your content changes often, make sure you budget enough money to re-record audio as needed. In this scenario, it may be cheaper to do the audio in-house.
If your content remains stable and requires few changes over time, going to external voice talent can be more cost-effective. Talent rates are flexible and can range from $75-$250/hour depending on the talent. On the other hand, rates can jump as high as $600 per hour even though the end result isn't any better than what you would get by going with the less expensive talent.
Voice-over talent can be found at www.voice123.com and www.voices.com. You can also find talent at local radio stations, college theatre groups and maybe right inside your own company.
About the author: With over 35 years of experience in IT and Learning, Rick Zanotti is an instructional designer, multimedia author, voice-over talent, video producer and Management consultant. He has managed multi-million dollar projects and believes in a simple and practical approach to providing solutions. Rick founded RELATE Corporation 26 years ago, a successful eLearning and media development company. Rick teaches our Audio Basics for eLearning online class.
You can also consider using online text to speech applications, more even so if your text content changes often. Nowadays, text to speech quality is near-to-human and can provide substantial savings for speech-enabling text content for education purposes.
Posted by: ReadSpeaker | November 03, 2010 at 09:48 AM