Regardless of your field, you may come across a time when you need to create an eLearning script. There is a lot involved in creating effective eLearning, from the content to the script itself to the voice over you choose for the final product.
When might you need an eLearning script?
When someone mentions eLearning, your mind may automatically jump to the student taking an extra online class or someone trying to learn a new skill. Sure, these are valid forms of eLearning, but they are certainly not the only forms. Now, more than ever, we are seeing a surge in eLearning, and it covers everything from elementary school classes to businesses to learning that new hobby or skill.
What this tells us, is that no matter what you do, you may find yourself needing to create an eLearning video. An eLearning video offers instruction and can help your employees, your customers, your clients, or your students learn something in an effective manner. And with that, comes a script and possibly a voice over. You’ve got to get both of these right so your video will be engaging, compelling, and effective. Here are some examples of eLearning videos for different fields and purposes:
- Yoga instruction
- Online classroom instruction
- Corporate onboarding
- Home improvement
- Sales training
And the list can go on and on. Now let’s take a look at how to get your script and voice over just right so your eLearning is the best it can be.
Creating an eLearning Script
Of course, the tone of your script is going to have a lot to do with your audience and your purpose. The script for your 3rd grade science class will be very different in tone than your friend’s script for his safety protocol video at his business. And your friend who is a landscaper is going to have a very different tone in his eLearning piece on how to get your lawn ready for winter. All of these scripts will be quite different, as well as the voiceover for them. Yet, they’ll have a few things in common.
A Natural Flow
No matter what your eLearning video is about, the script should have a natural, organic flow. Let’s stick to our landscaper friend and work on the eLearning script that he may have on his website for his customers. This is a great business technique; sometimes customers want to do things for themselves and it’s okay to share your knowledge and help them do so. You want the script to have a nice, natural flow and be easy to listen to and follow. For example, here’s a short, 15 second script he may use for his website for eLearning purposes:
Welcome, friends, let’s talk about fall fertilizer. The key is fertilizing your lawn before your grass is dormant. Then it’s all ready for a nice winter’s sleep.
This may just be the intro piece to the full eLearning video, but you’ll need a separate script for that as well. The flow here should be natural and friendly, something that welcomes your audience in and makes them want to stay.
A Friendly but Professional Tone
As important as that natural, organic flow is, you also need a friendly tone that’s professional at the same time. Think about it, you want your eLearning audience to be comfortable, but also know that they are going to be learning something of value. So be careful not to be too chummy, but not too formal, either.
This is where your voice over will come into play, too. Seek out a voice over artist who can read your eLearning script in just the tone you want. As this article from our own Bunny Studio shares, When you add voice to video, you enhance your viewers’ understanding and engagement. If you do it right, you’ll also establish a more meaningful emotional connection.
This is the purpose of your eLearning script, after all. ELearningindustry.com shares how important it is to form that connection while enhancing your viewer’s understanding. Sure, you could have a video without a voiceover, but how effective would that really be?
Let’s take a look at our friend the landscaper’s eLearning script and see how he incorporates warmth and friendliness into it while maintaining his professionalism. This is about a 30-second long script:
As we get ready for winter, we all know we’ve got to take care of our lawns. What does our grass want? How about a nice long rest during winter and to have all the nutrients to be healthy and green in the spring. Doesn’t sound like a bad plan, does it? Now here’s how to get those nutrients to your lawn.
Now let’s think about the voice over we want to go with this. You can hear that friendly tone, and it’s also a professional, knowledgeable one. For the voice over, you want to maintain the same tone. Stay away from the stuffy or condescending voices, as well as the street-savvy ones. Age might be around middle age, you know, like the friendly neighbor you enjoy talking with over the fence. The best voices for eLearning scripts are those that are relatable with conversational tones.
Keep it active
Now we get to the fun stuff, like the grammatical components of an eLearning script. One important thing to do in your script is to keep the active voice. Active sentences and verbs are more engaging, stronger, and to the point. They also are less wordy so you get more bang for your buck. Here’s an example of each, see which sounds better.
It’s that time, friends, for your lawn to be winterized. Lawns should be fertilized before it gets too cold and this can help your grass stay healthy all winter long. When spring comes, healthy root growth will be promoted and the grass will have been given an advantage already. Spreading a good layer of fertilizer is essential, and the spreading of the seed should be done in even layers before the ground is frozen. This allows good absorption of the fertilizer by the grass. Don’t forget to water afterward, as water is important for that absorption as well. Also, mowing is important to your lawn, and the lawn should continue to be mown until the grass is no longer growing.
It’s time, my friends, time to winterize your lawn. Let’s fertilize before it gets too cold and help ensure your grass stays healthy all winter. Healthy roots will thrive when spring comes as you’re giving your grass great advantages with this round of fertilizer. As you get ready to fertilize now, make sure to use a good fertilizer and spread it in even layers. Let’s do this before the ground freezes, so the grass can absorb as much fertilizer as possible. Watering is essential, too, to help the grass absorb the fertilizer. And whether you want to or not, keep mowing that grass until it’s no longer growing. Then it can do its thing all winter, and you’ll have gorgeous grass in the spring.
The second eLearning script is in the active tense throughout, while the first one has some passive tense. Do you see that the active tone can be more conversational; it’s more how we naturally speak. You also have more room to add more information.
Your eLearning script should allow your audience to learn
Another of our articles offers this advice when creating eLearning scripts and videos, you want one that will enable your audience to acquire new knowledge and skills in a less tedious and more interactive way, and according to their own learning pace.
That’s the point of eLearning, right? To learn and engage at your own pace? So through a conversational and easy to listen to script, you can help your audience do this. Another way to look at eLearning script writing is to think about how you want to learn. You probably learn best through positive and uplifting interactions. So you should want to offer your audience confidence, without being condescending or nagging.
Choose an awesome, engaging voice
Most people don’t love their own voices, especially on recordings. But luckily, you can hire a voice artist. When you work with a voice service like Bunny Studio, you’ll have tons of great voices to choose from, and you can find one to get across just the right vibe.
Here’s a scenario. You are a yoga instructor and during the pandemic, you’ve decided to offer eLearning yoga classes. When you practice yoga, it’s a beautiful thing, but you just don’t think your voice is the one to be narrating the videos. So take some time and write a script that defines your demeanor. Then when your script is ready, find a voice actor with just the right inspiring, uplifting, soothing voice you want. You’ll see how it all comes together for a beautiful, harmonious thing.
Now your lawn care video will probably want a different voice narrating it, just like your third-grade science class eLearning video. The beauty of eLearning scripts is that you can find almost any voice out there to fit the script and the audience. And when it all comes together as an engaging, finished piece, your audience will be ready to take in your instruction.
The big takeaway on eLearning scripts
Elearning is where it is right now. Pandemic or not, people are seeing the benefits of learning in their homes at their leisure. And business owners, educators, and entrepreneurs are seeing how they can still teach from far away. The key is to have a great, engaging, conversational, eLearning script, and then a matching voice over to carry on the vibe. Think of what you can do with this, there are no limits. And, of course, let us know at Bunnys Studio how we can help!
