Enjoying Narration for E-Learning Voiceover

I always wanted to be a teacher, largely because I was fortunate to have great teachers in the public and private schools that I attended as a kid: I knew from experience these teachers had a vital impact. Working with brilliant tutors at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland where I earned my Master's with Honours (2-1) in English Language and Literature reinforced my love of learning and of teaching. A few years before launching my career as a voiceover talent I interviewed at Simmons College in Boston and was considering following a career in teaching.

So I'm not a licensed teacher...but when I record e-learning voiceovers, that is my character. I assume the role of teacher, mentor, colleague, and friend. Sometimes I imagine that I am talking to a lecture hall, although it may seem against the rule of "speaking to one person" in voiceover. Mostly, I am speaking to a colleague who wishes to know more. I imagine my chair pulled up next to theirs, with me leaning over pointing to their laptop screens and papers...drawing out examples on my own notepad as I explain a point in further detail. For e-learning voice overs, the narrator is far more than an announcer. He or she is a mentor and a colleague: a teacher.

When I first recorded e-learning voiceovers years back part of me thought "Ugh. 10,000 words of technobabble." That impression was wrong. As an effective e-learning voice over talent, one ought to learn the content. You can't just become familiar with it, and you can't just read it cold using your bag of voiceover tricks; that would result in a painful e-learning voiceover. I've heard many strong narrators in e-learning voiceover sound perfectly bored and lifeless even though their voice is clear and strong. In e-learning voiceovers, You have to think like a teacher: "This is what I've learned, and this what I'm sharing with you."

For e-learning voice-overs, I'm given the responsibility to connect with the listener through content that really matters: content that trains future engineers or reinforces the knowledge and skills of engineers and other professionals, and content that improves the exchange of ideas and knowledge. When so much in the media is merely distraction and diversion, e-learning voice overs are a welcome opportunity to be a part of contemporary teaching.