Not-so-serious gaming: How an old-fashioned game and some new-fangled software might change the way you embed interactivity in eLearning. By Alison Hass and Matthew Kliewer Articulate released Storyline in May, 2012. Storyline has features that allow for greater flexibility in the presentation of content, sequence of screens, and learner interactivity than Articulate Presenter. We explored Storyline’s functionality by using it to create a game of chance. Specifically, we took advantage of Storyline’s triggers, variables, branching, drag and drop, and the ability to incorporate JavaScript.   Click to play Farkle! Farkle is a dice-based game with almost as many variations as there are players in the world. Its beauty lies in the seeming paradox between the simplicity of its rules and the complexity of the players’ decisions. With virtually every turn, players are faced with the age-old conundrum, elegantly summarized by The Clash, "Should I stay or should I go?" They must decide whether to keep the points they have accrued or risk it all in the hopes of earning more. The equipment is commonplace - six dice, paper and pencil. The play is easy enough - a player rolls six dice and chooses which dice to keep and which to roll again. The scoring is addictive - earning 1,000 points or more in one turn keeps you coming back. The old, the young, and the in-between can all play and can play with equal odds of success against one another. It was the perfect little game for us to explore Storyline. We utilized several features in Storyline to build Farkle - branching, triggers, variables, JavaScript, object states, slide layers, animation, video, and audio. The complexity increased as the build progressed, and resulted in a deceptively simple game. But the basic techniques required to build it can easily be applied to many types of learning experiences. Applications in instructional design & course building Learner motivation: Learners who are given options are likely to be more engaged with the content and likely to spend more time exploring it. All the branching, triggers, and variables offer an opportunity for learners to interact with the content and/or affect the presentation of the course. In the case of Farkle, several around the office played it as a 1-player game and then immediately played it as a 2-player game, playing both the 1st and 2nd player roles. The versions aren’t different in content, but having been presented with a choice, players wanted to explore both options. The result - they spent twice as long on the game. Increased playing time with a dice game isn’t especially important, but getting learners to double their time in a training module could improve its efficacy. Content retention and application: Learner motivation is closely related to content retention - more engagement and time spent in a course means more opportunity for absorption of material. Additionally, learners who interact with content and are then given feedback have the opportunity to process information in more than one way. Rather than simply listening and viewing, they are manipulating and applying. The goal is to help the learner conceive of the skill, concept, or information in as many ways as possible; Storyline makes it (relatively) easy to accomplish this. Self-directed learning and non-linear courses: Self-directed learning is advantageous for learners because they can focus their time and energy on the content most critical to them. Allowing the learner greater flexibility in how he/she accesses the course content also makes it more likely those learners will use the course as a resource even after training, which adds value to the course.  That being said, it is also still possible to restrict a user’s movement throughout a course in Storyline, so you can require them to view certain slides before continuing. Farkle is non-linear in that a player can choose the number of players at the very beginning. It is a simple example of branching, but it shows how easy it can be to set a choice with different outcomes. Scenario-based learning: This game doesn’t have a premise, but it does put the player in control of the situation and responsible for making decisions. Farkle is pretty low-stakes decision-making, but one could easily imagine increasing the pressure to learn by telling the learner a story and some background information and then asking the learner to make decisions that will affect the outcome. (For those who want to make the experience even more immersive, Storyline’s flexibility in slotting in video could also come in handy here.) The learner internalizes the content through trial, feedback, and re-trial. Learners can explore the outcomes of poor or incorrect decisions in the safety of an eLearning course. In fact, sometimes the learner gains more understanding from the wrong choice than from choosing the correct (safe) option. In Farkle, players can play. With each round, their understanding of the risks versus the benefits is refined. Even young players or those unfamiliar with calculating probability quickly learn that it’s riskier to roll with only one die left rather than several, though either could have positive or negative consequences. Players are given immediate feedback which they can file away for future reference. The next time they are faced with a similar situation, they will likely make their decision based on the previous outcome. Feedback is critical to successful scenario-based learning. In Storyline, you use triggers to provide feedback. It works with a simple "If (this happens) then (that happens)" foundation. The trigger wizard uses drop-down menus to help you program the response to triggers (a popup window, overlay, another slide, sound, even a video). You can further refine triggers with conditions that offer more control of how and when a response is triggered.   Categorizing content: Farkle had simple categorization (the player only had to sort valuable dice from worthless dice) but a more sophisticated use of this same principle makes a valuable learning interaction. Categorizing or sorting requires learners to process information in relationship to new or previous knowledge, which helps move the content from working memory to long-term memory. Using new software to create a playable (and fun!) experience is a helpful way to learn the interface and features of a program. In our case, we learned the functionality of Articulate’s Storyline, particularly its ability to increase learner interactivity through the branching, triggers, variables, and JavaScript options. In designing this game, we discovered how to use those Storyline capabilities to more easily create scenario-based learning, embed discovery learning, build categorization interactions, and design non-linear content presentation.

Reddit interim CEO Ellen Pao resigned today after facing an all-out revolt on the site in the wake of the firing of a popular employee. The post Ellen Pao Steps Down as CEO After Reddit Revolt appeared first on WIRED.

This month’s big question is Examples of Big Impact from Technology and I’ve taken it as an opportunity to go back and look at the elements of different projects that I’ve worked on over the years that have had a big impact.  In this post, I’m going to focus on a common model that has been part of several of the highest impact projects.  At it’s core, the model is pretty simple: Guide through setting meaningful personal goals Teach how you can hold yourself accountable to those goals Help the user set up social support Teach the social supporters how they can help hold the personal accountable Send lots of reminders to the individual and the supporters This approach has been used for loan officers, automotive sales, management development, retail store management, and in lots of other industries and jobs.  In fact, we’ve also used it as a means of some fairly generic goal setting processes.  As a side note, I believe that there’s a REALLY great business to be created around this.  Goal Setting and Making Plans There’s a lot of content that already exists around the basics of goal setting, i.e., SMART goals: Specific Measurable Attainable Realistic Timely However, it’s far easier to teach someone about these than it is to help them create the goals themselves. And if you are asked to create eLearning around goal setting, PLEASE DON’T GIVE THEM A BLANK TEXT ENTRY FIELD.  I’ve seen that in courses and in design specs many times, and it’s a HORRIBLE IDEA.  Yes, I’m yelling - it’s really that bad.  Remember what it’s like when you set your own SMART goals.  It’s one thing when you provide a blank space to write your goals when you are in a classroom and there’s a teacher who can help you.  It’s quite something else when you are on a computer and you are likely not very good at this.  Actually, it’s rare to find people who really are good at setting SMART goals.  Setting SMART goals sounds so easy and takes real work. I would claim that this is a perfect situation for Performance Support. Walk them through the process Focus the question Provide prompts or ideas that can spark specific goals Show lots of examples both of goals and of plans to attach the goals Give them criteria to evaluate the goal and plan - have them rework needed items In my post Data Driven, we describe a use of this approach that helped retail store managers improve customer satisfaction.  Of course, improving customer satisfaction is a goal, but the system would drill down to specific issues such as knowledge of store layout.   We provide suggestions for particular interventions that have specific steps and particular associated goals.  In this case, the plan was as important as the goal. Accountability, Follow-up and Social Support Of course, what’s often much more important than setting goals and plans is having a game plan around accountability and follow-up.  Anyone who tries to lose weight, can tell you that it’s SO MUCH easier to talk about your goals and come up with specific plans than it is to follow-through on those plans.  There is a ton of material on how you can be better at holding yourself accountable to goals.  I roughly boil this down to: Establish importance Take responsibility Track progress Overcome obstacles Have reward / punishment system in place Reminders When you provide support for setting goals/plans, you need to be really careful to make sure that the person setting the goal actually believes in the importance of the goal and is taking responsibility for the goal/plan.  They can easily copy, paste and edit a goal/plan from one of the examples and have no real intent on implementing.  We always present why this is important and ask some questions around it.  One trick that we’ve used is to ask users to evaluate how likely they are to implement the plan.  If they don’t rate it really high, then go back to challenge the goal.  Tracking progress can be implemented in a very complex way or in a very simple way.  I’ve worked on systems with both.  In some cases, have specific days on a schedule, checking off completed items, providing ratings to evaluate progress, etc. all make sense.  In other cases, having a very simple daily/weekly check in with a standard question or two can be effective. When you do a check-in, there’s a great opportunity to provide support for overcoming obstacles.  I’ve see courses on goal setting that have lots of up-front content on overcoming obstacles (they also have blank boxes for inputting your goals).  The obvious place to put content around overcoming obstacles is when people run into obstacles.  For example, one model is that at each check-in, the user rates how well they’ve done on completing each goal.  If they rate themselves poorly, then the system can jump in and find out what the obstacles are that are preventing them from accomplishing the goal.  It can provide them some strategies.  It’s the learning opportunity that you look for.  And again, doing it as performance support makes a lot of sense. I’ve not done this as much, but having in a way for people to setup rewards and punishments for accomplishing their plans and goals is a great idea.  I’ll treat myself to a massage if I do X is a great thing to have as part of the system.  Or an account that goes up and down.  For most of the systems that I’ve worked on, the assumption is that both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards are tied to accomplishing the goals.  For example, the games that teach associates about product location in stores are fun and it’s rewarding to see the employee growth and certainly as it improves customer satisfaction, the store manager gets greater compensation and opportunities.  For automotive sales associates, the rewards were prizes, trips, etc.  And last, but certainly not least, definitely keep in mind the necessity of having lots of reminders.  Daily and weekly reminders are often really good and should have enough content to provide something of value.  Otherwise, it quickly becomes ignored. Actually, all of this can become ignored unless we step it up one more notch … Social Support I don’t know quite what to call it when you enlist other people to help hold someone accountable for goals and plans.  In some context, you might call this a support network.  I’ve seen accountability partners.  I’m going to call it "Social Support" and the people doing it "Social Supporters."  But if you know what I should call this please let me know. The idea here is pretty simple and has been used in lots of tough behavior change situations: drugs, alcohol, weight loss, etc.  Enlist other people to help hold yourself accountable. In corporate situations, the social supporters can be peers, colleagues or even your boss.  In the retail store manager example, district managers were a critical part of the system.  The retail store manager’s plan would be reviewed and approved by the district manager.  The district manager was responsible for checking in periodically and reviewing progress.  In other situations people have enlisted friends, family, etc. Most often they have some mutual interest in the outcome and willingness to accept responsibility to provide support. Of course, just like most people are not very good at setting SMART goals and coming up with associated plans, most people (including district managers) are not very good at helping to hold people accountable to their goals / plans. There’s a bit of training required to cover things like roles, alignment, how things work.  But the majority of the assistance for social supporters is best provided through performance support.  Send them periodic reminders that include specific performance suggestions based on the particular situation.  For example, "The person you are supporting just missed their check-in.  This might be a good time to jump remind them about the importance they’ve attached to the goal.  As an example - …"  In other words, here’s a template for a conversation (or email). Big Impact Certainly, it’s way easier to build some online training around all of this than to build a performance support solution that helps people set goals and plans, and setups up personal and social accountability.  So the question is whether it’s worth the effort. Well in looking at the situations where I’ve been personally involved in big impact, really moving the needle on factors like sales, customer satisfaction, loyalty - this kind of approach was commonly used.  In several of these projects, we measured participants vs. non-participants and the impact was staggering.  Of course, there’s always lots of question of the specifics - did non-participants care less? - but my strong belief and I believe it’s backed up by my experience is that this kind of approach has a BIG IMPACT. I would very much welcome thoughts around this.   More on this Topic EPSS and ePerformance E-Performance at Work: Self-Service Action and Development Planning Performance Support in 2015 eFollow-Up Performance Support Performance Support eLearning Technology Subscribe to the Best of eLearning Learning for updates from this blog and other eLearning blogs.

In the "what’s old is new all over again" category (no, I’m not talking about the disconcerting popularity of 80s "fashion") there’s a lot of talk these days about blended learning. In February, I presented at the ASTD TechKnowledge conference on new tools for Blended Learning and it turned out to be a standing-room-only session. New technology and media tools open up a whole new world of fun and useful affordances for curriculum planners and instructional designers. At the same time, creative uses of some "old media" (let’s call them "analog technologies") may carry even more weight in a curriculum. The more we move online, the more value we find in some of those tangible artifacts and face to face experiences. We’re sharing our tips for blended learning media options here. WARNING: Nerdy Instructional Design Content Ahead! As important as media selection is for an effective and engaging blended learning design, you can’t neglect the structure of the curriculum itself. In Josh Bersin’s 2004 The Blended Learning Book, he suggests two models for how blended learning takes place: flow and core + spoke. Bersin’s book was released in a pre-iPad, pre-YouTube, pre-MOOC world. The wide use of tablets has changed our view of how learning can be delivered and the types of support we can provide away from a desktop computer. In that light, I would suggest a third model is emerging today: a network approach. Here’s a summary of the three models. The flow model is a linear, more formal approach. The learner progresses stepwise through an ordered sequence of learning events, comprised of a variety of media each suited to the task. Learners start with step one, and when that’s complete they move to step two, and so on. It can be implemented all at once or designers can build out the sequence one step ahead of the learners. With the flow model, consistency of the experience can be achieved. It can result in meaningful cohort groups of learners because everyone has a set of shared and maybe even contemporaneous experiences. With the core + spoke model, learners all start with a common core learning event. However, that’s where the shared experience stops. Learners branch off in different directions to meet their own personal needs, some of which will be shared by others, but there’s no guarantee. The core + spoke model allows for the learning experience to be built out and evolve over time. It’s a more individual experience for the learners, and the common core provides the high level structure that guides the solo exploration that follows. At first glance, the network model looks similar to the core + spoke but it functions quite differently. With this model there are no core shared experiences, rather collaborative networks of people who are sharing their knowledge and also linking out to other experiences. Think of LinkedIn groups where professionals contribute to a conversation or topic and reference other knowledge sources such as books, articles, organizations, conferences, etc. While the network model lacks effective metrics to evaluate the experience of learners, the capability and vibrancy of the learning experience can be intense and fulfilling since it is driven and enriched by the learners themselves. This table shows a further exploration of the differences among blended learning models.

Finally! The post The Worst Thing About the iPhone Keyboard is No More appeared first on WIRED.

I was just asked about trends in open source for eLearning and particularly open source eLearning tools.  Probably one of the better sources on this is Jane Hart’s Instructional Tools Directory.  You can find a long list of tools broken into authoring tools, games/simulations, quiz/test tools, social media, delivery platforms, tracking and whether they support mobile.  In addition, she indicates if they are free or cost money - which is not quite the same thing as open source. Beyond that, probably the best thing to do is to use eLearning Learning to go through it’s open source eLearning and open source eLearning Tools.  Here’s some of what I pulled out.  Of course, I’d recommend skimming through eLearning Learning to find the latest and greatest. Open Source LMS Other Open Source LMS Solutions- eLearning 24-7, April 14, 2010 Open Source life, LMSs beyond Moodle- Learning Rocks, December 18, 2008 Open Source LMS- eLearning Technology, December 10, 2009 The Real Cost of a Free (Open Source) LMS!- Upside Learning Blog, April 29, 2010 The Corporate Moodle: A Tipping Point?- Learning Visions, June 26, 2009 Concerning Open Source, LMSs and SCORM: Correcting Some Common Misconceptions- The E-Learning Curve, October 19, 2009 Open Source LMS Comparison- The Learned Man, April 27, 2007 Open Source vs Commercial LMS- Learning Next, April 18, 2007 Sakai: Open Source … Open Minds by Larissa Biggers- Learning Solutions Magazine, December 13, 2009 SharePoint and the LMS - Time to Converge?- Learning on the Leading Edge, February 9, 2009 Harold Jarche » Open Source LMS- Learning and Working on the Web, June 25, 2006 Selecting an Open-Source Online Course Development and Delivery Platform- Tony Karrer delicious links, February 16, 2010 Have LMSs Jumped The Shark?- eLearning Weekly, March 20, 2009 OLAT: Swiss Quality Open Source LMS by Joël Fisler- Learning Solutions Magazine, February 24, 2010 The Right Way To Go About Open Source LMS- Upside Learning Blog, October 23, 2009 Moodle Mayhem- eLearning 24-7, April 14, 2010 Discovery Through eLearning: Moodle Goes Corporate: Leveraging Open Source - Michelle Moore- Discovery Through eLearning, April 16, 2008 Response to Donald Clark: Moodle: e-learning’s Frankenstein- Learning Conversations, March 8, 2010 More Than One LMS Option- aLearning, February 14, 2010 The Revolution is Coming: Consumer Tablets and E-Learning- eLearning 24-7, June 25, 2010 More LMS Options for Associations on a Budget- aLearning, April 25, 2010 Moodle Pros and Cons Update- eLearning Blender, June 1, 2010 Open source e-learning development tools 22: Xerte Rapid E-Learning Suite- The E-Learning Curve, December 17, 2009 LMS & LCMS Directory- eLearning 24-7, July 8, 2010 How Big is Moodle?- MinuteBio, June 12, 2009 Moodle Open Source life, LMSs beyond Moodle- Learning Rocks, December 18, 2008   Other Open Source LMS Solutions- eLearning 24-7, April 14, 2010 The Corporate Moodle: A Tipping Point?- Learning Visions, June 26, 2009 Yes, mobile moodle for iPhone is eminent, we will release open source code soon- Ignatia Webs, February 25, 2010 Open Source Authoring and Open Source eLearning Development Course Content Authoring Tools - Open Source (Free)- eLearning 24-7, June 7, 2010 CCK08 Free and reliable open source software for YOU and all of us- Ignatia Webs, September 22, 2008 Open Source E-Learning Development 5: Media Capture- The E-Learning Curve, October 14, 2009 e-Learning Authoring Tools Crash Course -- Follow Up- Learning Visions, November 4, 2009 Open Source E-Learning Development 7: Freemind- The E-Learning Curve, October 26, 2009 e-Learning Authoring Tools Crash Course -- Follow Up- Learning Visions, November 4, 2009 Free Quiz and Test Maker Tools Plus My Top 3- eLearning 24-7, September 14, 2010 Open Source E-Learning Development 20: Reusable E-Learning Object Authoring & Delivery Suite- The E-Learning Curve, December 10, 2009 RapideL-i- Clive on Learning, December 28, 2007 Free-to-use e-learning development 15: Wink Screen Capture Tool- The E-Learning Curve, November 23, 2009 Rapid Content Authoring Tools: Market, Mayhem and Reality- eLearning 24-7, August 19, 2010 Tim Wang's eLearning Blog - Great Open Source eLearning Project Links- Corporate eLearning Strategies and Development, May 2, 2007 Selecting an Open-Source Online Course Development and Delivery Platform, February 16, 2010 Flash development with open source tools- The Knowledge Supply Chain, September 14, 2009 Celtx a free and open source software for developing eLearning storyboards- Ignatia Webs, June 9, 2008 Xerte - Free eLearning Development Tool- Learning Journeys, October 28, 2008 Audacity - open source audio editing CCK08 Free and reliable open source software for YOU and all of us- Ignatia Webs, September 22, 2008 Course Content Authoring Tools - Open Source (Free)- eLearning 24-7, June 7, 2010 A few of my favorite things- Learning Next, June 14, 2008 Where are open source learning applications?- eLearning Technology, July 28, 2006 Scuttle - an open source social bookmarking tool Corporate Social Bookmarking Tools- eLearning Technology, May 21, 2008 Web 2.0 Applications in Learning- eLearning Technology, March 3, 2008 Ten tips for choosing & using social software- Learning Conversations, February 23, 2009 Enterprise 2.0- eLearning Weekly, August 1, 2009  MediaWiki and Twiki - Open Source Wikis Test LMS- eLearning Technology, September 10, 2008 10 Social Media Tools For Learning- The eLearning Coach, November 16, 2009 Web 2.0 Applications in Learning- eLearning Technology, March 3, 2008  Have LMSs Jumped The Shark?- eLearning Weekly, March 20, 2009 100+ More Wiki Tools and Resources, January 7, 2009 Joomla and Drupal - Open Source CMS Other Open Source LMS Solutions- eLearning 24-7, April 14, 2010 Open Source E-Learning Development 10: Joomla! CMS- The E-Learning Curve, November 3, 2009 Open Source E-Learning Development 9: Drupal CMS- The E-Learning Curve, November 2, 2009 The Corporate Moodle: A Tipping Point?- Learning Visions, June 26, 2009 Other Top Posts Around Open Source dimdim - World’s FREE Virtual Classroom (Open Source)!- ZaidLearn, December 26, 2007 Open Source Business Model- eLearning Technology, March 5, 2007 Open Source Web Conferencing Solutions - FREE- eLearning 24-7, July 27, 2010 A few of my favorite things- Learning Next, June 14, 2008 Open source instructional design- Clive on Learning, September 8, 2010 Open Source E-Learning Development 7: Freemind- The E-Learning Curve, October 26, 2009 To open source or not?- Learning Conversations, December 30, 2008 Why you should embrace open source- Informal Learning, February 14, 2009 Free, High Quality, Reusable Content- Daretoshare, August 22, 2009 eLearning Technology Subscribe to the Best of eLearning Learning for updates from this blog and other eLearning blogs.

"Internet Explorer 10 is fast and fluid. Everything you want to do on the web is a swipe or a tap away, and feels instant. Browser tabs and navigation controls appear only when you need them and quietly get out of the way when you don’t." Boy, if that doesn’t sound sexy…I don’t know what does! Who wouldn’t want that? We’ve just received notice from Articulate (the software that we used to create our elearning courses) that with Internet Explorer 10, our learners may have difficulty using and tracking their courses. That’s a pretty frustrating experience for our customers, as well as for the learners. We want to minimize the pain for everyone involved. TorranceLearning kicks it into gear! First, and foremost, we let our customers know right away about the issue and assure them that we will stay on top of the problem until it is resolved. Next…we contact our LMS vendors and work through a solution. Here’s our plan of action: If you own Articulate Studio ’09, please update to version 9.9. We have updated Studio on our end, and are in the process of testing files in our LMS for Internet Explorer 10 (as well as IE 8 and IE 9).   If you have mission-critical courses that need to be updated within 72 hours (and these courses are being used by Windows 8/IE 10 users), we recommend that you republish your content after installing the Studio update.   If this criteria fits your situation and TorranceLearning published your courses, let us know and we will republish your files.   Otherwise, sit tight - a fix is currently being implemented. (As of February 2013, Internet Explorer 10 is only being used by about 1.58% of the market share, due to its new release late last year.)   If you use our LMS (or are in the process of converting), we will update your course files once the patch from Articulate is completed, and notify you as soon as it is done.   We plan on updating all of our archived/stored versions of our clients’ courses, as well.   If you have questions, we’d be happy to help. Just contact us at info@torrancelearning.com. To learn more about Articulate Studio and follow the news as it happens, visit their forums at http://community.articulate.com/forums/.      

This post is part of the series on Text-to-Speech (TTS) for eLearning written by Dr. Joel Harband and edited by me. The other posts are: Text-to-Speech Overview and NLP Quality, Digital Signal Processor and Text-to-Speech, Using Text-to-Speech in an eLearning Course, Text-to-Speech eLearning Tools - Integrated Products, and seeming the most popular of the series so far: Text-to-Speech vs Human Narration for eLearning. One of the concerns raised by various comments during the series has been around the quality of the results of Text-to-Speech (TTS) Voices and if that was suitable for eLearning. This issue was partly addressed in the previous post. In this post we’ll take a different cut at it by looking at how authors can use punctuation and mark-up language with TTS voices to bring out the meaning of the text more accurately and to make them more interesting. Using these techniques a voice can be made similar enough to human narration to hold a learner’s interest during an entire eLearning course - with a retention rate equivalent to that of a human voice. Value and Concern Around Voice-Over Before we jump into this specific topic, let’s look back at some of the specifics from last month’s Big Question - Voice Over in eLearning. Here’s a very quick summary of some of the responses regarding the added learning value of a voice-over as opposed to plain screen text: Audio provides an additional channel of information which the brain can process in parallel with the visual information [Kapp]. A voice should not just read screen text [Kapp] but can optionally be supported by running subtitles at the bottom of the slide as in Captivate and Speech-Over [Joel]. A great deal more information per slide can be transferred with voice than with plain text. One minute of speech is equivalent to 125 words - which would crowd the slide considerably [Joel]. A lively and interesting voice can motivate learning and increase retention. [Mike Harrison] A voice can often express the intended meaning more accurately than plain text by changing speed, volume and pitch, emphasizing words, and pausing for emphasis [Mike Harrison] (This is the prosody that we discussed in the first post). For example: He reads well. He reads well. He reads well. It’s these last two points that relate closely to this topic. Ultimately, we would like the voice (human or TTS) to be lively and interesting, help increase motivation and learning, and convey the meaning more accurately. Some of the concern around the use of Text-to-Speech Voices in eLearning is whether you can achieve that level of voice use. Making the Author into a Voice Talent Today’s post aims to show that with state-of-the-art tools that simplify the use of markup language, like Speech-Over Professional, TTS voices can easily be made interesting as well as prosody-accurate (points 4 and 5 above). The concept presented here is a bit of a change in thinking: An author together with a TTS voice is equivalent to a voice talent! While handling the grammar quite well, the TTS voice by itself cannot know the nuances and emphases (prosody) needed to bring out the intended meaning of the sentence and will produce a compromise prosody. Authors need to fill the gap. Some people in the world of TTS call them "Text Authors." Throughout this post, we will refer to them simply as "authors" as they likely are also the course author. Authors know what the voice should sound like, they use punctuation and mark-up language to makes the TTS voice achieve the intended meaning and clarity as well as enlivening it. In some ways this is not that new for people who have worked with voice talent before. If you’ve ever worked a recording session, you will sit there and listen to what’s being said and often correct the phrasing, pronunciation, pacing, and other aspects of how the voice talent is handling the script that you have written. What we are saying is that there’s an equivalent operation when dealing with TTS Voices. You need to listen to the results and make corrections. Of course as we’ve pointed out in Using Text-to-Speech in an eLearning Course, the effort to make changes is likely substantially less. The Basics Let’s see an example of what we are talking about. Here is a clip of the TTS voice Heather reading Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poem "How I love thee?" produced by Speech-Over Professional. How I love thee? How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of Being and ideal Grace. I love thee to the level of every day's Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight. I love thee freely, as men strive for Right; I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise. I love with a passion put to use In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith. I love thee with a love I seemed to lose With my lost saints, I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life! and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death. When you listen there are a few simple uses of punctuation and markup language with Speech-Over Professional’s SAPI editor that provide some improvements to how the default would have read this. The Speech-Over SAPI editor shown above lets authors apply markup language quickly and accurately with simple text symbols, which are as easy to use as ordinary punctuation. The symbols used in this example are the em-dash (—) which inserts a 0.5 sec silent delay and the right and left arrows (⊳,⊲) which decrease and increase the voice speed by one unit. Listen to the effect of ordinary punctuation on the voice in the example: The question mark is obvious - Heather expresses it very nicely. The colon after "Let me count the ways:" gives a feeling of expectation for what’s to come. Putting a comma or period there would not give the same flow. Colons are generally used to introduce sequences to good effect. Commas are used to give phrasing and resolve ambiguous sentences. They are a powerful tool and are used more often than proper punctuation would require. Listen also to the effect of the markup language: A delay (—) was placed between "How do I love thee" and "Let me count the ways" to express a slight hesitation for thought and then again after "Let me count the ways" to further hesitate for thought before stating the reasons. Delays are also inserted throughout introduce the hesitations that make the voice more realistic. The decrease and increase in speed for groups of words give them a slight accent and emphasis. For example, the words "I love thee", "most quiet need", etc have a speed decrease before them and a return to normal speed afterwards to give them a slight accent, depth, and emotional content. The amount of accent is controlled by the amount of speed reduction two units (⊳⊳) or one (⊳). A similar effect can be achieved by the emphasis tag (!!). Also Heather’s natural slight Southern accent is because she is made from a real Southerner’s voice! Now let’s see these concepts more in detail. Using Punctuation The judicious use of punctuation goes a long way towards making the voices more expressive and precise, especially the comma and the colon. Let’s see how the prosody of the following sentence becomes clearer as we add punctuation: A color is described in three ways by its name how pure it is and its value. (no punctuation) Paul A color is described in three ways: by its name how pure it is and its value. (adding a colon for expectation) Paul A color is described in three ways: by its name, how pure it is, and its value. (adding commas for phrasing) Paul In our experience, the really good voices like Paul and Heather do quite well on their own most of the time with well-placed commas, colons, and silent delays only. Mark-Up Language As we mentioned in the first post, many "small" innovations are needed to make text to speech useful and practical. The most important of these is the programming standard Microsoft Speech Application Programming Interface (SAPI) for Windows. SAPI standardizes the way authors control TTS voices: starting and stopping the voice, controlling its speed, volume and pitch, and its flow with silent delays. Manufacturers of SAPI-standard voices implement the SAPI controls in the voice software and developers of speech applications program SAPI controls into their applications to let the user control any SAPI-standard voice. To control the properties and flow of the voice, SAPI provides a XML markup language, also called speech tags, which is added to the input text to communicate to the voice processor actions to take when converting the text to speech. Some examples: 1. Volume - The Volume tag controls the volume of a voice on a scale of 0:100. The voice will change volume at the point it encounters the tag. This text should be spoken at volume level 100. <volume level="50"> This text should be spoken at volume level fifty. </volume> 2. Rate - The Rate tag controls the rate (speed) of a voice on a scale of -10:10. The voice will change speed at the point it encounters the tag. This text should be spoken at rate 0. <rate absspeed="3"> This text should be spoken at rate 3. <rate absspeed="-3"> This text should be spoken at rate -3. </rate> </rate> Heather The Pitch tag works the same as the Rate tag. 3. Emphasis - The Emph tag instructs the voice to emphasize a word or section of text. <emph> boo </emph>! Use the Emph tag to determine the prosody of an ambiguous sentence, for example the one referred to in the first post. "He reads well" Paul "He reads well" Paul "He reads well" Paul 4. Silence - The Silence tag inserts a specified number of milliseconds of silence into the output audio stream. Five hundred milliseconds of silence <silence msec="500"/> just occurred. This is a very important tag for the naturalness of the voice. 5. Pronounce - The Pron tag inserts a specified pronunciation using the SYM phonetic language. Here is "Hello world" in SYM. <pron sym="h eh 1 l ow & w er 1 l d "/> This tag lets you instruct the voice how to say highly technical words and company slogans. See the first post for an example. 6. The PartOfSp tag lets you resolve the part of speech of a word. Notes: · Not all voices have all the tags implemented, for example, Heather does not have an emph tag. · The NeoSpeech voices in Captivate do not use the SAPI tags but rather a proprietary markup language, VTML. Speech-Over works with SAPI-standard voices only. · For more info about SAPI and its markup language, download sapi.chm from here. Automating the markup language - SAPI editor Clearly, having to type in or even paste these XML tags into the input text is time-consuming and error-prone. This is another case where a small innovation is called for: as discussed above, Speech-Over Professional has a SAPI editor that represents XML tags with simple text symbols - which makes it very easy and error-proof to insert and manipulate speech tags in the input text. Speech-Over Professional also automates the Pron tag with its Pronunciation lexicon you can use to add highly technical terms and company slogans. Bottom Line You may be thinking that some of the cost savings that you get from using TTS as compared to human voice talent is lost in this effort and that’s true. However, the rework aspect is still substantially less. Again, the best comparison is that of going through a recording session with a script. That process is very similar to what you end up with doing punctuation and markup with text to get the TTS voice to be much improved for eLearning. For me personally, this is still not the same quality as a good voice talent, but it is definitely a lower cost and has MUCH lower cost in the face of change. It’s a good balance in many situations. eLearning Technology Subscribe to the Best of eLearning Learning for updates from this blog and other eLearning blogs.

The Download is Friday, May 10, 11-3:30 It’s coming up fast…but, there is still space available! If you’ve got the time on your calendar for the next TorranceLearning Download conference, we’d love to have you! Click here to register! Writing with Images, Developing a Learning Culture, Learning Transfer: Making it stick after they leave the classroom, iPads & Kindles, & Nooks - Oh My!, Storytelling Techniques for Learning. If you’re thinking, "Wow! That sounds REALLY cool!" Then, you oughta check out our Download conference at the TorranceLearning office because these are all topics that have been discussed at previous Downloads. What is the Download, exactly? Well…there is no exact. It changes every time. It’s not really a conference. Not even a mini-conference. Well, sort of. The Download is a unique way for learning and development professionals to connect, learn and share. In a nutshell, we run several really short, concurrent discussions on a wide range of topics, all related to learning and development. You choose what you want to see, wander about as you wish. Did you notice that?  They’re called "discussions" not "presentations" — and that’s on purpose. While the person facilitating certainly has something to share, the Q&A usually goes in all directions. Many of the presentations don’t even use PowerPoint (egad!). Come on…join us!

Topics for this show include Microsoft's mobile woes, Apple Music, and the joy of streaming live concerts on the Internet. The post Gadget Lab Podcast: Microsoft Feels the Surface Tension appeared first on WIRED.