Converting learning material that you have developed for your learners into MP3 Audio is a great way to reach busy trainees and offer students more flexible ways to learn.
Some of our trainees work day and night and try to fit their study into their busy schedule. A lot of them are on the road, traveling from site to site so why not use that time to learn? Converting text books, manuals, or other eBooks into Audio makes this possible.
* Note, be sure to check the copyright information of any text you are converting to audio. For more Copyright info, check out the copyright resrouce sites listed on the eLearning Kit.
Here are some tools that can help you achieve this;
First you need a free Text to Speech (TTS) Program
Other options;
- Speakonia
- .Project Gutenberg is probably the best known site to find these. You can search by topic, find the book you would like to read and download it.
The last two do not convert the text directly to Mp3 format – just .wav format. Also, Spesoft has more choices on recording quality.
Then you need to get your Book/ Text
You’ll need to convert your Word document into a .Txt file for the Spesoft program (above).
If you’re looking for resources, there is a number of copyright expired books out on the web.
Open the Book in your text to audio software
Open your text to audio program. If you’re usinf Spesoft, follow these steps;
- Click on the Load Text from File button.
- Navigate to the text file you want converted in the dialog box.
- Select file, and click Open.
- The text from the file will appear in the program window
- Hit Record and Create Audio File
- Give the file a name and click Save
Note: Spesoft Test to Speech software also allows you to choose different voices, adjust the speed, pitch and volume of the voice and adjust the recording quality.
Note: Start by setting the Output Quality and Sample Rate as high as possible and check the file size. If it’s huge, run the program again and choose slightly lower settings until you find a happy medium!
