How to write scripts for eLearning

eLearning is on the up. More and more companies are switching to online education options, and on-demand training provides a way for that to happen totally on your learners’ time. But writing the content that will be narrated during your eLearning isn’t the same as writing your instructor-led training speaker notes, or even your leave-behind document. Join us as we walk through how to write great scripts for eLearning.

By the end of this course you’ll be able to:

• Identify what makes an eLearning script different from other written learning material
• Analyse existing content in order to turn it into scripted material
• Evaluate existing eLearning scripts
• Write effective eLearning scripts

This course is for you if:

• You’re new to L&D and you want a grounding in the basics
• You’re looking to broaden your L&D skillset to write effective eLearning scripts
• You have a lot of written learning material that you want to convert into scripted content
• You’re struggling to effectively evaluate scripts that you read and edit

Course content

This is your journey. Feel free to start at the beginning and work your way through, or use the menu to choose the topics most relevant to you and your skill-level.

• Why write narrated content for eLearning?
• What makes a script different?
• How to convert other written content into scripts
• Script writing – what to do
• Script writing – what not to do
• Exercise

Why write scripted content for eLearning?

Before we dive into how to write good scripts, it’s important to consider why you might want to include scripted content in your eLearning. As a content creator, you have lots of ways you can stimulate and engage learners. From interactive diagrams, to scenarios, to optional deep-dive content, to fillable journals: you have so many options at your disposal. But throwing in something cool just for the sake of it without enough intention can frustrate learners and hold them back in reaching their goal.

The same goes for scripted material. Often, it takes the form of voiceover accompanying animated content in your course. Programs like PowerPoint and Storyline make creating all sorts of animated sequences really straightforward. In fact it’s common to have an entire course narrated and animated, but that might not be what’s best for your learners. Sometimes it’s useful to have someone explain something to you and walk you through that content step-by-step, other times you’ll want to read it and go back and forward – like you might in a textbook or instruction manual.

Animated content is also helpful for changing up the pace of a piece of learning. By using it sparingly throughout a longer course, you can inject energy and tee up some particularly important learning points.

Other ways you might want to use scripts in your eLearning:

• Listen-only podcast-style content: Use this if you want your learner to take a screen break. Encourage them to take notes or sketch ideas on paper during this segment.
• Scenarios that mimic real life: Use scripted content to enable your users to practice real-life interactions, like customer service scenarios, or HR situations within your organisation.
• To help or guide your learner: Your learning might be largely text-based, but consider having a ‘guide’ that learners can call on if they need extra help or explanation – kind of like a Park Ranger. Scripting out this content helps it to feel more like a more approachable person-to-person interaction.

What makes a script different?

How to convert other written content into scripts

Where do you start when writing a script? It’s pretty rare that you’ll just open a document and start writing. You most likely have a bunch of source material to draw from – that might be previous courses, other learning material, interviews with SMEs, your own notes and experience. So with such an array of information, how do you go about condensing it into that clear and concise script?

1. Gather and sort your material

• Review and annotate your content.
• Categorise it into themes.

2. Filter out what you don’t need

• Using your learning objectives, determine the key messages you want to get across to learners.
• Take out the information that you don’t need so that you’re left with only relevant content.

3. Refine

• Review your content again and determine what is essential to the learner and what is supplementary information.

4. Write your outline

• All good stories start with an outline. You’ve distilled your content, so now you can structure it so you build understanding piece-by-piece. If your outline is good, you should be able to summarise the overall flow in a couple of sentences.
• Rearrange your content to follow your outline.

5. Summarise

• Write a summary of each key section – this helps you to write an optimised script from the start, instead of a botched rewrite. If you’re not great at this, you can ask any number of AI tools to do this for you.

Script writing: What to do

Script writing: What not to do

Exercise

Write 150 words (circa 1 minute) of script content

Note: you’ll need the help of your colleagues here, so why not recommend that they work through the course content and complete the exercise too. It works best when everyone has the opportunity to play the role of writer, VO artist and audience member.

• Go to Wikipedia’s random article generator to get your source material.
• Spend 10 minutes writing an eLearning script teaching people about that topic.
• Enlist the help of two colleagues: have one read out your script, and the other member listen:
  • As the writer: listen as your script is read to see if there’s anything that sounds peculiar, or too long-winded. See if the VO interpreted the intonation of the sentences in the way you expected.
  • As the VO artists: in order to keep it authentic, they should only read through the script once (and quickly) before reading it aloud. Most VO artists want to get their VO done as quickly as possible, so they won’t spend a lot of time trying to really get into the content. As they read it, is there anything that is unclear, do they always know where to put the emphasis? If they hesitated, why did they hesitate?
  • As the audience member: they’re the only one that hasn’t seen the content before, so ask them if it’s easy to understand? Can they follow it even though they don’t have the text in front of them? Ask them what sounds strange.

Congratulations!

Give yourself a pat on the back for taking some time to learn a new skill, or deepen one you have already. The learning journey doesn’t end there though. Here are three things you can do to cement your learning:

• Write down three things from this course that you want to start doing today. If you want some more accountability, drop them in a reminder in your calendar a week or a month from now.
• Carve out some time to write a script this week. This can be something linked to a project you’re working on at the moment, or something for fun to practice your new skills.
• Go deeper. Have a look at one or more of our suggested further reading options.

Further reading:

• For a detailed breakdown of taking source material and turning it into scripted content, read this article.
• For help turning your scripted content into visual slides, read this article.
• More script-writing insights from industry expert Cammy Bean.
• If you fancy a longer read, this book will help you examine how to make some of your tricky concepts really memorable for your learners.
• If you want some help creating your eLearning, we’re happy to help. Read about our eLearning services here.