Converting text to audio
Converting text to audio can help students across all faculties and degrees of study. There are many benefits to listening to a text document.
If it’s someone else’s work, listening to it can help you:
- take in information in a different way
- access a resource you might be unable to view
- study while you do other things: clean, exercise, stretch, travel
- rest your eyes and take a break from the screen
- improve memorisation and comprehension of the content.
If it’s your own work, listening to it can help you:
- check for grammar or typographical errors
- improve the flow of sentences
- further embed your learning
- ensure your writing is clear and concise.
Deakin provides both advice and a range of tools to help you in converting text to audio.
EBSCOhost
For articles on the EBSCO (library) platform, students can listen using the Text-to-Speech function. Open the link to an article and choose the HTML format, then click on the ‘listen’ button.
CloudDeakin
Blackboard Ally allows documents within CloudDeakin to be converted from text to audio.
This can be used to listen to your unit’s study guides, assessment outlines and other Deakin-created content. Instructions for how to download the resource as an audio file are included in the link above.
Default software
Many computers have built-in functions for converting text to audio. Microsoft Word has a ‘Speak’ function, Adobe software has a ‘Read Out Loud’ function and there are also a range of browser extensions which offer text to audio functionality. For more information, see how to make your computer read documents.
Deakin software
The Deakin Software Library recommends two options that assist with converting text to audio: