[Case Study] Remote Science Education Supported by Ondoku - Hitachi Yokohama Science Club

Overview

• Organization Name: Hitachi Yokohama Science Club
• Scale: 51–100 members
• Industry: Science and mathematics education volunteer organization
• Name: Mr. Takeyuki Amando

Goals/Challenges

In-person science craft classes became difficult due to the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to an increase in remote craft video production. This resulted in a burden on time and manpower due to frequent changes to narration during production.

Solutions

Automate the narration review process and the narration itself using Ondoku. Efficiently produce remote science craft videos by utilizing voices from multiple speakers.

Effects

The effort and time required for narration were significantly reduced, leading to an increase in the number of videos produced annually. The production of craft videos for elementary school students increased, allowing more children to experience science crafting.

Introduction

Hitachi Yokohama Science Club operates as a volunteer organization providing science and mathematics education for elementary and junior high school students.

The club actively provides hands-on guidance and principle explanations in science craft classes and supports science lessons in elementary schools.

They also handle the creation of science craft kits and the production of remote science craft videos using YouTube.

Background of Adopting Ondoku

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic making in-person science craft classes difficult, we began remote crafting where students watch videos at home.

Following this change, it became necessary to produce many craft videos in a short period of time.

Prior to adopting Ondoku, we trained dedicated narrators within the club to vocalize text.

During the video editing stage, the script was checked numerous times, and the narration required editing and re-recording with every check.

The time burden on narrators and the overall video editing time were significant challenges, but the introduction of Ondoku has allowed us to produce videos efficiently.

Reasons for Adopting Ondoku

We first learned about Ondoku through a recommendation from a club member.

Before adoption, we tried various other text-to-speech tools.

We decided to adopt Ondoku based on the following criteria:

• Ease of use
• Quality
• Price

Benefits of Adoption

With the introduction of Ondoku, the correction of narration during the video editing stage has become significantly more efficient.

During video production periods, we use Ondoku almost every day.

We produce about two videos per month. Each video takes approximately two weeks to complete.

Editing time has been reduced, and we are now able to save about 10 hours in the production of a 10-minute video.

Furthermore, it is now possible to produce 20 videos a year; without using Ondoku, the limit would have been about 10 per year.

Has communication with the target audience or customers improved?

By using Ondoku, we were able to produce many craft videos for elementary school students in a short period.

This allowed us to greatly increase the number of elementary school students experiencing science crafting.

User Experience with Ondoku

Ondoku's user interface is easy to use, the cost is affordable, and we appreciate the fact that multiple reading characters can be selected.

However, the accent or intonation occasionally feels unnatural.

In such cases, we adjust the text to bring the accent closer to what we expect.

There are times when we cannot achieve the desired result, and there are voices calling for further improvement.

Future Expectations

In the future, we hope for Ondoku to provide narration with more natural accents.

Additionally, we would like to see an increase in the variety of reading characters so that they can be used differently for various cases.

By using Ondoku for narration correction and actual narration use, you were able to reduce video production time by about 10 hours! Thank you for sharing such a wonderful case study.

Ondoku is widely used for video narration. You might have actually heard it somewhere! You can listen to voice types and sample audio for supported languages here.

Try Ondoku for free now

■ AI voice synthesis software "Ondoku"

"Ondoku" is an online text-to-speech tool that can be used with no initial costs.

• Supports approximately 50 languages, including Japanese, English, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, French, and German
• Available from both PC and smartphone
• Suitable for business, education, entertainment, etc.
• No installation required, can be used immediately from your browser
• Supports reading from images

To use it, simply enter text or upload a file on the site. A natural-sounding audio file will be generated within seconds. You can use voice synthesis up to 5,000 characters for free, so please give it a try.

Text-to-speech software "Ondoku" can read out 5000 characters every month with AI voice for free. You can easily download MP3s and commercial use is also possible. If you sign up for free, you can convert up to 5,000 characters per month for free from text to speech. Try Ondoku now.

HP: ondoku3.com
Email: ondoku3.com@gmail.com