Animated characters are an excellent option to engage employees with eLearning initiatives without spending a considerable amount of money. 
Budgets are tight so companies must find ways to trim expenses. My goal is for businesses to build training courses that operate within their means while still reaching company goals. My research finds the use of animated characters can help businesses achieve their learning objectives while cutting costs.
While the term “animated characters” has a pretty straightforward definition (courtesy of Disney), “paid actors” has a broader meaning. In this case “paid actors” will refer to any face-to-face instructor including the sales guy who trains other sales reps on-the-job to the monotone professor.
The link below is a table illustrating the effectiveness of animated characters in eLearning situations. I’ve outlined four facets of eLearning as they apply to paid actors and animated characters: cost, emotional investment of learners, content engagement, and time. The information therein draws from a Stanford case study outlining ten benefits of interactive online characters, and a paper by Hewlett Packard about the advent of virtual agents.
Paid Actors vs. Animated Characters
The table clearly illustrates that animations are easily manipulated, can enhance already existing content or can be used to create an entire course from scratch, and can cost considerably less than paid actors. Animated characters are an excellent option when companies are looking to engage employees with eLearning initiatives without spending a considerable amount of money.
