21.4: Audio
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You can use audio for obvious things like music, poetry, and sound effects and, more importantly, when real sounds, such as heart, animal, and normal and defective equipment sounds, are an integral part of the learning outcome. You can use audio to effectively teach many skills such as attitudes, especially if you personalize the material. Audio is also effective for teaching intellectual skills such as learning languages. You can also use audio to gain attention, give feedback, give directions, personalize computers, provide realism such as through presenting actual speeches, make annotations, teach the pronunciation of new words, provide multilingual support, accommodate non-readers, and provide meaning for images.
Many instructors record their face-to-face lectures and make them available online. A recorded version of a lecture has limitations, if only because the recorded version does not allow the listener/viewer to ask questions. A compounding problem is that many lectures are delivered poorly (i.e., students are passive recipients of information). It can be argued that recorded lectures benefit those who cannot attend or want to review key points. However, some students will choose to not to attend lectures when a recording is available. It is debatable whether recorded lectures do more harm than good. [Author’s note: My personal view is that recorded lectures should only be used if it is the only option, such as it being the only way to hear a renowned speaker. Typical non-interactive lectures have been proven to be one of the worst ways to deliver content. A streamed lecture of this type can only be worse.]
Audio is more effective when the topic is simple, concrete, and has little structure, as can be the case with foreign language vocabulary. However, you can effectively teach many skills with audio, such as intellectual, psychomotor, and attitudes, when the audio is supplemented with other media such as text, especially when providing practice and feedback. You should also supplement audio with effective preparatory and follow-up activities. An advantage of audio over text is that listening is much easier than reading.
Note
Audio can be particularly effective when combined with other media.
You can use audio effectively for students who are visually impaired and those with poor reading abilities. For those with poor reading abilities, one solution is to provide text but let students click on an audio button whenever they want to hear a narration of the text. One strategy is to display text and simultaneously play a matching narration. Although this strategy is useful for some students, many learners find this annoying. Audio can be problematic when played at a different speed than the student is able to read. For example, if the audio is played at a slower speed than the learner’s reading speed, as is true in most cases, the learner can be frustrated as they continually wait for the audio while they read. If the audio is played at a faster rate than the learner can mentally process the information, learning can be compromised. Alternatively, they may try to ignore the audio—which is not easy to do. Note that it is unlikely that all students in a target audience will have similar reading speeds.
To help learning and facilitate reviewing, let students have control over the audio. For example, many students may want to repeat audio clips. This can be easily done in online applications.
For audio to be effective for learning, you need to ensure that the students pay attention, as with all media. If a student is not listening, audio becomes a part of the environment. Keep students involved by posing questions that make students think and keeping the audio clips short. This is critical since aural memory is not particularly retentive. You can aid a student’s aural memory by enabling them to control the audio, such as repeating it as needed. Students must also be able to understand the audio. Consider developing parallel audio versions in other languages.
Note
Design audio to keep the students attentive.
For online courses, speech and sounds can be used to enhance learning.
Speech
You can use speech in the form of a narration or dialogue to teach effectively. To enhance what is directly said, you can also convey meaning through:
- emphasis – You can add emphasis through stressing a word.
- inflection – Add inflection by altering the pitch or tone, such as raising the pitch at the end of a sentence to indicate a question.
- aural mood – Establish aural mood through choosing specific words such as crashed versus hit or fantastic versus good.
To avoid confusion when using narration with text, ensure that the audio exactly matches the text. However, matching the audio to the text can be problematic since changes or edits are common. Since it can be difficult to change the audio, record the audio after the narration has been thoroughly evaluated.
Note
Record narration after the narration text is finalized.
Although using professionals will increase those specific budget items, consider hiring professional actors, narrators, and others like scriptwriters. Their quality will show through and ensure that the audio is effective. After reading the script and context, professionals tend to be able to quickly understand the overall approach and deliver the appropriate style at the right pace. Also, they will complete the recordings in less time than amateurs will need through requiring fewer retakes. They do this by quickly making modifications after you give them feedback.
When you select actors and narrators, ensure that they are credible and appropriate for the audience. For example, be sure that the audience will identify with them. Peers or respected professionals are often good choices. Actors and narrators need to have an appropriate accent, sound the right age, and be of the appropriate sex (if it makes a difference). As a rule, male voices tend to be more authoritative and credible while female voices tend to be friendlier. Note that two or more voices can add variety and thus increase interest and attention.
Sounds
Sounds can be very effective and even necessary to teach certain skills. For example, these include fixing equipment when a sound indicates a specific malfunction as well as diagnosing medical problems such as lung diseases.
Note
Sound will not save a weak presentation!
You can use sound effects to:
- add realism
- generate emotions
- define space (e.g., distance and direction)
- establish a locale or create an environment (e.g., crashing waves for a beach scene)
- emphasize an action (e.g., screeching tires indicate hurrying)
- intensify an action (e.g., time length or loudness of the emphasis action)
- depict an identity (e.g., slurred speech for a drunk)
- set the pace (e.g., roar of an engine)
- provide a counterpoint (e.g., using unexpected sounds as is done in comedies)
- symbolize meaning (e.g., church bells symbolizing a funeral or wedding)
- unify transitions (e.g., providing continuity between scenes)
Base your sound design on sounds heard in the real world. Sound effects that do not sound right can be distracting.
To decide whether you really need sounds, take the sounds out. If the audience still understands the messages, you probably do not need the sounds. vNote that you should adjust the sound’s volume to suit the content. For example, do not let sounds overpower a narrator. Also, do not use sounds repetitiously. Students sometimes enjoy sounds the first time they hear it but with repetition the sound can become obnoxious.
Music can be used to achieve the same purposes as sound effects. You can also use music to set and change moods, feelings, and atmosphere. You can add music to slide shows and other applications to provide ambience for the viewer. You may want to add music to an opening screen or a menu.