Audio is a crucial aspect of an elearning application. There are lots of courses that do not have audio. These courses can still be good if the learner hates audio. But audio can play an important role in learning. Audio:
- Sets the tone for your course. If the audio is formal, the theme of your course will be formal. If the audio is humorous, the theme of your course is light and humorous.
- Adds a personal touch by giving your course a personality. This does not apply for robot-like audio.
- Captures learner’s attention.
- Completes the learning experience.
- Reinforces learning by supplementing visuals and content.
Using audio in your course can be a gamble. If you do not play your cards right, you may end up ruining your course even if the ID strategy and theme is great. You need to keep in mind the following:
1. How much audio do I include in the course?
This is the most important and the most difficult question. Further questions that arise:
- Do I have the audio artists read everything from the screen? Please don’t have the audio artist read everything (especially if your screens are content heavy). It is very distracting and unnecessary. Kern conducts learner testing to check the effectiveness of a course before its roll out. We have seen learners look for audio mute/off button several times. They are thinking, I can read the content, thank you very much. We have also seen occasions on which audio is different from the OST and this troubles the learner. He/she feels that there is a variation in what is being said in the audio and what is written on screen.
- Do I just include the main gist of what is being covered in the screen? You can do this. However, ensure that your audio captures the most crucial information and does not sound abrupt. Sometimes, you just wait for the audio to continue but it doesn’t.
- Do I include audio for just the important screens? Please don’t do this. Imagine the learner listening to a para long audio on a screen. He moves to the next screen and meets silence. It can be very awkward. I have seen this during learner testing. You can see the learners anticipating, waiting for the audio to start. I am almost tempted to lean over and say You can move on now.
- Do I include separate audio for the characters? Your could do this depending on your budget. But it can be a nightmare to get the tone and the pitch right for multiple audio artists.
2. Should the audio supplement content or vice versa?
Actually, it depends on the ID strategy you use for the course. If your course is highly visual, the audio will play a crucial role as it may act as a link between the screens. There are course in which the audio drones on and on, while nothing happens on the screen. This can hinder learning. The learner may switch off after sometime. Either reduce the audio, split the screens, or add animation to supplement the audio. Can you imagine staring at a screen waiting for the audio to get over? On the other hand, do not make a text heavy course, audio heavy. Like I already mentioned, it can be quite irritating for the learner. Find the right balance between audio and visuals.
3. Does the audio have the desired impact?
You have identified how much audio you want to use. You have also found the right balance between audio and visuals. Now, what else can go wrong?
- An unprofessional audio artist can ruin your course. If the tone and pitch is not right, the course will sound bad.
- If the audio is too fast or too slow, it could kill learner motivation.
- If the audio is not in sync with what is happening on screen, it will confuse the learner.
- If the audio is not edited well, it will ruin the course even if your audio artist is really good.
4. How can audio add value?
Audio in terms of background music can increase the impact of the gain attention screen. Audio can also play a crucial role when used to indicate correct and incorrect feedback. This may be the best way to avoid ‘That’s correct’ and ‘That’s incorrect’ feedback. Audio plays an important role in games. It increases the thrill and increases the learner’s curiosity.
There is no standard rule or guideline to say you can use this much audio in your course. Use audio wisely. Ensure that it has the desired impact. Use it to aid learning and make learning experience more pleasurable.
This post has been viewed 3801 times.
30th March, 2009 at 1:24 pm
A good informative post Archie. Most eLearning professionals struggle with the right “dose” of audio. I really like the section “How can audio add value?” This is a question all instructional designers must ask while creating the design document.
From some of our course experiences we have seen that if it is a highly engaging course (involves high degree of decision making), learners prefer the peace and calm of their own thoughts. We have seen them turn off audio while thinking through the decision-making maze. On the other hand, during the learner testing of an application tutorial for call center executives, we observed that 90% learners preferred to listen to audio and perform the tasks on the screen. Similarly, in sales courses, we’ve repeatedly seen learners (who are sales professionals) struggle to keep pace with the text on the screen and are happy to listen to audio and move on.
Interestingly, detailed understanding of the learner during the analysis phase can help estimate the right “dosage” and good learner testing before the final release can give you an accurate understanding of the actual “dose”.
30th March, 2009 at 11:03 pm
As long as the audio doesn’t read me the text on the screen! Which “research” has proven actually inhibits learning!
31st March, 2009 at 4:05 am
Geeta: Thanks! You are absolutely right. Learner analysis and learner testing play a crucial role in identifying the right ‘dose’ of audio.
Guy: You are right. Reading text off the screen will inhibit learning if it is a text heavy screen. If you have audio for just say one-two lines of content and then visuals. This should work fine. If you have the audio covering an entirely different thought, this will confuse the learner. Therefore:
1. Do not have the audio repeating text on content heavy screens. Actually, I would say avoid content heavy screens all together. We (at Kern) hate content heavy screens because we know learners hate it universally.
2. The audio and the content/visuals on screen must convey the same thought/idea.
31st March, 2009 at 4:29 am
Interesting post Archie
4th June, 2009 at 4:36 am
I am interested in knowing where the data that says “audio that matches the text on screen inhibits learning” comes from.
Can someone tell me please?
8th June, 2009 at 4:03 pm
Good question Dave. In fact, I have read that just the opposite is true. There are studies that show if a teacher hands out a printed page to the class, and then reads it out loud while the class follows along, they will be more likely to remember that info.
8th June, 2009 at 4:09 pm
I would also argue that audio is one of those extremely elusive areas whose impact is extremely difficult to assess. Most media uses audio very effectively to strengthen its message. Why not eLearning scenarios? Most eLearning scenarios are dry and boring. This is fine if you already have a captive audience such as specialists in a field looking to increase their knowledge/skills. But not so good if you are aiming at a broader group or at a more introductory level. Now you have to grab them and keep them engaged right?
9th June, 2009 at 6:15 am
Dave: I speak from personal experience (though there is enough research for and against this). I would rather share what I learnt from the testing conducting at my workplace on the courses I designed. We have conducted several learner testing where we evaluate the learning effectiveness of an elearning application before its final release. We have observed repeatedly that learners either read faster than the audio or listen to the audio rather than read the text. The learners become restless and are eager to click ahead. An ebook with audio would have been a great success among learners if all that was required was to read audio off the screen.
Having said this, we have seen a more positive response when:
1. the audio captured the essence of what was being said on the screen or
2. audio described what was happening on the screen (visual)
Dr. Don: I came across this interesting remark by Tony Karrer “Having the narration text on-screen has mixed results in studies and does not appear to add value except in cases such as non-native speakers. Many users find it annoying because the narrator speaks slower than they read and will turn off the audio.” (eLearning Technology Blog).
“There are studies that show if a teacher hands out a printed page to the class, and then reads it out loud while the class follows along, they will be more likely to remember that info.” Are you sure? My biology professor used to read from the textbook. I remember thinking to myself: ‘I can do that without your help, sir. Can you make this more interesting of us?’
While classroom training is very different from eLearning, I would still believe that learners do not want to read and hear the same thing. Think about this. A presenter has all his points in the PPT and he just reads it out from the PPT. Is this an effective presentation? The chances are that the viewers have finished scanning through all the points while the presenter is on point 1. Motivation takes a big hit.
We are talking about adult learners here. Do they want to hear the same thing as is what is written on the screen? Or would they rather see a visual explanation while audio elaborates? Finally, I would say don’t believe what is written here.
Go and test an elearning application that reads text off the screen and see how the learners respond to it.
9th June, 2009 at 1:03 pm
Archie,
I think the question in point is - is the learner an aural learner (visual and Kinesthetic being the other two).
If the learner is indeed aural - then there is a good chance that an effective audio strategy (based on the content, the context of delivery and the learner’s profile) will make for efficient learning.
We really cannot hope to have a one-size-fits-all learning strategy.
There are times when you need lesser text and more OST (On Screen Text)-like where your audience has a ‘young’ urban audience and the content is say… about how you go about using twitter (a video is the best here)
There are times when you need more OST than audio - like in the case of trying to teach management as a subject - they tend to prefer written context I find…
There are times when they need to mimic or mirror each other - especially in senarios where the learners are not very eLearning or computer savvy - they find it difficult to concentrate on multiple (asynchronous) media inputs in one shot.
There can even be scenarios where audio is used selectively - however learning strategy will have be a little tuned here - the learner will have to KNOW when to expect audio (animations, scenarios, story) and when NOT to expect audio (maamool screens :P)
so really… any combination of audio/OST you can think of.. there will be a specific use for it…
Audio, text, visuals etc at the end of the day are media - mediums of communication - mediums of communication between the learner and the source of learning (the eLearning course). It is still only a medium and not communication itself…
I believe that eLearning professionals - especially IDs need to be communications specialists. not the technology but the art…
nuf said!
-A
9th June, 2009 at 1:36 pm
Abhinava (@Abhinava)has been unable to post his comment here. He shared his thoughts via email. I am hoping this works!
——————————————————————–
Archie,
I think the question in point is - is the learner an aural learner (visual and Kinesthetic being the other two). If the learner is indeed aural - then there is a good chance that an effective audio strategy (based on the content, the context of delivery and the learner’s profile) will make for efficient learning.
We really cannot hope to have a one-size-fits-all learning strategy. There are times when you need lesser text and more OST (On Screen Text)-like where your audience has a ‘young’ urban audience and the content is say… about how you go about using twitter (a video is the best here) There are times when you need more OST than audio - like in the case of trying to teach management as a subject - they tend to prefer written context I find… There are times when they need to mimic or mirror each other - especially in senarios where the learners are not very eLearning or computer savvy - they find it difficult to concentrate on multiple (asynchronous) media inputs in one shot.
There can even be scenarios where audio is used selectively - however learning strategy will have be a little tuned here - the learner will have to KNOW when to expect audio (animations, scenarios, story) and when NOT to expect audio (maamool screens :P) so really… any combination of audio/OST you can think of.. there will be a specific use for it…
Audio, text, visuals etc at the end of the day are media - mediums of communication - mediums of communication between the learner and the source of learning (the eLearning course). It is still only a medium and not communication itself… I believe that eLearning professionals - especially IDs need to be communications specialists. not the technology but the art…
nuf said!
-A
9th June, 2009 at 2:06 pm
Thanks for contributing, Abhinava.
I agree that there is “no one-size-fits-all learning strategy” and thank god for that. 
As you rightly pointed out, how much audio you use in a course should be based on the learner’s needs.
The main points that I see emerging from these discussions that we need to note are:
1. Identify the right ‘dose’ of audio based on learner analysis (as both Geeta and you pointed out)
2. Check whether this is indeed the right ‘dose’ using learner testing.
3. Please do not use audio because of ‘this-has-been-the-way-we-have-been-doing-things’ argument.
Also, all the above points are true for text and visuals also.
17th September, 2009 at 9:44 pm
rapid elearning courses…
Hey nice post there. I\’m Aaron from rapid elearning courses and I\’ll be following your stuff from now on.
Regards!…
9th April, 2010 at 8:08 pm
[...] learnability matters » Audio іח eLearning – A Gamble? [...]