Week 8 Reflection

Music To My Ears

This week we changed the design of our instruction to audio-only.  I used Audacity to create my audio and I separated the different steps of my recipe into tracks.  I created a PDF file that listed the steps with playable audio next to each step.  There’s definitely a difference using only audio versus using images or text.  The primary difference, for me at least, was the loss of control.  When using images or text for my instructional design, I’m in full control of what words or pictures I use to get my message across.  With audio, I can control what I say, but I have very limited control over the quality of the audio- things like the background noise, the quality of my equipment, and my voice.  I know that mastery of the audio software and better equipment will help me combat a lot of these hurdles, but they’re definitely going to be problems for someone operating on a limited manpower/cash budget. 

Developing the instruction using audio felt efficient because I had my script written out and it was simply a matter of recording myself and making minor edits here and there.  The hardest part was writing the script, so once that was done, everything else fell into place.  I could use audio to instruct someone in a few different ways.  If I teach a class and record it, then giving students that recording afterward is an efficient way for them to catch up without having to repeat the lesson.  If my class has a lot of people that can’t sit still for a live session, providing it via podcast will allow them to listen to it in the car or on the subway. 

The big limitation with using only audio is that my message has to be crystal clear and I have to break the audio into chunks or tracks, otherwise I may overwhelm my learners.  The benefit to using audio is that once it’s recorded, the session becomes extremely mobile, and my learners can access it anywhere they have a music player.