Sample 3: Podcast
Rationale
The purpose of this project is to add this podcast and the infographic on "Cognitive Load Reduction - Segmentation and Signaling" to the online training course for online instructors.
Podcast
Supplementary use:
This podcast is to be a separate instructional piece that supplements the infographic. However, this podcast is not supposed to be played in conjunction with the infographic in order to avoid cognitive overload.
Creative use:
By using an infographic and a podcast in an online instructor training course, we will be modeling the use of multiple formats (UDL) and instructional strategies. Therefore, the plan is to have trainees (in this case, instructors) create an infographic and a podcast as an authentic, active learning assignment in this training series as trainees (instructors) will be able to use their infographics and podcasts in their own classes.
Resources:
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The equipment used was a Blue Snow Ball microphone connected to my personal computer.
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The software used for recording and editing the sound files was the open source software Audacity.
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I entered the text of the script into a script timer to calculate the approximate length of the audio file.
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A royalty free soundtrack was taken from DigMixter.org
Struttin' with Clarence by Martijn de Boer (NiGiD) (c) 2015 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/NiGiD/49816 Ft: Clarence Simpson
Reflection
I had not had experience with optimizing sound quality for either podcasts or videocasts, because, at my workplace, we count on our videographers to do that. However, I learned it is important to know the basics of how a podcast or videocast should be planned, recorded, and edited. Those skills will be handy either when you are working independently and when managing an instructional video or podcast project with a course development team.
I found out that, often times, instructional designers can demand a better quality product from their team (or contractors) if instructional designers are knowledgeable of technical procedures such as the one involved in this project. These types of technical skills can definitely make us better project managers.