When developing eLearning courses, many designers would often start with considering the visuals, interactivity, and the script, but something that is often seen as low priority, or even not considered at all, is the audio.
Why should you care about audio in your eLearning?
- While some learners may prefer visual or kinesthetic methods of learning, others may be predominantly auditory learners. Integrating audio into your course can enhance comprehension and absorption for a broader range of students.
- Audio has the ability to immerse learners in your course content. It can introduce suspense, drama, or excitement, enriching the overall learning experience. With the right audio elements, you can turn a mundane lession into a captivating journey.
- By considering audio during the design phase of your course, you may come up with other creative ways to present your content that you would not have otherwise thought of. For example, by turning informative materials into a dialogue, making them more relatable and memorable.
- It can assist learners who have certain accesibility needs. For example, those with visual impairment or dyslexia heavily rely on audio cues to access and understand course materials.
Now that we have established why audio matters, the following are some tips on incorporating audio into your eLearning courses:
- Don’t skimp on quality
A study by the University of Southern California and the Australian National University found that when they showed participants the same video, one group with good sound quality but the second with poorer sound, the latter group rated the talk worse, the speaker less intelligent and likeable, and the research less credible. Arguably, bad audio is worse than bad video quality.
- Try to use more than one voice
It is likely that an eLearning course would have a presenter to deliver the content. While adding narration as audio is the right step, listening to one voice throughout might end up feeling dull to the learner. Consider having more than one person speaking to add diversity and break the monotonous feeling of listening to just one voice. This will also allow you to include characters with different roles, making the learning experience more interesting and well-rounded.
- Create emotional engagement with music
Consider how audio is used in games. You would have peaceful music in the background while walking through the landscape, which will suddenly turn frantic and tense when encountering an enemy. Music is used to build an atmosphere and enhance the emotional connection, which you can take advantage of in your eLearning, especially for scenarios and story-based concepts. Just make sure it fits the desired mood and tone.
- Add it to interactions
Sound effects are useful to provide feedback to a user’s activities, such as by helping them to confirm whether an action was successful, to showcase a certain state or progress, alert them of any errors, and so on. To use sound effects effectively, ensure that it is meaningful to the action or outcome. For example, a happy ‘ding!’ for a correct answer, or a deep and low ‘buzz’ for the wrong one.
- Don’t overdo it
While audio can enhance the learning experience, overdoing it can be end up being detrimental, leading to distractions and cognitive overload. Balance is key. The audio being used should be relevant to the content and what you want to convey.
Whether it is subtle sound effects, some background music, or character voices, plan your eLearning with audio in mind to make an impactful difference in engagement and retention, and bring life into your eLearning courses.