Podcasting for E-Learning: Setting Up a Mini-Studio

As this is the penultimate post in this series about Podcasting for E-Learning, I’ve linked to two learning organizations with a well-deserved reputation for producing quality podcasts at the end of this post, but before you rush to find out more about SyberWorks’ and Xyleme’s podcasts, read on…

If you’re serious about podcasting, consider investing in a mini-studio. A well-equipped mini-studio can be a valuable asset to any learning organization. For a relatively small investment, you can provide employees with a comfortable environment to create high-quality audio and video content for their multimedia presentations.

There are a variety of environments that you can use to capture podcast audio and video. These range from using a simple desktop microphone and a webcam, to using a dedicated studio. Which environment you choose depends on your target audience and your budget. Presentations directed at customers or a similar public audience usually benefit from a higher-quality environment. For less formal presentations intended for a smaller or an internal audience, a webcam with built-in condenser microphone may be adequate.

A mini-studio.
Click on the image to view a QuickTime VR of the studio in a new window

A level of quality somewhere between these extremes is usually required for internal communications intended for distribution across a large organization, such as an executive presentation for the entire company or a training course viewed on-demand by a large number of employees.

At its heart, a mini-studio is a room that is modified to serve as a dedicated space for recording multimedia. Ideally, the mini-studio should be a permanent installation; it is a place to record and produce content in an appropriate environment. It should contain equipment that is easy to use, in good working order, and that is configured to enable users to do their work without being distracted by technical details.

• The room you choose might be a former office, conference room, or storeroom. You should choose a room that you can use exclusively for the mini-studio. The room will require some modifications, so don’t expect the space to serve other functions. Pick a room that is large enough to accommodate the equipment and one or two people. You should expect to use a room that is at least 10 x 10 feet.
• The mini-studio should be located in a quiet area of the building. Any background noise will become part of the recorded content and may be distracting to viewers and presenters. Try to select a windowless room that is located away from the following:
• Traffic noise—from cars, trucks, trains, and airplanes—makes a poor background for narration.
• Server rooms, demo rooms, training rooms, or similar spaces contain large numbers of computers that create noise and require ventilation equipment, which also creates additional noise.
• Lift shafts. Even if the lift is rarely used, or not used at all, ambient noise from roof-mounted equipment such as air conditioning and refrigeration systems may create additional noise.
  Meeting rooms, conference rooms, training rooms, and exhibition spaces—especially rooms that use public address (PA) systems.
• The main ventilation system. Some buildings have ventilation fans placed along a central shaft with smaller ducts connected that move air to various parts of the building. Rooms near this central shaft tend to be noisier than rooms farther away from it.
• Be sure to provide a comfortable chair with an adjustable seat height for each narrator. Also, you will need to provide a table, podium or a desk for the speaker’s notes or laptop computer.

And that’s it for podcasting - for the moment. Check out these two organizations if you want to hear some interesting e-learning related podcasts.

SyberWorks, Inc. is an e-Learning solutions provider based in Massachusetts. Their staff have create a collection of original articles with the intent of making unique and insightful contributions to the e-Learning community. Their podcasts and related educational resources including blogs and PDF-based articles are located in their Syberworks Online Media Center.

Xyleme, Inc produce the XylemeVoices learning industry experts podcast library. The Voices podcasting is a series of 10-15 minute conversations with learning industry experts on hot button topics from their area of expertise. The series’ participants to date include Allison Rossett, Ruth Clark, Janet Clarey, Conrad Gottfredson, Bryan Chapman and Clive Shepherd. These podcasts are educational in nature (not corporate sales pitches), and are promoted through online ads, social media, and press releases.

Oh yes, and here are the links to my E-Learning Curve Podcast, and my E-Learning Curve’s Other Podcast.

Tomorrow: One last podcast thing…

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Podcasting for E-Learning: Recording with Audacity

Having given you the ha'penny (or dime) tour of Audacity, it's time to talk about recording audio with a digital editor. Figure 1 describes the end-to-end audio production process. Today, I will look at steps 1 through 5:

Figure 1. Audio Production Process
[Click to enlarge]

And these are the steps in detail:

Activity	Requirement
Audio source	A Narrator
Capture	A Microphone
Encoding	Audio editing software Audacity Sound Forge WaveLab GarageBand

Once you have your narration script, your mic, and your audio-enabled computer you may begin recording.

You Try:

1. Launch Audacity
   
   
2. In default configuration, a new, empty project will open. Save this project to a location of your choice. Call it MyPodcast (or whatever name you choose). This saved project becomes the "holder" for all of your recorded and imported sound clips.
   
   
   Remember, that if you don't save your project before you start recording, all recordings, edits and other files will be written to the default directory set on the Directories tab of the Preferences dialog box.
   
   
3. Check the Preferences
   
   Confirm that your desired playback and recording device are set. If you're going to record a mono signal, set the number of recording channels to 1 (Mono) on the Audio I/O preferences dialog box.
   
   When picking a device to record from, make sure you've set up all the connections correctly, including plugging a microphone in to the computer microphone input. Since most soundcards mix the inputs back in to the outputs, the easiest way to test your microphone is to speak in to it while playing with your sound card mixer. The sound card mixer is a piece of software either provided by the sound card maker, or by the operating system you're using.
   
   The Windows mixer is quite straight-forward, though some soundcards use their own custom mixing panel. The Mac's mixer is controlled via the Sound Control Panel, and Linux users can choose from a variety of mixer applications. Set the signal input to the desired level. I recommend setting the volume to about 80 per cent of maximum. This ensures you have enough ‘headroom’ to capture variations in tone and amplitude without distorting the signal from the microphone.
   
   
4. Begin recording
   
   - The red Record button initiates recording.

   - The blue Pause button pauses the recording. Click on the button again to continue recording.

   - The yellow Stop button finishes the recording process for the clip you're capturing.
   
   Well done: you have made your first audio recording in Audacity! You can now manipulate your recording and explore the editing capabilities of Audacity.
   
   More…
   
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