Podcasting for E-Learning: Putting it all together

I've been discussing one of the lesser-covered aspects of podcasting: delivering effective voice-over narration. So far, we have covered three of the four 'P's' of engaging your audience:

• Pace - click to view article
• Pitch - click to view article
• Projection - click to view article

Today, I will talk about the Art of the Pause.

In my view, narrators are afraid to take advantage of a dramatic pause. Anyone who has worked in media (particularly radio) will tell you that they constantly worry about 'dead air' - silence. Perhaps counter-intuitively, a stop or pause in a narrative actually motivates your listeners to (unconsciously) anticipate the next word - after all it must be important if you've paused - rather than causing the listener to 'switch off.' Used correctly and in concert with the other 'P's,' pauses or caesuras will direct listeners' attention as you choose, creating the appropriate amount of expectation or to emphasize the key points and messages that you want to convey.

However, if your speech is too staccato - stopping and starting, leading your audience to multiple points of anticipation, without any special meaning or pay-off, any pauses will serve only to irritate and frustrate your listeners.

This speech pattern is most apparent when a podcast has not been designed, planned and scripted properly. I can best illustrate how to do it, and how not to do it by example.

Here are two excerpts from podcasts about aspects of the Roman Empire from iTunes U.

The bad news first: Sample 1 (MP3 | 1.3MB | 1 minute 26 seconds | click to play in your browser | right click to download) is from UC Berkley's History 4a course, The Mediterranean World (2009). In this excerpt, the speaker introduces the course, before going off-topic

As usual one page of my lecture is sitting in my office…

Sooner after, the speaker digresses again:

So that [pause] actually, ehh, [pause] I've got a couple of good quotes for you and I wanted to discuss that with you. So ehm, we're going to be [pause] [sigh] finishing up here, right?

The lecturer then digresses yet again by discussing a final exam, but has "no idea where it is" (the location is "apparently...online"). I have edited this piece down a little but in the unedited version of this podcast, the lecture proper does not begin until nearly two minutes into the podcast.

Contrast this with Sample 2 (MP3 | 1.0MB | 1 minute 05 seconds | click to play in your browser | right click to download) from Archaeology: Pompeii and the Roman World (Open University, 2009). Here, the speaker Phil Perkins defines an empire, before expanding on the theme of statehood and polities. He then discusses interaction, rivalry, competition, power, and war, before getting to the learning objective of his podcast:

Is dominance enough to create an empire?

...all in just over a minute, and in less than 150 words.

Which podcast did you find more engaging and informative? Which kind of podcast would you prefer to deliver? Which type of podcast has more value for your audience?

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References:

Pafford, I. (2009). Twilight in the West. History 4a: The Mediterranean World. UC Berkley [Internet] Available from: http://deimos3.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/Browse/berkeley.edu.1625336377.01625336380.1623195422?i=1284407406 Accessed 3 August 2009

Perkins, P. (2009) Archaeology: Pompeii and the Roman World. World archaeology. Open University. [Internet] Available from: http://deimos3.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/Browse/itunes.open.ac.uk.1544964539.01556024330.1827251501?i=1680120285 Accessed 3 August 2009

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Podcasting for E-Learning: Emphasize to Enhance Meaning

In over the last few articles, I've discussed some voice techniques used to assist e-learning content producers create more effective, engaging, and immersive podcasts. I have also defined some heuristics or rules of thumb associated with the techniques:

Allow enough time to each learning point for it to be well understood. Then move on.

Anticipate how your audience could interpret a word and understand how it might affect interpretation of your meaning.

Now read on...

At the conclusion of yesterday's article I considered single word or syllable emphasis as a useful way to counteract a monotone delivery of content. This techniques is called 'projection,' and it's the third of the Four 'P's' of great podcast narration.

Our vocal range naturally becomes more dynamic in certain circumstances: we tend to speak more loudly when we're interested, passionate, or excited about something, and we tend to add more emphasis to key words or phrases when we're attempting to persuade a listener to understand our point of view; we speak softly when we want to create a sense of reflection.

Try this exercise: say the following phrase loudly:

LISTEN TO THIS!

Now, more softly:

Listen to this.

The mood changes instantly. The amount of projection you employ triggers very different reactions in anyone involved in a dialog with the speaker, and you can use the full dynamic range of the human voice when recording a podcast.

One thing to avoid at all costs is projection in the theatrical sense - actors on stage project to ensure the whole audience right to the back row, and up to the gods can hear what they're saying. Modern microphones can pick up and transmit the loudest and softest of sounds, and if you try to declaim your narrative in the mode of a stage thespian, you'll just sound shouty (if you're lucky) and even aggressive - either way, you're audience will hit the Stop button, regardless of the quality of your content.

Using the full dynamic range of your voice in concert with appropriate inflection and delivered at a good pace will really add meaning to your narrative.

'Michael Hanley learning consultant and blogger' tells you who I am and what I do. I can influence how I want someone to perceive me by modifying I phrase those three pieces of information, by changing the pace, pitch, and projection of the text.

So:

Michael Hanley/pause one beat/learning consultant and blogger emphasizes my profession

Michael Hanley/pause one beat/learning consultant and blogger tells you who I am

Michael Hanley learning consultant and blogger equally weighted, describes who I am and what I do.

Did you see the script direction /pause one beat/? A 'beat' is the duration of a pause in a narration. More properly called a caesura, it denotes an audible pause that breaks up a line of text. In most cases, a caesura is indicated by punctuation marks which cause a pause in speech:

• a comma
• a semicolon
• a full stop or period
• a dash

Punctuation, however, is not necessary for a caesura to occur.

How long should a beat be? Good question. In my part of the world, we usually tell people that it's the length of time it takes you to say "a thousand and one" (in your head of course). An American voice-over artist of my acquaintance assures me that where he's from (San Francisco), they say "one banana" to measure a beat. Use whatever works for you: the key thing to remember is to take you time, and concentrate on how you can elicit the maximum amount of meaning from your content.

More...
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References:

Ahern, S. (2006). Making Radio: A Practical Guide to Working in Radio. Allen & Unwin

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Podcasting for E-Learning: Inflecting the voice

In yesterday's post, I discussed the importance of narrative pace to audio podcasting. In the article, I suggested that a good rule of thumb to follow is:

Allow enough time to each learning point for it to be well understood. Then move on.

However, pace alone is not enough to encourage listener engagement with your podcast. Working in symphony with it are the three "other" 'P's' - pitch, projection, and pausing.

A few weeks ago, I was talking to a newly-accredited Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) instructor. She loves the job and working with her students, but she mentioned a particular frustration that occurred regularly: the substantial number of homonyms and homophones in English. She told me that her students couldn't understand why "bow" /baʊ/ (-vb. to bend the knee or body or incline the head, as in reverence, submission, salutation, recognition, or acknowledgment) could also be a noun, and was pronounced like "bough" /bou/ (-n. a tree branch, especially a large or main branch), while at the same time was spelled like /boʊ/ (-n. a bend or curve, a flexible strip of wood or other material, bent by a string stretched between its ends, for shooting arrows).

The reason for this is of course that the English language is what Stephen Fry calls "a mongrel mouthful." The language is fundamentally based upon an aggregation of Jutland Danish-Frisian and Lower Saxon dialects, heavily influenced by the Romance language (mainly French, Latin, and Greek) and thousands of borrowed words from all points of of the former British territories (and beyond), not to mention a grammar structure that's a mystery to many people, including native speakers of the language.

It does neatly highlight the importance of context in any verbal communication, something that's even more necessary when communicating in audio only, when we do not have the visual and other cues we typically use to elucidate precise meaning. Equally, it emphasizes the point that we, as content authors and producers, can never assume that a word has one meaning. If you think that will be any confusion, change a word for a synonym: for example, if you're talking about the secret life of the forest, say "branch" rather than "bough" if you think that your listeners could misinterpret the word or the usage; they usually don't have the benefit of a script in front of them as a reference or to check the meaning.

So, the second heuristic for writing content for podcasts is:

Anticipate how your audience could interpret a word and understand how it might affect interpretation of your meaning.

The right emphasis can be achieved by using the Four P's. According to Steve Ahern in Making Radio (2006):

The whole sense and emotional feeling of a phrase can be changed by simply changing the way we stress words.

(p.73)

Take the phrase "How are you?"

How are you? is a common pleasant greeting
How are you? can represent a concern on the part of the inquirer
How are you? shows interest in the other person

In most western languages (it's different for tonal languages like Mandarin Chinese) voice pitch - or inflection - is used to trigger certain responses in the listener. The High Rising Terminal in declarative questions ("Did you find the CD?") is an obvious example. Similarly, a downward inflection at the end of a word, phrase, sentence or paragraph communicates authority and command over the facts ("The airships never flew again").

Try this yourself by saying the following phrase, first with an upward inflection, and then by pitching your voice down at the end of the statement:

"This is a good podcast?"

"This is a good podcast."

Between these two extremes is the steady tone, which is used to keep your audience's attention. Aim to keep your inflection and pace steady, and to flow smoothly between phrases and sentences. However, be careful not to fall into monotonous delivery - what my good lady wife Mrs. E-Learning Curve calls a "robot voice."

To counter a dull and uninteresting delivery, it's useful to inflect key words or phrases in a sentence. By emphasizing the right word you will enhance the meaning of the sentence and increase its effectiveness.

More...

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References:

Ahern, S. (2006). Making Radio: A Practical Guide to Working in Radio. Allen & Unwin

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Why is podcasting so successful if 93 percent of communication is nonverbal?

This post on podcasting for e-learning professionals will consider some aspects of narrative, and debunk an urban myth.

The term pace has already entered this series of E-Learning Curve Blog articles about creating podcasts. In this post I will discuss pace, and then the related concepts of pitch, projection, and pausing, over the next few days.

Now read on...

Famously, there are three major elements in human face-to-face communication: body language, voice tonality, and words. According to Mehrabian and Ferris (1967, pp.248-52)

• 55% of impact is determined by body language - facial expressions, eye contact, body posture, gesture
• 38% by tone of voice
• 7% by the content or the words used in the communication process

Anyone who has ever taken a course on presenting will have heard the instructor assert the axiomatic 55-38-7 formula to their learners as if it were inviolable, like fundamental physical constants like 0 Kelvin, c, or that TOS is better than TNG*.

David Lapakko (1997) asserts that this formula for communication is part of the "catechism" (p.63) of linguistics, proxemics, and psychology.

And that there is good empirical evidence that it is wrong.

According to Lapakko,

A closer look at the Mehrabian and Ferris (1967) study reveals severe limitations that call for prudence in interpreting their results... the findings may be an artifact of [a] small sample size.

(p.64)

His views are supported by other researchers' findings, including Burgooon, Buller and Woodall (1998), and Hegstrom (1979). Burgoon et al consider that:

[The 55-38-7 estimate] is erroneous. It is based on extrapolation of two studies, one comparing vocal tone to facial cues... and one comparing vocal tone to single words... rather than comparing all three.

(p.155)

Hegstrom agrees that:

The formula was pieced together from two different studies.

(p.135)

Indeed, Mehrabian himself believes that his findings are "often misquoted." In Intercultural encounters: The fundamentals of intercultural communication (1995) he wrote that :

...all my findings ...dealt with communications of feelings and attitudes...Clearly it is absurd to imply or suggest that the verbal portion of all communication constitutes only 7% of the message.

The refutation of the 55-38-7 formula is great news for podcasters in general and e-learning professionals in particular, because of course it means that we're not operating in some notional margin of communication, but in its mainstream, as anyone who has ever created a podcast (or even used a telephone) to communicate meaningful information already knows.

In a sense, content delivery works independently of content; some people, as the saying goes, can make the phone book sound interesting. For those of us without this gift, we have to consider how to maintain interest and engage the audience. One of the ways we do this is to pace the dialog appropriately. I would assert that a narrative must be kept moving at a fairly brisk rate. The secret of pace is:

Allow enough time to each learning point for it to be well understood. Then move on.

Pace is impossible without intelligibility. Conversely, it depends in part by not going too fast. Pace depends on the precise shaping of the meaning and the words in time, and it provides the foundation upon which everything else is built.

When a podcast has a lack of pace, it is often down to another, subtler fault: a lack of organization in the underlying form of a podcast's content. In the design of almost any good podcast, there should be a series of basic units of information, each occupying a few minutes. Each of these should contain one major learning point and sufficient supporting detail to help establish it as clearly as possible. The format of the podcast should provide light and shade within a piece, allow details to emerge, and a story to develop.

Certain types of verbal and linguistic construction don't work in podcasts: they contain too much content, too little time, or both. For example, the cold, clear logic of a computer language like Java, or a turgid mass of detail are both death to clear, intelligible verbal constructions in sound.

With that in mind, here is the latest episode from my ‘Other’ Podcast - Transatlantic: the Flying Boats of Foynes (’New and Notable’ according to the iTunes Podcast Store). If you choose to listen to the podcast, you’ll notice that the piece is not merely a narrator telling a story: along with narration, there’s dramatization, eye-witness accounts, and incidental and background music. Other sound elements included in the series of podcasts include archive recordings, wild track, and a very cool sound collage to set the scene for the outbreak of World War 2 in September 1939.

In Part 4 of Transatlantic: The Flying Boats of Foynes

It's 1939.

In Ireland, the town of Foynes in County Limerick becomes a boomtown because of its airport, and a tourist attraction because of the flying boats. The ground staff of Pan Am, and BOAC became part of the community, and the various Irish, British, and American communities live, work and play together.

But in Europe, events leading to the greatest conflict of the 20th Century are beginning to move apace as Fascism rises in Europe.

Autocratic single-party regimes in Germany and Italy have become totalitarian dictatorships. As their military might grows, their leaders lay their plans against the nations of the West...

Click here to listen to the podcast.

Click here to view the transcript of this podcast (PDF, 26K).

The observant among you will notice that the piece isn’t about e-learning. That’s OK – the point of e-learning is to provide training professionals with a means of creating and distributing content that enables people to acquire information, knowledge, skills, and expertise on a diverse range of subjects: as e-learning practitioners, it’s our job to facilitate this process.

More…

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*Humorous Remark Alert! No Trekkie flames please; we all know that Picard is a better captain than Kirk...

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References:

Burgoon, J. K., Buller, D. B., & Woodall, W. G. (1989). Nonverbal communication: The unspoken dialogue. New York: HarperCollins/Greyden Press

Hegstrom, T. (1979). Message Impact: What percentage is nonverbal? The Western Journal of Speech Communication, 43, 134-142.

Lapakko, D. (1997) Three Cheers for Language: A Closer Examination of a Widely Cited Study of Nonverbal Communication. Communication Education, 46. [Internet] Available from: http://resourcemagazine.co.uk/acatalog/lapakko.pdf Accessed 31 July 2009

Mehrabian, A. (1995). Intercultural encounters: The fundamentals of intercultural communication (3rd ed.). Englewood, CO: Morton Publishing Company.

Mehrabian, A., & Ferris, S. (1967). Inference of Attitude from Nonverbal Communication in Two Channels. The Journal of Counselling Psychology, 31.

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