Instructional design/Ed Podcasts/Summary

Summary
Our key objective for this tutorial was to equip you, the K12 teacher, with the ability to identify all key elements for authoring a well-written audio script, as measured by our final self-assessment. Achieving 90% success on the self-assessment task on the previous page means that you were able to attain this final objective.

To reach this final objective, however, we first facilitated the following three enabling objectives: Accordingly, we started our tutorial with a basic explanation of the notion of podcasting (the combination of "broadcast" and "pod") and then quickly moved to explain the unique attributes of educational podcasting: (1) Purpose: To facilitate learning and (2) Target Audience: Learners. As a result of these two attributes, we explained, educational podcasts must generally follow all the key principles of effective instructional design and teaching.
 * Define educational podcast
 * Differentiate between ‘a text for the eye’ and ‘a text for the ear’ (audio script)
 * Recognize possible narration-pitfalls

Due to podcasts' exclusive reliance on audio, however, three instructional principles were identified as particularly important:

Providing Clear Objectives: what are you going to talk about and why should the students listen

Following a Systematic Organization - a predictable and systematic structure and style

Calling Students to Action: confirming students’ listening and understanding via specific tasks with observable products (at ‘some point’ of the educational podcasts)

Our next step, the second objective, was to explain the importance of writing a script, and of writing a script for the ears rather than the eyes. We explained the distinction between these two types of writing by focusing on three key elements: Structure, Content and Audience Rapport.

The structure of spoken texts (texts for the ears) entails the use simple short sentences and words: Sentences that you are able to read out loud without having to stop for air midway.

Similarly, the content of texts for the ears must be clear and easy to follow in respect to your average listeners/learners: Content that you can express out loud without repeatedly pausing your reading to think about what you have just read.

Building audience rapport entails the use of language that invites rather than exclude (e.g. ‘our’ not ‘your’) and sounding friendly and spontaneous (e.g. let’s, we’ll etc.): Language that you would actually use when talking with a colleague or friend sitting next to you.

Lastly, within the context of the third objective, we examined the issue of narration pitfalls (any written element in your script, which, when read out loud, may cause narration errors). We examined several common pitfalls and ways to avoid them, and concluded with specific advise on the formatting and ‘use’ (i.e. Personal Notes and Annotations) of your script to further facilitate your pitfall free delivery of your written text.

If you ever need to review some of the key elements that were discussed during this tutorial, you might find it helpful to navigate directly to our Assessment Feedback Page

Next Step
Now that you have acquired the knowledge needed to author a well-written and pitfall-free audio script, you are already more than halfway through producing an effective educational podcast.

Your next step is to record your script, which lies beyond the objectives and scope of this tutorial, but the following Webpage “13 More Tips to Help You Record Narration Like the Pros” by www.articulate.com, should put you on the right track to a smooth and frustration free podcast recording.

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