Today’s post covers importing and synchronizing audio with markers into Adobe Captivate. This is the third and final part of a short series inspired a question submitted by a subscriber to the E-Learning Curve Blog.
I’m pleased to see that this series about integrating sound and narration into rapid e-learning authoring environments is being so positively viewed, and hopefully my suggestions are being folded in to your workflows as you create e-learning content for your audience. But firstly, why use audio at all?
The Science Bit
According to Colvin Clark & Mayer (2002) there are six different “broadly applicable” media element guidelines to follow when undertaking e-learning instruction. These guidelines are:
- The Multimedia Principle: Use words and graphics rather than words alone.
- The Contiguity Principle: Place corresponding words and graphics near each other
- The Modality Principle: Present words as audio narration rather than onscreen text.
- The Redundancy Principle: Presenting words in both text and audio narration can hurt learning.
- The Coherence Principle: Adding interesting material can hurt learning
- The Personalization Principle: Use conversational style and virtual coaches.
The Modality principle
When learning with multimedia the brain must simultaneously encode two different types of information, an auditory stimulus and a visual stimulus. These two sources of information do not overwhelm or cognitively overload the learner’s capacity to acquire information. Rather, psychological research has shown that verbal information is in fact better remembered when accompanied by a visual image.
Baddeley and Hitch (1974) proposed a theory of working memory which hypothesized two largely independent subcomponents that tend to work in parallel – one visual and one verbal/acoustic. As we know from everyday life, we can simultaneously process information from our eyes and ears; replicating this phenomenon in an educational context can be beneficial for learners.
This dual-coding theory, first proposed by Paivio (1971) was applied to multimedia and e-learning by Richard E. Mayer and his associates. Mayer has demonstrated (2002, 2004) that learners are better able to integrate information via multimodal instruction. In a number of studies, Mayer and his colleagues tested Paivio’s dual-coding theory using multiple media channels. They found that students learning via multimedia (animation and narration) consistently did better on transfer questions than those who learned from animation and text-based materials. That is, they (the learners) were significantly better when it came to applying what they had learned via multiple media channels, rather than unimedia (visual only) instruction.
While instructional content using multimedia learning was initially limited to logical and scientific processes that centered on cause-and-effect systems, over time it was found that the modality effect could be extended to other educational domains.
Information can and (should even) be encoded and transmitted using both visual and auditory (narration) channels. If verbal information is encoded auditorily it reduces the cognitive load of the learner. Consequently their working memory can process information more effectively. Mayer has calls this the the Modality Principle.
Adding audio to Adobe Captivate projects
Adobe Captivate, like a range of e-learning authoring environments enables you to leverage the Modality Principle by adding narration, music, wildtrack sound, and almost any other sound to learning content to enhance learning. For example, you can:
- Add a background track that plays for the duration of the project.
- Add sound to an individual slide.
- Add sound to a specific object, such as a caption, click box, highlight box, or button
Getting Started
For a refresher on creating markers in an audio editor click here. In sound editing, an audio file REGION specifies a segment of audio data which (in the context of e-learning) can be narration – a word, a phrase, a sentence, or some other meaningful unit of information. Regions are of variable length and usually align to the duration of the instructional event they are associated with. Audio editors like Sound Forge enable you to divide a sound file into different regions with specific start and end points (see Figure 1).
Figure 1. Regions in Sound Forge
Unlike Presenter, Captivate cannot read markers, so to import audio into the application, you must first process the audio file so that it can be readily added to each component of your e-learning content by extracting smaller sound files from the master file (see Figure 2).
Figure 2 Extracted Regions
Once extracted, the files are ready to be imported into Captivate. At this point in the process, I expected to be able to add the folder containing my extracted files to Captivate 4. However, this happened:
… so the rest of this process was completed in Captivate 2.
Note: I attempted a range of activities to work around the error message – I won’t bore you with the details here – but I had no success in circumventing the issue. Not good. For Adobe Captivate.
Without the facility to import the files via the library feature in Captivate 4, I reverted to the process of manually importing each audio file as prescribed in Captivate 2 (see demo, below). While this is a tedious process, it is still much faster than recording and editing content directly into Captivate, for the simple reason that Captivate is a content authoring tool, not a dedicated audio editor.
I read somewhere recently that if you walk around with a hammer, pretty soon everything looks like a nail; when creating e-learning content it’s very much a case of using the right tool for the right job to save yourself time and effort.
You Try:
To create and extract regions in Sound Forge:
Open Sound Forge. From the File menu, select Open… -> [yourFile.wav]
Ensure the file’s audio markers are preserved as intended from last time.
Now, from the Special menu, choose Regions List -> Markers to Regions.
All existing markers will be converted to regions using the data between each consecutive marker as the region boundary. For example, if your file contains three markers, this command will create two regions; the first region will span the area between the first and second markers, and the second region will span the area between the second and third markers.
Next, from the Tools menu, choose Extract Regions to create new files from regions in the Regions List.
The regions will be extracted to a directory on your computer.
E-Learning Curve Blog Demonstration: Adding Audio to Adobe Captivate
Next time: Back to mobile learning. Delivering e-learning via a range of instructional modalities using m-learning.
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References:
Baddeley, A.D.; G.J. Hitch (1974), “Working Memory”, in Bower, G.A., The psychology of learning and motivation: advances in research and theory, 8, New York: Academic Press, pp. 47-89
Colvin Clark, R. Mayer, R. E. (2002). e-Learning and the Science of Instruction: Proven Guidelines for Consumers and Designers of Multimedia Learning. Pfieffer.
Mayer, R. E. (2001). Multimedia learning. New York: Cambridge University Press
Paivio, A. (1971). Imagery and verbal processes. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.
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March 12 2009 | e-learning | Comments Off
In yesterday’s post, I began discussing some advanced audio editing and rapid e-learning synchronization features of Adobe’s applications Presenter and Captivate.
Now read on…
This post will cover how to integrate your audio-with-metadata files into Adobe Presenter. In my next article I will discuss using markers to generate content for Captivate – the processes are different. While the process is quite straight-forward, it’s easier to show you this process in a demo than describe it in a linear fashion using text and images (after all, this is an E-learning blog, folks!).
First some background: as you probably know, Presenter enables you to publish Microsoft PowerPoint-created content in a Web friendly format. The Presenter Audio Editor supports editing voice-over narrationvia its functionality in PowerPoint.
As well as using an external audio editing program, you can perform basic audio and animation editing tasks within your presentation, including:
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Viewing the presentation audio, including slide and animation markers
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Playing, recording, deleting, and editing audio, including adding silence
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Inserting commands to control playback
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Adjusting volume and processing options
Using audio markers
Adobe Presenter displays a visual representation of a presentation’s audio, along with markers that represent commands for controlling playback. Audio is edited incrementally, one slide at a time.
To view audio markers, open the PowerPoint presentation you want to edit. Click the Adobe Presenter menu or ribbon and click the Audio Edit button. The Audio Editor is displayed (see Figure 1).
Figure 1. The Audio Editor in Presenter
Using the Slide Navigation drop-down list, select a slide to edit (see Figure 2).
Figure 2. Slide Navigation drop-down list
The Audio Editor displays a visual representation of the audio file called a waveform. Markers along the top of the waveform represent commands you can use to control the timing of slide transitions, animations, and other events during playback of your content.
In Presenter, you can add four types of markers in the Audio Editor (see Table 1):
Table 1. Markers applied to the Audio Editor
| Type |
Name |
Marker color |
Description |
| Slide |
Slide (#) |
Gray header with solid red line |
Designates slide transitions. Each slide marker is numbered. |
| Mouse-click animation |
Click (#) |
Blue |
Designates when a mouse-click animation will be
triggered. These markers are numbered within each slide boundary. |
| Automatic animation |
Auto |
Faded gray |
Generated when using the Automatic setting in PowerPoint presentations. |
| Command |
Wait for User or Goto… |
Green |
Enables playback control. There are two types:
1. Wait for User: When this location is reached,
playback automatically stops. The viewer must click on Play to continue the presentation.
2. Goto: When this location is reached, playback automatically jumps to the designated slide. |
Playing, recording, deleting, and editing audio
Use the playback controls in the Audio Editor to review the audio for the presentation. You can also record new audio, delete selected sections, and insert silence.
Adjusting volume and audio processing options
The Adjust Volume dialog box is used to adjust audio playback levels. Adjust Volume also enables you to use some basic audio processing options including normalization (finding the optimal audio volume) and signal boost for quiet audio. The default settings should be fine if you’ve recorded your audio properly. I suggest that you experiment with these settings to understand how changes to these options affect the audio quality of your rendered presentation .
You Try:
To adjust audio volume and digital signal processing options:
- Click the Tools menu in the Audio Editor and select Volume. The Adjust Volume dialog box is displayed.
- Adjust the settings and click on OK.
- Click the File menu and select Exit.When you exit the Audio Editor, Adobe Presenter prompts you to save your changes.
- Click Yes to close the dialog box and return to PowerPoint.
Adding Audio with Marker to Adobe Presenter
Note: Even though this demo is about adding audio to a presentation, for copyright reasons there is no narration track associated with the file.
Next: Importing audio in to Captivate.
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March 10 2009 | e-learning | Comments Off
One of the features of Adobe applications for rapid e-learning content development is their facility to import audio metadata (commonly known as markers) into the authoring environment. I received a query from a Krishna, a subscriber to the E-Learning Curve Blog who asked:
How do you insert markers and how do you synchronize with captivate slides?
So over the next few days I’m going to outline the process of using markers in audio files, and how these markers can be used to simplify the process of synchronizing audio narration with visual content in presentations created not only in Captivate, but also in Presenter too.
Now read on…
In this post, I am going to focus on using audio markers in Sony Sound Forge, a professional sound-editing program or non-linear editor (NLE). 
The Sound Forge audio editing suite is the most powerful in a range of audio editing programs owned by Sony and originally developed by Sonic Foundry. I have been using Sound Forge in one form or another since the late 1990’s and in my view, it is the most flexible and adaptable tool in the audio editing market space (see Figure 1). Sound Forge includes a diverse and powerful set of digital audio signal processing tools, as well as many effects for manipulating audio.
Many e-learning professionals use other NLEs (including the open source program Audacity) to create and produce their audio. I would recommend any of the tools I mention in this article as acceptable for audio content creation.
Figure 1. Sound Forge waveform editor UI (click to enlarge)
Sound Forge software allows you to edit, record, encode, and master nearly all forms of digital audio including WAV, AIFF, and MP3. According to the Sound Forge website, the application has tools for:
- Sound Design and Mastering
- Stereo and Multichannel Recording
- Audio Editing and Workflow
- Powerful Effects Processing
- Audio-for-Video
- Dolby Digital AC-3 export
I’m not going to discuss the fundamentals of audio editing here, but we can say that to a great extent, audio editors are like ‘word processors for sound.’ All the good ones, including Steinberg WaveLab, Audacity and Adobe Audition employ the same user paradigm, and as a result the features of one are pretty much replicated in all the others.
In audio editing, the purpose of a marker is to highlight a specific moment or event on the timeline so that you can return to it later. You may want to highlight a extraneous noise like a cough or click for deletion, or mark two points in a selection to copy or remove it. In audio narration, markers are typically used to set the transition between two sentences, slides or onscreen event (see Figure 2).
Figure 2. Sound Forge marker (click to enlarge)
Using Sound Forge
Some basics…
Opening a File
Sound Forge can edit WAV, MP3, AIFF and a range of other file types. To open a file, just click FILE-> OPEN. The file will open in either mono or stereo, depending on the specific file format.
Controlling Playback
Open a sound file. Use all of the buttons highlighted in Figure 1 (don’t forget to zoom in and out).
Selecting Sounds
Its easy to select a particular sound area. Just click and drag over it. If selecting a stereo sound, drag between the left and right channel to get them both (see Figure 3).
Figure 3. Click and drag to select audio – stereo instance (click to enlarge)
You Try:
- Practice selecting areas of the wave.
- Adjust the selection by dragging at the point where the selection ends.
- Play the selection.
- Copy and paste the selection to the end of the sound
- Delete sections by selecting them and hitting delete on your keyboard.
You can also select in smaller segments (right down to the single bit level) by holding SHIFT on your keyboard and using the LEFT or RIGHT arrow keys. The more you zoom in to the waveform, the higher the level of precision you can achieve.
Markers
Markers enable you to choose edit points and to help you to accurately events in the waveform timeline. To add a marker:
- Click a point in the waveform.
- Select SPECIAL >> INSERT MARKER from the menu, or press the M key
If you have many markers in your audio file, it’s useful to name them. It’s typical for audio narration for e-learning presentations to have many slides or events, and by extension quite a number of markers. I suggest that you name the markers for the slide or event that the following narration describes. To name a marker, right-click its handle and select EDIT… (see Figure 4). Enter some appropriate text in the dialog box – here, I have called the marker “Course Outline.”
Figure 4. The Edit Marker dialog box (click to enlarge)
Marker Navigation
You can automatically navigate from marker to marker by pressing CTRL + LEFT ARROW to go back, or CTRL + RIGHT ARROW to move forward through the timeline.You can select the waveform between markers by pressing SHIFT + CTRL + LEFT / RIGHT arrow.
You Try:
Using your sound editor of choice, try out the activities described in today’s blog post. Click the link to download a fully functional 30-day trial version of Sound Forge.
Saving Markers
Markers are automatically included when you save your audio file. Some professional audio editors also enable you to save the markers as metadata in a separate file called an Edit Decision List (EDL) which is useful when you’re creating video presentations, but that as they say, is another story…
Next: Using markers with Adobe Presenter.
Soon: Using markers with Adobe Captivate.
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March 09 2009 | e-learning | 4 Comments »
