Education Podcasts in Online Training #39

Education Podcasts in E-Learning (#39): Challenge | Recap

I've always been a big fan of audio podcasts for everything from learning to entertainment. One of my favorite audio projects comes from StoryCorps. Specializing in capturing oral history, StoryCorps travels around the country setting up MobileBooths—recording studios housed in Airstream trailers.

They invite pairs of people to interview each other for 40 minutes about the most important moments in their lives. StoryCorps keeps a copy and provides participants a CD copy of the interview. They even offer a free Do-It-Yourself Instruction Guide for capturing and recording your own interviews.

While their focus is on storytelling and oral history, there’s plenty of interviewing techniques course designers can apply to their own training projects.

So I thought it’d be interesting in our challenge this week to switch gears from a visual focus, and instead play with our audio sense to design a podcast.

Challenge of the week

This week your challenge is to record your answers to the following 10 interview questions:

E-Learning Podcast Interview Questions:

1. Tell us a little about yourself and the types of e-learning projects you most enjoy.
2. How did you become an e-learning or instructional designer?
3. What are the essentials of good e-learning design?
4. Tell me about your most successful e-learning project.
5. What are the most important criteria in evaluating e-learning?
6. What are some common mistakes new course designers make and how can they avoid them?
7. How is designing mobile learning different than designing for the desktop?
8. How do you evaluate whether your course was effective?
9. How do you keep up your skills and stay current in the industry?
10. What is the future of e-learning?

Save each audio clip as its own file. Use a naming convention that makes it easy to identify each audio file to the corresponding question. You can use numbers (1-10) or any format that works best for you.

In the comments section or on your own blog, link to each of your 10 audio clips. I’ll compile each of your questions into an interactive audio project.

Tools

You can use Articulate Storyline, Articulate Studio, Audacity, or any other audio recording program to record your podcast.

Last week’s challenge

Before you sound off in this week’s challenge, check out the amazing game templates your fellow community members shared in last week’s template challenge:

• Melissa Milloway joined the weekly challenges with a creative menu-themed game board.
• Melissa later jumped into the challenge with a gamified tribute to Game of Thrones. Terrific examples, Melissa!
• Jackie Van Nice adapted her game template for a sales training project with a tropical theme and Mai Tai progress meter. You can read all about Jackie’s project over at her blog.
• Jackie also shared a PowerPoint version of her game template.
• Mary Cropp shared a really awesome demo that takes learners on a hospital tour to learn about potential donors while restoring sight to blind people. Great concept, Mary!
• Richard Watson took learners on a culture quest with his creative adaptation of the template. Thanks, Richard!
• Scott Truelove hit a homerun in his baseball-themed game that puts learners in the championship game with the option to choose type of pitch. Great concept, Scott!
• Nick Russell shared another creative demo with this corporate game that takes learners on an ethical journey while trapping demons in a cookie jar. You heard me. Check out the demo and the Storyline template he shared. Awesome, Nick!
• Dan Sweigert rocked out with this e-learning hit that teaches learners what it takes to break into the music business. You can read more about Dan’s rock star project over at his blog. Great job, Dan!
• Julia B joined the community with her first e-learning challenge that teaches learners all about good dog training. Lots of treats in this demo, Julia!
• Dana Dutiel shared a bellissimo game idea that teaches the science of baking.
• Mark aced his demo with this above par sales game. Great demo, Mark!
• Daniel Brigham asked learners to help Johnny overcome his fear of writing research papers in this hand-drawn game template. Nicely done, Daniel!

Share Your E-Learning Podcast Interview!

View the current podcast challenge and share your own answers to the interview questions.