Yes, you can force learners to listen to the whole audio file by embedding the audio file icon outside the slide itself and disabling the player controls for the audio. This will prevent them from skipping narrations and voiceover or any vital explanation said while slides are playing.
In this example, I imported an audio file to narrate course instructions and embedded it outside the slide:
To ensure that your learners wouldn't put this narration on mute, you can also turn off the volume player controls from Player features.
Visit our Support Article on configuring Player Controls for more information. You can tick/untick the box to enable and disable the volume button.
Let me know if it worked.
Should you need further assistance, feel free to send me an email or respond to this thread.
I would agree with Matthew you cannot force anyone to listen to something.
I have completed security training for an organisation where they locked the slide until the audio completes and I would leave the browser window open and do other work whilst the audio played and then press next once there was no audio playing.
I would always recommend that if information is important you find engaging ways of presenting it. Locking down courses only frustrates users in my experience, a frustrated user is not a learner. I do however understand that for some courses such as compliance courses developers/sme's see locking down the course as a way of showing a user has completed a section. It may be better to design the assessment in such a way it measures the course objectives and content and then allow the user to have control of their learning.
Designing an assessment to measure what has been learned is a much softer approach than forcing content on them.
That said, there are plenty of project owners that no matter how much you advise them as to the best practices they still want to do it their way, no matter how compelling a case you put forward.
Thanks for your replies. I totally agree, but have a situation where SMEs want some important audio info to be conveyed to audience with possible low literacy. text will of course be included. We'll do some more brain-storming to see if we can come up with a more creatively interactive, time efficient and engaging way of presenting some difficult concepts.......
Restrict menu - no seek bar- no player controls. Advice that the audio will be played in the previous slide or a layer that can be hidden by clicking "agree" button etc.
Set triggers on timeline with light box quiz question for each paragraph- (I agree with David Tait)
Changing the state of next button to disabled when timeline starts may be ideal but not required in restricted menu- however, I would still do it to show that "next" button won't work. Change the state of next button to enabled when timeline ends.
Just be cautious in restricting controls as this goes against WC3 guidelines where all content should be made accessible to all users. By removing the controls, content may not always be usable by people with a wide variety of disabilities.
6 Replies
Hi Di,
Great question!
Yes, you can force learners to listen to the whole audio file by embedding the audio file icon outside the slide itself and disabling the player controls for the audio. This will prevent them from skipping narrations and voiceover or any vital explanation said while slides are playing.
In this example, I imported an audio file to narrate course instructions and embedded it outside the slide:
To ensure that your learners wouldn't put this narration on mute, you can also turn off the volume player controls from Player features.
Visit our Support Article on configuring Player Controls for more information. You can tick/untick the box to enable and disable the volume button.
Let me know if it worked.
Should you need further assistance, feel free to send me an email or respond to this thread.
Thanks,
Louise
I would agree with Matthew you cannot force anyone to listen to something.
I have completed security training for an organisation where they locked the slide until the audio completes and I would leave the browser window open and do other work whilst the audio played and then press next once there was no audio playing.
I would always recommend that if information is important you find engaging ways of presenting it. Locking down courses only frustrates users in my experience, a frustrated user is not a learner. I do however understand that for some courses such as compliance courses developers/sme's see locking down the course as a way of showing a user has completed a section. It may be better to design the assessment in such a way it measures the course objectives and content and then allow the user to have control of their learning.
I completely agree with Matthew and Phil here.
Designing an assessment to measure what has been learned is a much softer approach than forcing content on them.
That said, there are plenty of project owners that no matter how much you advise them as to the best practices they still want to do it their way, no matter how compelling a case you put forward.
Thanks for your replies. I totally agree, but have a situation where SMEs want some important audio info to be conveyed to audience with possible low literacy. text will of course be included. We'll do some more brain-storming to see if we can come up with a more creatively interactive, time efficient and engaging way of presenting some difficult concepts.......
My take would be...
Restrict menu - no seek bar- no player controls. Advice that the audio will be played in the previous slide or a layer that can be hidden by clicking "agree" button etc.
Set triggers on timeline with light box quiz question for each paragraph- (I agree with David Tait)
Changing the state of next button to disabled when timeline starts may be ideal but not required in restricted menu- however, I would still do it to show that "next" button won't work. Change the state of next button to enabled when timeline ends.
Just be cautious in restricting controls as this goes against WC3 guidelines where all content should be made accessible to all users. By removing the controls, content may not always be usable by people with a wide variety of disabilities.
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