8.2 Audio

Other factors to consider
We've already mentioned that you may need to be careful with the file sizes and formats, but there are other factors you may wish to consider when using audio in your course.

If your students will be using multimedia files (either plain audio or video too) in student computer labs, do they have access to headphones? Having many people in a computer lab all listening to different multimedia through speakers can be very disruptive for other students trying to study. Perhaps you should make a few sets of headphones available in the student computer labs for students to borrow.

Earlier we saw how to put alternative text on your image files to make them accessible for all students, especially those who may have visual impairments. What if some of your students have hearing problems? To make your audio files accessible to all students this you can include a transcript of the file in your course.

Both of these factors also apply to video files. We'll look at how you can use video and flash in the next section.