37 Spoken Tutorial

Mrs. Bindu S. Tambe

Module Structure

36.0 Learning Outcomes

36.1 Introduction to Spoken Tutorial

36.1 Process of making a tutorial

36.2 Advantages and Limitations

36.3 Application in education

36.5  Let us sum up

36.0     Learning Outcomes

After going through this module, the learner will be able to:

• Acquire knowledge of the concept of spoken tutorials.
• Develop an understanding of the process of making a spoken tutorial.
• Have an understanding of the various applications of spoken tutorial.
• Make his/her own spoken tutorial

36.1Introduction to Spoken Tutorial

Learning is more effective when animation and narrations are presented simultaneously.

Audio-video demonstrations can illustrate features with maximum clarity.

One such means of effective learning can be achieved by Spoken Tutorial. The Spoken Tutorial project is the initiative of the “Talk to a Teacher” project of the National Mission on Education through ICT, launched by Ministry of Human Resources Development, Govt. of India.

Spoken tutorial refers to explaining a computer based activity, along with a live demonstration of it in parallel, with a running commentary. Running commentary can be in any language. One of the ways of including the commentary is by using CamStudio.

A spoken tutorial teaches any computer-based activity with a screen cast and a narration. The screen casting software easily captures activities on the screen. Together with a recorded narrative, the tutorial can be played back as a movie.Screen cast software makes a movie of the entire activity, both the screen and the spoken part. This movie is the spoken tutorial. The running commentary can be in English or in any other language.

After being made in one language, a tutorial could easily be dubbed in other Indian languages. Each of the tutorials, whether original or dubbed, goes through a strict review procedure. Domain experts review the tutorial for accuracy. Following this review process, the tutorial is uploaded to the public domain.

So, basically spoken tutorial makes use of the screen cast along with the narration and the method to be used for teaching and also includes a text book for additional information.

Spoken tutorial = screencast + audio + pedagogy + text

Spoken tutorial is a recording of an actual session. As a result, it can capture every step that is required to explain an activity. This completeness combined with an accompanying audio-video tutorial makes the spoken tutorial the best way to document and to explain software or a computer based activity.

Spoken tutorials are extremely easy to create and they require very less storage space. One recorded CD can hold up to 10 hours of spoken tutorial.Spoken tutorials are useful for learners and also job seekers as there is a huge demand for people who can help create spoken tutorials.

Spoken tutorials can be created by public,that is by students of colleges, schools, working professionals, housewives, retired and unemployed people.

Spoken tutorials can be used to bridge the digital divide, as the original content can be recorded in any language and also can be dubbed in any language. It can also help in increasing digital literacy.

36.2 Process of making a tutorial

A spoken tutorial is an audio-video tutorial that explains an activity performed on the computer. An expert explains the working of software, by demonstrating it on the screen, along with a running commentary. A screencast software makes a movie of the entire activity, both the screen and the spoken part. This movie is the spoken tutorial. The running commentary can be in English or in any other language. Spoken tutorial is a recording of an actual session. As a result, it can capture every step that is required to explain an activity. This completeness, combined with an accompanying audio-video tutorial makes the spoken tutorial the best way todocument and to explain a software or a computer based activity. Creating a document in any other way is inefficient. A ten minute video, for example, can have about 100 screen transitions.

Imagine the work involved in taking screen shots and using them to create a ‘pdf’ document. The size of the video created is of the order of 1MB per minute, for a 800×600 screen size in normal resolution. The file size needs to be small for transmission through low bandwidth and also to pack a large number of tutorials on a CD, meant for countrywide circulation.

Spoke tutorials have been using this methodology to create a series of tutorials in open source software families, such as LaTeX, Scilab, GNU/Linux, ORCA and Python. They selected the duration of a typical spoken tutorial to be about ten minutes long. Although only a small topic can be covered in ten minutes, by stringing them together, one can come up with study plans that are capable of teaching advanced topics as well. The process of making a tutorial involves the creation of a script. Then using a recording software, like CamStudiowhich is a screen-recording software, that records all activities which you see on your computer screen and allows you to play them back later on.CamStudio can be used with Microsoft Windows 95, 98, Me, NT 4.0, 2000 or XP versions. All you need is a 400 MHz processor, 64 MB of RAM and 4 MB of hard-disk space for program installation. CamStudio is an open source software and can be downloaded free of cost from the internet. Go to the site www.camstudio.org. This will open the CamStudio website. Scroll down and click on the link to download. Follow the instructions and you will have downloaded CamStudio on your PC.

Once you have installed CamStudio, double-click on the icon to run it. This will open the CamStudio dialog box. You will see the Main Menu right at the top of the window. Under File, you have the option to Record, Stop, Pause and Exit. You will find the corresponding buttons in the dialog box as well -the Red button to record, the Grey button to pause and the Blue button to stop the recording. It lets you record over your screencast like even a power point presentation and create a spoke tutorial. All the slides can be played like a movie.

36. 3 Advantages and Limitations

• Small size: about 1 MB per minute – the tutorials are in small parts or strings and last only about 10 minutes. Many such tutorials can be made in one CD.
• Inexpensive – the requirements are only a computer and internet and the tutorial can be downloaded. In order to make a tutorial is also inexpensive as the software used is free.
• Self -pacing – spoken tutorial is to be used as a self-study material and a learner can learn about 1 hour matter form one spoken tutorial of 10 minutes.
• Can reduce the digital divide as language does not remain a problem in any part of the country. The audio part of spoken tutorials is easily dubbed in many of the Indian languages. This includes major Indian languages such as Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu, and also languages with fewer speakers, such as Bodo, Nepali and Sanskrit. This combination of English video and mother tongue audio helps retain the employment potential high for students who are not fluent in English.
• Can increase digital literacy as it is very easy to use. It can reach far corners of India and technology will not be something to be feared about. Spoken tutorials can also be used to bridge digital divide. For example, one can use it to explain how to write emails, how to buy train tickets online, and how to open a bank account. One can explain how to do a web search and locate low cost agricultural loans, information about primary healthcare and first aid can also be given.
• Can reduce the time taken to learn a new software or concept. For instance, in a college curriculum, one typically takes several hours to teach the software “C”. In comparison, Spoken Tutorials needs 20 tutorials of around 10 minute each, adding up to 200 minutes, or a little over 3 hours in duration. Of course, it goes without saying that the student has to later practice the programming language to acquire proficiency and enhance productivity.

36.4 Application in education

Spoken tutorial can be used in teaching –learning process effectively and on a large scale.

String of spoken tutorials makes a study plan. By stringing together study plans, it is possible to teach even complicated topics in a simple manner.

Hence, with the use of simple strings, complex mathematical equations, geometrical constructions, balancing chemical equations, computation of physics data, English grammar, spoken English can be taught by this method, easily and effectively.

The spoken tutorial can be provided to the students and they can play it like a movie and understand the concepts easily. They can use it to learn- listen, pause, try the software in parallel, rewind, etc.

Once the content is done, additional exercises can be provided, assignments can be given at the end of the spoken tutorial and solved assignments can be given at the end of the study plan.

Spoken tutorials are very useful for mass education wherein the CDs of lessons plans can be played to a number of students at the same time.

Spoken tutorials are useful for diverse learners who have different needs and the spoken tutorials can be used by gifted as well as slow learners according to their own pace and levels of understanding and comprehension.

Spoken tutorials are very useful for learners with different learning styles, like the audio, visual learners as it combines both the activities on the computer screen as well as the audio recording.

School dropouts and students of distance learning can benefit immensely by the use of these spoken tutorial CDs. They can continue with their studies as per their limitations and geographical barriers are removed in the use of spoken tutorials.

36.5 Let us sum up

As can be seen from above, the Spoken Tutorials project at IIT Bombay attempts to provide IT training through audio video tutorials, created for self -learning. The topics covered are programming languages, simulation and circuit design platforms and office productivity tools, all using open source software. Spoken Tutorials tries to teach the essence of a software in a focused way and hence does it efficientlyreproducing every step: coding the discussed feature, compiling it, executing it and testing for desired results. This is always possible, as the training is restricted to open source software only.The training methodology of Spoken Tutorials can be extended to multiple disciplines – from first aid, to booking a ticket, to perhaps filling a government form. The success of Spoken Tutorials is an encouragement for those involved in education to experiment with novel ways of pedagogy and delivery that not just reduces the time and cost of training, but also extends reach.

Attached along with is a spoken tutorial created using a power point presentation and CamStudio. But the tutorial can be seen only if you have CamStudio installed. It is open-source software and can be downloaded free.

To download CamStudio, visit camstudio.org or camstudio.en.softonic.com. Click on download. It only takes few minutes. Once downloaded, when you run the CamStudio, you can see the Spoken Tutorial.

References

• www.spoken-tutorial.org
• CSI Communications, Knowledge Digest for IT Community Csi-india.org ISSN 0970-647X | Volume No. 35 | Issue No. 6 | September 2011