Should the narrator read the slide notes verbatim? Opinions please...

[marloft]

I'm an Articulate newbie trying out audio for the first time and wondering how best to use the notes facility. Should I put a transcript of the audio in the notes area - or write a more formal version of the material there?

[Brian Sullivan]

We always use the verbatim script -- to allow text searches on content.

I am not sure that there is any right or wrong way though.

[BrucUK]

If there's a need for translating Notes and audio, then verbatim is a good option.
My personal preference is to have Comments on the slides, Notes that flesh out the comments, and audio that explains and adds depth to the Notes.
As said above however, I suspect that there's no "best" way.
Bruce

[INTEA]

We put narrator's script into notes to enable text search within narration.

[Jeanette]

Hi marloft, & welcome! Thanks for starting an interesting discussion.

I'd say that of all the courses I've seen which feature presentation notes, almost all of them contain a word-for-word transcript of the audio narration. It seems like that's generally what learners expect.

And for some courses, the audience might need a verbatim transcript... for example one course I worked on was for a manufacturing setting, and about half the learners worked in a very loud production-floor environment, where the narration wasn't even audible over the sound of nearby equipment. There was audio in the course, but for those learners who worked in an area where the ambient noise was really loud, the narration transcript in the sidebar of the course was really important & helpful.

However, for some situations when learners might not really need to see the text of the narration, I've also seen the notes feature used in other more creative ways too... like on one presentation I saw, each slide was a trivia question with hyperlinked response options, and the developer had used the Notes area to contain a trivia hint. He made the notes available via a button at the bottom of the player rather than in the sidebar, and he changed the text label on the button to say "Need A Hint?" It was kind of cool.

If you're using Presenter to record your audio, another consideration is your workflow... since Presenter allows you to display the notes pane in the Record Narration window, a lot of developers use the notes area to contain the word-for-word script that they want the narrator to read from. It's kind of a nice convenience to have the notes pane right there on the Record window, rather than fuss with a paper copy of the script. (To make the Notes pane visible on the Record window, open your presentation in PowerPoint and on the Articulate menu select Presentation Options > Other and click the button that says "Show notes pane on narration window.")

Looking forward to hearing what other developers have to say on this topic!

[brianosmi]

As stated above in a couple of responses, sometimes it is necessary to provide "closed captioning" for the hearing impaired or environmental situations (loud, noisy room, etc.). If the slide notes match the narration verbatim then you are in good shape. We have a couple of templates where we rename the slide notes button to "CC" for this purpose.

[DavidAnderson]

like on one presentation I saw, each slide was a trivia question with hyperlinked response options, and the developer had used the Notes area to contain a trivia hint

What a great idea!

You could also consider using the Attachments tab as part of your resource, transcript strategy.
Attachments can be used to include

• verbatim script
• notes
• resources
• entire storyboard

I agree that most common way is to use Notes for verbatim transcript, but you can change the text labels to call "notes" whatever you like.

Also worth considering is how your notes and/or attachments will support your on-screen text elements. This is especially true for audio-based courses where the narrator is reading the script. Will you also include the script, verbatim, on the slide or use graphics, animation and text to support narration?

Here are a couple ideas for reducing on-screen text that also might help:
How to reduce on screen text and bullet points in your elearning courses (Part 1 of 2)
How to reduce on screen text and bullet points in your elearning courses (Part 2 of 2)

Progressive reveals:
Using progressive reveals to reduce on-screen text while increasing use of graphics to support narration

Great discussion!

[this.onEnterFrame]

We also do verbatim notes for most of our courses just in case folks cant use the sound.
But sometimes we know our target audience will have sound and/or we feel the content truely requires audio. Like if there is a video embedded. In those cases we dont supply a notes button at all...

[JaneBozarth]

LOTS of research shows that verbatim narration hurts learning. Here's an article about that from Learning Solutions that includes a reading list: Nuts and Bolts: Principles of Multimedia Learning by Jane Bozarth : Learning Solutions Magazine

Best,
Jane

[brianosmi]

Originally Posted by JaneBozarth

LOTS of research shows that verbatim narration...

Great point Jane, but I believe that the context of this question and discussion are along the lines of slide notes, not actual content on the slide itself.