Audio Book Approaches for OER

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Alan Levine

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May 18, 2023, 3:02:57 PM5/18/23
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An interesting question came up in OEG Connect  conversation started by Amanda Grey at KPU:

I’ve had a few inquiries from faculty members who are interested in making their OERs more accessible by creating audio voiceovers or an entire audiobook version. Currently, we are thinking of recording the audio for each individual chapter and embedding it into the Pressbook, but I’m curious if anyone has heard of or developed OER audiobooks and has any suggestions for tools, resources, or platforms that I could look into.

with interesting followups and examples including mention using new AI tools to generate audio as well as a generous offer from Delmar Larsen to retry some approaches he tried pre-AI times at LIbreTexts.

I'm curious to know and share if other institutions / authors have done this or are considering including audiobook versions of their OER? It can be taken as an accessibility approach but also as a flexible format too.

The example I am most aware of is Brian Barrick (Los Angeles Harbor College) who did  audiobook version of the OpenStax American Government OER https://www.openaudio.us/ 

If anyone has examples or thoughts to add as far as approaches for including audio versions of OER, see the discussion (or I will relay any responses)

If you have not entered OEG Connect and wish to contribute there, I have a special account creation link that bypasses the admin moderation on new accounts


Alan

Shagun Kaur

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May 18, 2023, 7:08:00 PM5/18/23
to Alan Levine, CCCOER Community Email
Anna Mills wrote the following book as part of the ASCCC OER Initiative and has audio files for each page embedded in the LibreTexts book.



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Subject: Audio Book Approaches for OER
 
An interesting question came up in OEG Connect conversation started by Amanda Grey at KPU: I’ve had a few inquiries from faculty members who are interested in making their OERs more accessible by creating audio voiceovers or an entire audiobook
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Rachel Becker

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May 19, 2023, 11:37:56 AM5/19/23
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Brian Barrick shared his approached to the audiobook creation process during the 2022 Wisconsin Open Education Symposium. The recording can be found on Youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9ZH8Pqxhgc

Rachel Becker
Copyright & OER Librarian
Madison Area Technical College Libraries

Henderson Barrick, Brian G

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May 19, 2023, 3:56:35 PM5/19/23
to Shagun Kaur, Alan Levine, CCCOER Community Email

Hi Alan and Shagun,

 

Thank you both for sharing these links.  Alan, thank you for linking to the OpenStax American Government audiobook.  It seems that students are finding this format useful.  To date we have had over 20,000 streams on YouTube and over 15,000 podcast downloads.  Working on this project taught me a lot about audio content creation.  Those who are interested in producing their own audiobooks might find some value in one of my YouTube presentations:  Create an OER Audiobook (How To Guide).  The video explains my own approach to creating OER audio content, and I provide some recommendations on audio hardware and distribution strategies.   

 

Moving forward, I am incredibly interested in how artificial intelligence technologies will impact audio narration.  As AI narration approaches near-human quality, I believe that we are going to witness a major proliferation in the amount of audio resources available in the OER space.  If anyone would ever like to connect for a conversation, I am always very glad to connect and brainstorm or compare notes. 

 

Sincerely,

 

BRIAN BARRICK
Instructor, Political Science | Los Angeles Harbor College
1111 Figueroa Place, Wilmington, CA 90744

 

Stephen Downes

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May 20, 2023, 7:29:02 AM5/20/23
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Wow, two sources for OLDaily posts in one thread! Thanks, contributors. :)

Alan Levine

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May 23, 2023, 3:40:19 PM5/23/23
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This has been great, and I've copied a few highlights back to the OEG Connect topic that started this--- 

Brian, we'd love to host this as an open conversation via OEG Live, and I will be reaching out to see if we can find an agreeable date/time in early June. If anyone wants to be part of the panel, let me know (it will be live streamed/recorded to YouTube for those who wish to watch).

Alan

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