Technical Requirements Hardware Pentium based PC or compatible  Microsoft® Windows® 95 or higher  32 MB of RAM (64 MB recommended)  20 MB of hard disk space  Mouse  Sound card with a Windows driver Speakers attached to sound card Microphone An active Polaris/Nova account   Software (freeware or trial) GoldWave RealPlayer Basic RealProducer Basic WS-FTP (for optional exercises)

Beyond catching student's attention, audio can enrich education material.   At UMUC, audio clips are already being used to provide a more engaging format in a variety of contexts, including:  foreign language classes, introductory and concluding lecture comments, and narration of slide presentations.  Additionally, audio clips may be used to highlight upcoming deadlines or other important course-related information, further explain charts, tables, formulas, and a wide range of other uses that are limited only by your creativity.    During this workshop we will demonstrate some of the skills and techniques needed to produce audio for use in the online classroom. A beginners knowledge of web technology and HTML is helpful.   We hope that you will learn the basic procedures for: Recording a short audio clip using a Microphone connected to PC; Using a Sound Editor to optimize an audio clip for streaming; Encoding an audio file to RealAudio format. Publishing an audio clip to a RealServer as well as some helpful tips & tricks, key terminology and a broader understanding of the underlying concepts along the way. A table detailing the workshop agenda is provided.  Included are the primary techniques that we will cover in each section.  Also, optional exercises are provided for those interested in making more extensive use of the techniques.  Please use this table as the launching point for the training exercises.