Mapping course text to hyperaudio

Abstract

Informal knowledge transfer through podcasts, audiobooks, and radio documentaries enjoys great popularity. However, informal learning settings at schools or universities auditory learning resources are rarely used. This is due to the high cost of producing and updating auditory resources. Furthermore, some learning resources can hardly be presented auditorily. In this paper, we present an approach to convert rich-text course material from LaTeX or MS Word format into interactive hyperaudio documents. For text to speech (TTS) conversion, we make use of common TTS web services. Text-specific design is mapped to audible effects and enriched by time-based interactive visual material. In a dedicated Moodle plugin we provide a basic hyperaudio player to be used within a course or as a stand-alone web application. With this approach, existing course texts can be transferred into hyperaudio within minutes.