Audio & Text in Learning Message Design

Brock Hoffman

bshoffman@vt.edu

11/15/21

Assignment 8.1:
1.) CHOOSE 4 from the following list to describe how you might use these in a learning message design.
Use the spaces to the right of each idea for your description as well as the topic, the type of audience
and the context. The first one is filled out as an example (Notice each term I am using from the course
content are bolded ~ please do the same.)

Topic: Discussion on the main theme in To Build a Fire by

Purposeful Color Jack London
Scheme Audience: 11th Grade English Students
Context: Face-to-face classroom discussion after already
(Example) reading the story
Description of how you might use this in a message
design:
As the main theme has to do with conflict, I want there to
be a clear contrast between the text and the background –
a strong figure/ground effect. I might find a picture of a
fire in a forest, and desaturate (take the color out) the
forest and have only the fire with color to show it as the
only source of life that the man desired. He did not respect
nature or recognize its power. For the text color I would
use an Achromatic color theme (with no hues, only black,
white and shades of gray) in hopes of creating the same
mood that the story did. As I get into the discussion more, I
would use Red or Orange (to match the flames of my intro
slide) for the literary terms that came up in the presentation
to stand out and cue (pre-attentive processing) the
audience to the important terms to know...like the fire
(similarity).

Topic: The Process: Becoming a College Football Player

Typography Choices
Audience: High School Football Players
Context: Digital Media Message
Description of how you might use this in a message
design: I want to design my message and presentation by
having typography that is clear and easy to read. By
following the coherence principle, it will allow me to take
a cognitive load off of my learners and allow them to see
 what specific information I am trying to present to them.

Topic: The Process: Becoming a College Football Player

Use of Story For Audience: High School Football Players
Attention Context: Digital Media Message
Description of how you might use this in a message
design: To begin my presentation I want to use a story that
will implement some of Gagne’s events of instruction by
telling a story about one kid who wasn’t as talented as
another but he worked hard in school and football and
ended up playing in college while the more talented kid fell
off the right path. In doing this I will be providing relevance
to the students, grabbing their attention, and building
credibility.

Topic: The Process: Becoming a College Football Player

Audio (Narration) Audience: High School Football Players
Context: Digital Media Message
Description of how you might use this in a message
design: I plan on incorporating narration into my
presentation by having narration follow a script of what I
plan on presenting in terms of material. The narration will
go along with the different visuals and text on screen that
will be provided throughout the presentation.

Topic:
Audio (Sound Effect) Audience:
Context:
Description of how you might use this in a message
design:

Topic:
Audio Audience:
(Music/Soundtrack) Context:
Description of how you might use this in a message
design:

Topic: The Process: Becoming a College Football Player

Hyperlinks Audience: High School Football Players
Context: Digital Media Message
Description of how you might use this in a message
design: I want to implement hyperlinks into my
presentation because I feel it is important for me to show
my learners videos of different aspects of college football
to give them perspective on how hard they need to work in
order to make it to that point.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZPxPSr3Bmw
Here is a video of Clemson football’s summer workouts in
2015 the summer before they played for a National
Championship.

Topic:
Human Filtering Audience:
Context:
Description of how you might use this in a message
design:

Assignment 8.2:
I believe that the Steve Jobs speech was very inspirational in terms of the message he

was trying to portray. The speech had taken place at a graduation ceremony at Stanford

University, I felt like he grabbed the attention of the audience right away as he said “one of the

finest universities in the world” in doing this the crowd began to cheer so he without a doubt

grabbed their attention off of the complement. I also felt like after he made that statement he

began to build credibility with his audience by talking about how special it is for him to speak at

a college graduation ceremony when he didn’t even go to college. I believe that as well in

building credibility with the audience he also gave the students perspective on how people

have different life experiences and how everyone’s path to success is different. I feel like

throughout the entire speech he kept a positive attitude as the speech was very upbeat, I felt

like he kept a good pace as he was speaking through his stories he didn’t rush through them

and as he was moving to the next point he took a small pause where he seemed to gain his

breath and speak effectively. I believe his intended purpose of this speech is to show that

everyone’s path to success is different, there are ups and downs and different forms of

adversity will come into your life but you need to find your passion and something you love and
chase your dreams. Overall, this speech was very inspirational to me and gave me an insight to

Steve Jobs that I hadn’t known before this speech.