JLEAP - Mundari Audio story editing Workshop 2024 - 25

Background

The Jharkhand Language Enrichment and Application Program (J-LEAP) is a collaborative initiative with the Collectives for Integrated Livelihood Initiatives (CInI) aimed at improving language competencies among children attending Anganwadi centres (AWC) in Jharkhand. The program focuses on leveraging digital story-based pedagogies to enhance listening comprehension and creative expression skills, particularly in children's mother tongues and regional languages. The pilot outlined in the proposal is currently underway, and will continue until March 2025. It aims to provide a deeper understanding to inform future expansion, covering additional geographies, levels, and languages.

The J-LEAP Pre-Workshop Orientation was conducted on Saturday, 11^th January 2025, successfully bringing together 21 resource persons from Khunti along with representatives from IT for Change and CInI. The workshop introduced the program and established clear guidelines for the collaborative story development process. It marked a strong start to this collaborative initiative, demonstrating exceptional engagement and enthusiasm from all participants. The workshop report is available here.

The J-LEAP Story Narration and Recording Workshop was conducted from 17th-19th February 2025. This in-person workshop included review of the selected stories, review of story translations, techniques to make storytelling more engaging, as well as the recording and review processes. The workshop was conducted in Ranchi, Jharkhand with 10 Mundari-speaking CInI resource persons as well as the facilitators from IT for Change. A total of 20 stories were successfully recorded during the workshop. The stories draw from local folklore, personal experiences, and cultural traditions of Jharkhand, creating a rich repository of contextually relevant content for Anganwadi children. All story scripts developed so far can be accessed here, and all the recorded stories can be accessed here. The workshop report is available here.

The Story Editing and Production Workshop will be conducted from 17th-21st March 2025. This in-person workshop will be conducted in Khunti, Jharkhand with 10 Mundari-speaking CInI resource persons as well as the facilitators from IT for Change. This in-person workshop will include recording and review of stories, introduction to Audacity audio-editing software, hands-on practice, as well as editing of recorded stories and the review processes.

Workshop objectives

1. Support participants in recording additional stories in the Mundari language.
2. Guide participants through the entire audio production process, from recording to editing.
3. Use FOSS Tools – Introduce and train participants in using Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) for audio editing.
4. Help participants to access OER sound repositories and integrate OER sound effects and background sounds into their narrations.
5. Empower OER Creators – Enable participants to create and curate Open Educational Resources (OER) by applying learned audio storytelling techniques.

Workshop dates

Dates: 17th to 21st March 2025. Duration: 5 Days

Day-wise Workshop Agenda

DAY 1 - 17th March 2025
Time	Topics to be covered	Topic particulars	Resources
10:00 to 10:30 AM	Progress mapping and Workshop Overview	1. Inauguration and introductions 2. Brief recap of work done so far 3. Sharing workshop objectives 4. Discussing the workshop agenda	Welcome slides - Brief recap of the program
10.30 to 11:30 AM	Progress mapping and selection of more story scripts	1. Review of past recordings - progress mapping 2. Selecting new stories for recording, practice narrations and peer review 3. peer review the content	1. All developed story scripts 2. All the recorded stories 3. List of 1st and 2nd set of stories with recording status
11:30 AM to 1:00 PM	Recording and review process - I	1. Finalising and Recording a common introductory message for all stories 2. Finalising and Recording a common theme track for all stories 3. Recording suitable sound effects/ background tracks for stories	Sample Hindi audio-stories by NCERT (for reference)
Lunch
2:30 to 4:30 PM	Recording and review process - II	1. Continuation of story recordings 2. Peer review and sharing feedback 3. Filling meta-data forms for recorded stories	List of 3rd set of stories with recording status
4:30 to 5:00 PM	Summing up for the day	Recap of work done so far, task allocation and prep for Day 2
DAY 2 - 18th March 2025
10:00 to 10:30 AM	Getting introduce to the audio editing tool	1. Introduction to Audacity, Why Audacity? 2. Interface, toolbars, User manuals 3. Folder structure, organizing files	Learn Audacity page Video tutorials
10:30 AM to 1:30 PM	Getting comfortable with editing tool - Part I	1. Basic audio editing techniques by using sample recording 2. Exploring cut/copy/paste/Undo and other important functions 3. Basic effects 4. Volume adjustment through different options, 5. Using Fade in/out feature to clear abrupt start and end 6. Saving the project (save, save as lossless)	Mundari stories recorded during the workshop
Lunch
2:30 to 3:00 PM	Getting comfortable with editing tool - Part II	Learning how to trim the story narration	Basic audio editing
3:00 to 3:30 PM	Editing the assigned stories - 1	1. Hands-on practice using their own recorded story 2. Understanding "Save project" and "export audio to WAV" options 3. Exporting first version (L1) of their story	Video tutorial - exporting audio files
3:30 to 5:00 PM	Editing the assigned stories - 2	Using 'Noise reduction' to make narration more clear and effective	Adjusting the volume in the audio
5:00 to 5:15 PM	Summing up for the day	Recap of work done so far, task allocation and prep for Day 3
DAY 3 - 19th March 2025
10:00 to 10:30 AM	Guidelines for editing audio-stories	1. Recap of Days 1 & 2 : What we have learnt so far 2. Discussing the bilingual Audio-story Editing Guidelines document	Audio-story editing guidelines (Bilingual)
10:30 AM to 1:30 PM	Editing the assigned stories - 3	1. Recap of Audacity features 2. Doubt clarification 3. Exploring and applying pitch change 4. Exporting second version (L2) of their story	Video tutorial - exporting audio files
Lunch
2:30 to 3:30 PM	Exploring and adding sound effects to the story - I	1. Understanding importance of sound and sound effects (group activities) 2. Noting down the sound elements needed in the story 3. Going through the sound repositories (offline)	Video tutorial - Adding background music and sfx
3:30 to 5:00 PM	Exploring and adding sound effects to the story - II	1. Going through the sound repositories (online) 2. Organising sound effects and background music in the master folder 3. Working on adding sounds effects and background music	Online audio repositories 1. Bensound - https://www.bensound.com/ 2. SoundBible - https://soundbible.com/ 3. Freesound - https://freesound.org/ 4. Pixabay - https://pixabay.com/ 5. Chosic - https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/
5:00 to 5:15 PM	Summing up for the day	1. Exporting final story version 2. Recap of work done so far 3. Task allocation and prep for Day 4
DAY 4 - 20th March 2025
9:30 to 10:00 AM	Brief recap and tasks for the day	1. Recap of Day 3 2. Discussing the agenda for the day
10:00 AM to 12:00 PM	Editing the assigned stories - 4	1. Working on the second set of story recordings 2. Working on L1 and L2 story versions 3. Saving the projects and exporting audio files 4. Parallel Aanganwadi and School visits by ITfC and CInI facilitators
12:00 to 1:30 PM	Editing the assigned stories - 5	1. Adding sound effects to the 2nd set of stories 2. Exporting the edited stories 3. Working on third set of story recordings
Lunch
2:30 to 4:00 PM	Plenary Session and Individual Feedback	1. Plenary session - playing finished stories to get feedback from the team 2. Discussing insights from the ITfC Aanganwadi visit and modifying story selection process
4:00 to 5:00 PM	Working on feedback received	1. Working on feedback received on story editing 2. Identifying new (contextually relevant) stories to be recorded based on feedback
5:00 to 5:15 PM	Summing up for the day	1. Recap of work done so far 2. Task allocation and prep for Day 5
DAY 5 - 21st March 2025
9:30 to 10:00 AM	Brief recap and tasks for the day	1. Recap of Day 4 2. Discussing the agenda for the day - setting up recording and editing processes
10:00 to 11:30 AM	Script finalisation and Poem/ Story/ Song Recordings	1. Finalising poem/ story/ song scripts based on insights shared on the previous day 2. Completing the recording process
11:30 AM to 1:30 PM	Editing the assigned stories - 6	1. Continue to work on the stories 2. Finalising and exporting final version of 1st edited story 3. Finalising and exporting final version of 2nd edited story
Lunch
2:30 to 3:30 PM	Editing the assigned stories - 7	1. Peer review and working on feedback (if any) 2. Working on editing the 3rd story
3:30 to 5:00 PM	Summing up, feedback and way forward	1. Updating editing status for each RP and story 2. Identifying pending tasks 3. Next steps - and individual task allocations 4. Feedback form

Resources

• Access stories from Kathe Khajane (AntennaPod)
• Story editing guidelines for teachers to follow
• Mundari stories recorded during the workshop

Technology Resources

Resource	Link	Purpose
Kathe Khajane	AntennaPod	To install the application and to listen to the stories
Audacity handout	Audacity handout	A detailed user manual page about audacity (by IT for Change)
Audacity video tutorials	Tutorial videos	Video tutorial series on variety of features in Audacity (by IT for Change)
Audacity official site	Audacity official manual	Official site which keeps you updated on newer versions, tools and features

NOTE:- We have collected some great music and sound effects from all the above OER music repositories and put them in one folder. Click here to check out the music repository.

OER audio repositories

From the below table you can find quality OER music and sound effects to reuse it in your project

Sl no	Website name	Link
1	Bensound	Bensound
3	Freesound	Freesound
4	Pixabay	Pixabay
5	Wikimedia common	Wikimedia audio
6	Chosic	Chosic

Workshop Feedback form

Click here to fill the feedback form