I revisited the Audacity training.
The training already covers the essentials—navigating the toolbar, recording audio, selecting and trimming tracks, adjusting volume, copyright, etc.
The training itself is pretty solid. It has a clear, logical progression from installation to export, good visual aids, and a practical focus on tasks Fellows will actually need. I especially appreciate that it includes an accessibility section since that’s often overlooked. That said, I think it could use a more robust troubleshooting section specifically for recording issues – microphone not detected, audio sounding muffled, that kind of thing. These are super common first-time frustrations. Adding a quick reference guide of keyboard shortcuts would also be helpful since they save so much time once you learn them (e.g, Ctrl+Z for undo). Maybe you could also include a brief section on file formats too, explaining when to use .mp3 versus .wav and what bitrate settings mean for quality and file size?
For leveling up, I’d recommend future fellows focus on multi-track editing (good for podcast production), noise reduction (this can really improve audio quality!). Also, equalization (EQ) helps make voices sound clearer and more professional. Beyond that, learning to use labels to mark sections of long recordings would be incredibly helpful for oral history projects, and getting used to the Envelope Tool for precise volume adjustments would be good too.
Audio editing is one of those skills where you learn best by doing and by making mistakes, so I’m glad that the Vivero training involves messing around with it! I think overall, the training provides a strong foundation, and with a few additions focused on troubleshooting and intermediate techniques, it would give Fellows everything they need to produce professional-quality audio projects!