Do not try to give a straight lecture to the tape recorder. A C90 tape is sufficient for about two lectures. Break up the material into segments of about 15 minutes, using, for example, a question or brief activity and a short piece of music. Carefully refer to any visual material in the notes, giving precise page or figure numbers, and explain them in detail. The reasons for using audiotapes as the basis of the resource are several.
Tapes are inexpensive and easy to update.
They also provide a medium which is readily accessible to most students in their own rooms. For those students who do not possess a tape playback machine there are several freely available in the learning resource room. Students can replay tapes as often as they wish and this is particularly helpful for students whose first language is not English. The problem sheets that accompany each session contain two or three questions which can be used as self-assessment problems or can be discussed at tutorials. In another civil engineering module the course designer has produced a series of audiotapes in which he talks through his solutions to the questions distributed on problem sheets.