Audio File sizes, MP3 and Resource Warnings

I've posed the question of "at what size does the warning message appears" to a colleague and I'll get back to you as soon as I find out.

Their isn't really an elearning wide standard because each project, software, LMS, browser, network array, and a myriad of other factors can weigh in to the final conclusion. To find the file size range for your company the best thing to do is to contact a company IT professional, LMS administrator and LMS vendor representative. From there you can get their recommendations based on server size, recommended browser and network speed just to name a few. To find a general space per course you could ask for the total storage space you're allowed on your LMS then divide it by the number of courses currently live or planned to be housed in the LMS. From a general guideline (audio sharing platforms, system configurations, LMS best practices, etc) standpoint I've seen recommendations ranging from 1-5 GB per project (course) which would make 2.5 the average to strive for.

Thank you both so much for the guidance. I appreciate it!

The warning is set to appear at 128Kb.

Bitrate of 96-128 Kbit/sec is more than enough for any audio in e-learning. If the learner's bandwidth is more than 128Kbit, they will have no delays in streaming these files. And even the worst cellphone connections have that covered now.

Here's a useful table (click here) that explains how bitrate translates into megabytes per minute and per hour. Keep in mind that anything below 64Kbit/s is hard to listen to and anything above 128 Kbit/s is an overkill for e-learning (unless you do a course on sound production for professional musicians of course :))

I find Lectora's warnings overly pessimistic (300 Kbytes for an mp3 isn't much!), so I tend to ignore them most of the time.