How to do oral history interviews (Personal track)

Start every family history or life story project here.

Course Summary

By completing this short course, you will feel confident and prepared to conduct life story interviews. Receive thorough, yet easy-to-understand answers to questions such as: What is the power of voice to evoke memories and inspire others? Should you use a digital recorder, or app on your phone, or both? What are best practices for doing interviews by Zoom/Teams/Google Meet? Which microphones are worth the money? What are the most efficient methods for transcribing audio? Why is oral history the easiest, and most powerful way to capture a life story? 

Course Pricing

  • How to do oral history interviews (start here)

  • $37 USD

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TESTIMONIALS

"Videos are brief and held my attention and weren't overloaded with too much technical info.  Narration was concise and very nicely presented.  I will definitely be going back to it again and again as I progress!" 
Larry Basham
“Detailed and helpful: Loved this course.  It has so much information with pictures and links.  It is detailed and helpful for me and my journey of helping to record the stories of family and friends.  Thank you, Rhonda!"
Corrine Barlow
“It combines the why with the how of recording oral stories and the motivation to actually do it because it has been made simple, so why wouldn't you?!”
Jennifer Eden Clark
“I was impressed with the sacred ground part of each story being so important to families to record and share. This was complete, recorded with empathy, and many techniques were shared, with the author's pros and cons about using each one.”
Linda Deutmeyer
“The whole course is amazing, easy to follow, full of great advice, and the transcription tips are great :)"
Bruce Reimers
This is a very good course with comprehensive technical advice, as well as food for the soul. Thank you so much!”
Karen Mohr

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

This short course is self-paced and is designed to complete in less than three hours.

Yes. You can start or stop whenever you like and work on a schedule that is comfortable for you. The lessons are organized in short, bite-sized chunks to make it easy to start and stop.

This is meant to be a beginner course. There are a few technical sections such as how to transcribe audio, which you are free to delve into, or skip altogether.

About two-thirds of the lessons are short videos (mostly 3-5 minutes). Some are formatted like it's you and me together one-on-one, some are from a half-day class I filmed specifically so it would feel like you're there in a group, and some are tutorials narrated by me. The other lessons consist of exercises and additional reading. You can preview lessons above to get an idea.

Course Curriculum

TEACHING AND PRESENTATION EXPERIENCE

Rhonda Lauritzen

Rhonda Lauritzen is a professional biographer with multiple published books. She believes that when you tell your story, it changes the ending. This is why her passion is teaching, coaching, and presenting at conferences. As an author, she specializes in writing life stories, collecting oral history, and historical storytelling. Before she founded Evalogue.Life she served as a college Vice President and a CEO. In 2007 her family history writing journey began with the story of her parents, which became her first book, Every Essential Element, which was followed by others. Most recently she was the writing coach to Rob A. Gentile, author of the #1 bestseller, Quarks of Light – A Near-Death-Experience (What I saw that opened my heart). 

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