Sharpen Your Skills Workshops

In response to a multitude of requests for additional training from former participants in our popular "Getting Started" workshop, the Institute for Oral History began offering advanced online workshops once or twice yearly on high-demand topics. These workshops feature a single three-hour session that expand upon facets of the oral history process.

Sharpen Your Skills:
Applying AI to Oral History
Wednesday, July 16, 2025 • 10:00 a.m. CDT
with Steven Sielaff, Senior Editor and Collection Manager
Cost: $50.00

The next offering in our series of “Sharpen Your Skills” advanced online workshops is “Applying AI to Oral History” and will take place on July 16, 2025, at 10:00 a.m. CDT. This session serves as both an introduction to artificial intelligence platforms in general and the ways in which BUIOH has both utilized them in their workflow and harnessed them to further explore oral history content. BUIOH Senior Editor and Collection Manager Steven Sielaff will walk participants through the definitions, descriptions, and categories of AI technologies and platforms available to oral historians, as well focus on the current legal and ethical concerns when using AI in both in the profession and writ large. In addition, Sielaff will present case studies on his use of OpenAI's Whisper for transcription and Box AI's summarization tools for indexing, while BUIOH director Stephen Sloan will highlight the open-source Baylor University Transcript Analytics and Exploration tool (or BUTANE for short), discussing the impetus for its creation and the various tasks it can perform for assessing your transcript data.

Purpose

Our advanced E-workshop is designed for the oral historian who is looking to get a in depth look into specific area of oral history. The workshop is primarily an advanced course for oral history interviewers who have conducted an oral history interview in the past and are looking to refine their skills and practices. We also welcome participants who are new to oral history.

Topics

Topics covered in the workshop are offered on a rotating basis, with new topics occasionally offered as well. Below includes a list of workshops that we have offered in the past.

Turning Oral Histories Into Radio Dramas (May 2021)
Advanced Interviewing Techniques (November 2015, May 2020)
Managing an Oral History Project (February 2016)
Processing and Outcomes in Oral History (November 2016)
Advanced Interviewing Techniques (May 2017)
Digital Tools in Oral History (May 2018)
Protecting Your Project and Participants (May 2019)

Faculty

Your instructors are faculty and staff members of Baylor University Institute for Oral History, with an accumulated record of more than fifty years of experience with oral history interviewing, training, and administration.

Format

The three-hour workshop is in one session, presented in the morning, 10:00 am – 1:00 pm CDT. We allow ample time for questions and comments at the end of the session and make ourselves available as consultants for the duration of your oral history project. Sample forms and documents related to oral history workshop topic, as well as additional resources, will be made available to workshop participants through Baylor's online file sharing system.

Online Connection

The Zoom-based class will include lecture, Q&A, discussion, and interactive exercises The workshop requires preparatory reading on your part and an assignment. All readings and resources are provided to registrants from about one week before the workshop through two months after the workshop.

Outcomes

Participants receive 1) the recorded session of the live workshop; 2) topic resources; 3) course evaluation form; 4) additional oral history support

More Information About Our Advanced Workshops

If you have questions, or would like to be added to our waiting list, please email buioh@baylor.edu.