Adding Oral Communication to Blackboard

Oral Homework Submission Students can record directly into

Blackboard No file format issues No file naming issues

Podcast Creation No need for blog to create feed Podcast available within and without

Blackboard

Voice personalizes the course Voice helps auditory learners Oral homework develops students’

presentational communication skills Students can explain process or procedure

Oral discussion boards help prepare students for class discussions

Oral discussion boards can be used as oral learning journals

“It provided a more spontaneous medium to allow more flowing

expression of thoughts and feelings to be shared.”

--from study of use of Wimba Voice Tools at the Duke School of Nursing

Use a good microphone Run the Setup Wizard before recording When possible, set Good or Superior

Quality Set reasonable time limits for recording

Oral homework: 2 – 3 minutes assigned; 5 minutes set as limit

Decide upon privacy settings Voice Board discussions can be private Privacy good for instructor feedback

Set clear objectives for using voice Build community Begin class discussion Create oral journals

Structure activities so students aren’t ‘talking into a void’

Determine evaluation criteria

Accessible through the Control PanelOnly available to instructorsPossible uses:

Welcome message Explain a concept or assignment Avoid SHOUTING in a text

announcement

Voice BoardWimba PodcasterVoice Email

Choose whether students can see this tool

To all students, all instructors, all users, or selected users

Not assigned to any specific content area

Student-to-student communicationOral homework for instructor

evaluation

Threaded oral discussionCan include typed textStudents cannot import audio files

Get more spontaneous speechPreview and/or summary of class

discussionsComments on student presentationsAudio blog / learning journal

Discussion threads can be private

Listen from within Blackboard or subscribe

Only instructors can import audio files

Text information can be included; it should appear in ‘lyrics’ field

Choose whether or not students can post directly

Combine web sites and audioGive a tour of an important siteAnnotate a web-based imageExplain a problem solution, etc.Public or private comments on

‘slides’ are possibleDownside: all graphics must be

associated with a URL

From Palomar College:http://www.palomar.edu/atrc/Training/Wimba/default.htm