Creating and Accessing Voice Authoring

creating and accessing voice authoring

Voice Authoring is Wimba's voice announcement recording tool. Voice Authoring enables ACC instructors to record audio announcements for their students. It is asynchronous, one way communication from the instructor to the students. Since Voice Authoring is a one way communication, it is generally referred to as a Voice Authoring announcement.
Some examples of how instructors have used Voice Authoring are the following:

To provide introductory course comments and announcements.
To record a welcome message for new students
To review and explain key course concepts.
To record exam review topics.
To explain and review the highlights of a lecture.

Once the Voice Authoring announcement has been created, an instructor can post it from within a course web site or from within Blackboard.

Students will access Voice Authoring announcements directly from within Blackboard or from within a course web page.

As an instructor, there are two ways to create a Voice Announcement. One way to record a voice announcement is within Blackboard. Another way to record voice announcements is by logging into Wimba.

BLACKBOARD

Creating Voice Announcement within Blackboard

Messages created within Blackboard can be created in one of four areas:

Voice Announcements (icon is located on Blackboard's Control Panel). This leaves a general audio voice announcement recording on the main announcements page for Blackboard.
One of three Content Areas in Blackboard. (Note: the Content Area is located in the upper left corner of the control panel.) There are 3 Blackboard content areas where an instructor can create a voice announcement. Whichever content area a voice announcement is created, that is the where it will be stored and accessed by a student. For example, a voice announcement created within the Course Documents area of Blackboard, is accessible and available for students only in the Course Documents content area of Blackboard.

Creating a General Voice Announcement

To create a general Voice Announcement (an announcement that is available for students on Blackboards main announcement's page) do the following:

1. Log into Blackboard.

2. Select the course you want to add the Voice Announcement to.

3. Select Control Panel.

4. Select Voice Announcements from the Course Tools menu.

5. The Add Voice Announcement page will appear. Type a name and description for your Voice Announcement.

6. You should see the voice recorder applet in Section 2. If you don't see the recording applet, you will need to run a diagnostic on your computer. To run a diagnostic, go to:

http://austincc.horizonwimba.com/austincc/wizard/launcher.jsp

7. You will also need a microphone to record your message. When you are ready to record, Select the Record icon (circle) within the recording applet and record your audio announcement. When you are finished recording, select the Stop or if you want to continue recording press Pause.

8. Section 3 allows you to set various options for your voice recording. Selecting Yes for the "Always show this announement" option will move your recorded announcement to the top of the announcements page. No adds the voice announcement at the bottom of the announcements page.

9. You can also select the dates and times your message will be posted or "available." For example, you might only want a welcome message to be available for the first two weeks of the semester.

10. When your recorded message content and administrative options are the way you want them, select Submit.

11. If your Voice Announcement is positioned where you want it to be on your list of announcements, select OK.

12. When your students log into Blackboard, you audio recorded voice message will be posted for them to listen to.

13. For more information on how to record a general voice announcement within Blackboard, contact an Instructional Design Specialist on your campus or contact Jim Holzknecht at 223-8011, jholzkne@austincc.edu.

14. View an on-line quick start Flash tutorial on how to create a general voice announcement within Blackboard.

Creating a Voice Announcement within a Blackboard Content Area

In addition to recording general voice announcements, you can also create a voice announcement specific to a content area within Blackboard.

To create a content area specific voice recorded announcement, do the following:

1. Log into Bb at http://acconline.austincc.edu .

2. Select the course you want to add the voice announcement to.

3. Select Control Panel.

4. Select one of the options from the Content Areas of the Control Panel. The Content Area is located in the upper left corner.

5. Select Voice Recorder from the Learning Unit pull down menu located in the upper right portion of the screen.

6. Select GO located directly to the right of the Learning Unit pull down menu.

7. In the Information Section (Section 1), type a name for the Voice Announcement. You should see Wimba's recording applet. If you do not see the applet, you will need to run a diagnostic on your computer. To run a diagnostic, go to:

http://austincc.horizonwimba.com/austincc/wizard/launcher.jsp

8. When you are ready to record, select the Record (circle) icon. When you are finished recording press Stop or if you want to continue recording, press Pause.

9. In section 2, the Options section, it is recommended to keep the defaults (Make the content available = Yes, and Track the number of Views = No). You can also set a start and end date for your voice message.

10. Select Submit. The Voice Announcement Added screen will appear.

11. Select OK and the Voice Announcement will be added to the course content area you selected.

View a tutorial on how to create a Voice Announcement within a Blackboard Content Area.

LOGGING INTO Wimba

Creating a Voice Authoring announcement by logging into Wimba.

1.Log into Horizon using the username and password that was provided to you. The username and password are case-sensitive.

2. Select the Communications tab at the top of the screen.

3. Select Voice Authoring.

4. Select Administration of your Voice Authoring resources tocreate a new Voice Authoring announcement.

5. Select New located in the upper left corner of the screen.

6. The Voice Authoring Create screen appears. Type the name and description of the Voice Authoring template.

Note: you can record several Voice Announcements from one Voice Authoring template. The name of individual recordings is archived based on the name you type in the MID text box. (see below) Click New when done.

7. Next, configure the Voice Authoring template using the sequence of Option screens. To proceed from screen to screen, select the Next Page option located in the bottom right corner of the screen.

Voice Authoring Settings screen allows you to set the recording quality (standard quality is recommended) and the max length for the recorded announcement (it is recommended to use the 3 minute default maximum announcement length setting).
The Public Access link is a screen with one checkbox which establishes whether the Voice Authoring announcement will have public access or not. It is recommended to select the Public Access checkbox for the Voice Announcement.
Administrators of this Voice Authoring (User's screen) defines who will have administrative authority to modify the Voice Authoring settings. It is recommended for the instructor to be the ONLY administrative authority over a Voice Authoring announcement. Do not give students administrative rights to a Voice Authoring announcement.
Groups of administrators for this Voice Authoring enables members of a group to have administrative rights to modify Voice Authoring settings. Check the boxes of the groups which apply (if any). Note: if you check the Public Access checkbox, then you will not have to assign users and groups to the Voice Authoring announcements. You will only have to publish it one time and provide a link to the announcement from within Blackboard or a course web page and you will avoid having to assign the announcement to different users and groups each semester.
The View all messages screen enables the Voice Authoring administrator to see previously recorded Voice Authoring messages.
Publish contains the options for creating the links to Voice Authoring announcements. Choose a publishing option which best meets your course objectives and your course needs. To use any of these four publishing options, select one, copy and paste it into Blackboard or a course web page.

Since students will not be logging into Wimba to retrieve their Voice Authoring announcements, you must copy and paste Voice Authoring audio recorded announcements into Blackboard or into an external course web site.

Note: Make sure you get ALL the code for the option you select or the audio announcement will NOT work. The four publishing options are the following:

URL Pointing to the Voice Authoring – Use this option if you want the student to link to the audio announcement from Blackboard, a course web page, a course syllabus or from another course document.

Link to the Voice Authoring in a web page – Use this if you don’t want to display the full web address but you want an embedded URL link within Blackboard or from within a course web page. (Note: If this option is chosen, be sure to select the HTML mode within Blackboard).

Link to open Voice Authoring in a popup window – Use this option if you want the Voice Authoring player controls to open in a new window within Blackboard or from within a course web page.

Insert the Voice Authoring in a web page – Use this option to embed the Voice Authoring announcement and player within Blackboard or from within a course web page.

8. Type a Name in the MID text field for your Voice Authoring message. After you have entered the option settings above, a Voice Recorder/Voice Player and Publish (bottom half) screen will appear. This screen enables an instructor to record a message, or to play an existing Voice Authoring announcement.

Note: to play a previously recorded message, you must enter the correct MID name in the MID text field.

One of the unique aspects of publishing Voice Authoring, is the Record and Play options which are available on the top portion of the Publish page.

The Voice Recorder/Voice Player screen at the top of the Publish page allows the Voice Authoring administrator to record or play a Voice Authoring message.
The MID text box. Every Voice Authoring announcement is named by the Wimba system. The MID field is simply a text box which Wimba uses to assign names to Voice Authoring announcements. The Voice Authoring announcement is named whatever is typed into the MID text name field. A MID text box field name can be only alpha-numeric characters and NO SPACES between the characters can be used. If you want to record over a previously recorded Voice Authoring announcement, you will need to remember the MID name. If you don't remember the MID name, do the following:
- Select Administration of your Voice Authoring Resources from the main Voice Authoring page
- Click on the Edit icon located to the right of the Voice Authoring tool you set up for your class
- Select View All Messages
- Select the Click here option to display all the archived Voice Authoring recorded messages
- Select the appropriate Voice Authoring message (MID name)
- Select the Record icon and the previous Voice Authoring message will be recorded over

9. Record a Message. Enter a name in the MID text field (type a new name if the recording is new or an existing MID name if you want to re-record a previous message) and select Record a message. Click on the Red circle (Record) icon from the Java recording applet and begin speaking to record your message. Click the STOP icon (square) when you are through recording.

10. Create a "PLAY" link to the recorded message. After you have recorded a Voice Authoring announcement, you need to create a link to it (publish it) from your course materials (i.e. from a course web site, or from a link within Bb, etc.)

Enter the MID name in the MID text box (if you have just finished recording a message then the MID field will still contain the text name you entered prior to recording the message.
Select Play a Message. Make sure the MID name is the SAME NAME you used when you recorded a message. NOTE: If you copy and paste the code immediately after you record a message, what you will be pasting into Blackboard or into a web site is the RECORD icon NOT the PLAY icon with the recorded message. This means that the students can use this icon to record their own messages--not recommended.

11. Publish your Voice Authoring announcement link into Blackboard or a course web page. The links and Java code for the audio message you just recorded will appear in the box below the MID text box and audio Recorder/Player section.

Scroll down the Wimba Publishing page (bottom half of the publishing page). Copy the Java code for the forth (last) publishing option using the CNTL A or CNTL C commands for Windows or Command A and Command C for Apple.
Go to your course web page (Note: if you are in Blackboard, you will need to be in the HTML mode to link to an external web page)
c. You can have the web page open in a new window by putting the command target="_blank" just after the "a href statement" so the line of HTML code looks like the following:

<a href="http://yourserver.com/yourdir/yourfile.htm" target="_blank">

Be sure you are in the HTML mode in Blackboard when adding HTML tags.
Go to the part on the web page where you'd like to have the Player applet appear and Paste the code into Blackboard or into your course web page. ("CNTL V") .

When the student selects the Play icon (right hand arrow), from your course web page or from Blackboard's HTML page, your Voice Authoring announcement will play.

Accessing an existing Voice Authoring Announcement.
A Voice Authoring announcement will generally be accessed by your students from within Blackboard via Blackboard's HTML feature or through a course's external web site. In order to have the entire Java Player applet to display from within Blackboard or from a course's external web page, you will want to copy and paste the Java Code option (last one of the four publishing options). Insert the code wherever you want the player icon and recorded announcement to appear. (see steps above)
In order to edit or re-record an existing Voice Authoring announcement, you will need to log into Wimba, select the previously recorded Voice Authoring announcement from the list of and re-record it (type the name of the previously recorded Voice Authoring announcement in the MID text box area of the Publish screen and select Record.

Select Administration of your Voice Authoring Resources from the main Voice Authoring page
Select Edit to the right next to the title of the Voice Authoring Resource you wish to edit
Select Voice Recorder/Voice Player if you already know the MID name of the Voice Authoring Resource you want to edit. If you forgot the MID name, follow #1-5 listed in the MID Text Box section of step 9 above.

For additional information on how to create a new Voice Authoring announcement, review each of the Flash audio-based tutorials (1 through 3) listed below.

Note: you will need a Flash player to view these tutorials. If you do not have a Flash player currently installed on your system, you can download one for free at: www.macromedia.com .