Voice Board is Wimba's asynchronous voice discussion board. It enables instructors and students to record audio discussion topics (audio blogs) and reply to existing topics. It is an excellent forum for discussing key course issues, theories and concepts. Some examples of how instructors have used Voice Board are the following:

• Spanish language and speech instructors have used the Voice Board feature to develop interactive exercises, and to evaluate language speaking, listening and comprehension skills.
• An accounting instructor used the Voice Board to explain a difficult course concept and to review the key points of a lecture (i.e. accelerated depreciation, etc.).
• A computer science instructor used the Voice Board feature to explain and demonstrate step by step procedures (i.e. installing a utility system) and to have students interact with each other.
• A philosophy and English instructor used the Voice Board resource to post audio discussion topics related to concepts discussed in class.

There are two ways to create a Wimba Voice Board. One way is to create the Voice Board within Blackboard and another is to log into Wimba.

The Voice Board must first be created before any audio blogs (audio messages) can be recorded and posted. The Voice Board acts as a kind of storage structure or shell for individually recorded audio messages.

There are many new Voice Board features available in Wimba version 5.0. For a summary of the new features and functions, visit the Wimba Web site at:
http://www.wimba.com/docs/Wimba_Voice_Tools_5.0.pdf.

In addition, there is an animated Flash tutorial describing some of the new features of version 5.0. The Wimba on-line Flash tutorials are at: http://www.wimba.com/demos/ .

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BLACKBOARD

Creating a New Voice Board (recorded audio blog) from within Blackboard:

Instructors and students can now create a recorded audio blog from within Blackboard. To create a new Voice Board within Blackboard, do the following:

1. Log into Blackboard and select the course you would like to add the the Voice Board to.

2. Select Control Panel.

3. Select one of the three options from the Content Area Section. ( Syllabus, Course Documents or Assignments). Note: the Voice Board will be listed in whichever one of the three Course Content options you select.

4. From the Learning Unit pull down menu located in the upper right hand portion of the Blackboard screen, select the Voice Board option and click on GO.

5. An Add Voice Board screen will appear. Type in the Name and Description of the Voice Board.

6. Click Submit in the lower right corner.

7. Click OK on the Voice Board Added screen.

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Accessing Voice Board from within Blackboard

1. The Voice Board will appear in whichever Blackboard content area it was created in. Select the content area where the Voice Board was created (Syllabus, Course Documents or Assignments).

Note: A student will access from one of three course content area from the main Blackboard page for the course. The the area where students must access the Voice Board.

2. Click on the Enter Voice Board link listed just below the title of the Voice Board you wish to access. The Voice Board will be launched.

Using Voice Board from within Blackboard

Note: you will need a microphone to record a message.

RECORDING A NEW MESSAGE

1. To record a message click New.

2. Type a Name for your message on the Subject line of the message composition screen. You can also type a Description in the Description area.

3. When you are ready to record a message, click on the Record or Circle icon.

4. After you have finished recording your message, click Stop or Square icon. You can also press the Pause icon (two vertical lines) to mementarily pause the recording of a message.

5. If you want to re-record your audio message, simply stop recording and select the Record icon again. Click Yes on the message overwrite warning screen.

6. After you have finished recording your message, and when the audio message is ready to be posted to the board, select the Send icon.

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REPLY TO AN EXISTING MESSAGE

1. To Reply to an existing Voice Board message, highlight or select the message you wish to reply to from the list of previously posted audio messages.

2. Select Reply. The voice record screen will open. The Name and Description of the existing message will automatically be displayed.

3. Select the Record or Circle icon to record your audio message. Speak into the microphone.

4. Press Stop or Square when you have finished recording your message.

5. Click Send. Your reply message will be posted below the original message. Messages are automatically posted to the Voice Board.

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LOGGING INTO Wimba

Creating a New Voice Board by Logging into Wimba:

Outlined below are the steps and procedures for 1) creating a new Voice Board by logging into Wimba and 2) accessing a Voice Board from a published link within Wimba and 3) Using a Voice Board.

1.Log into Wimba 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 Board.

4. Select Administration of your Voice Boards and Presentations from the Voice Board main page.

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

6. The Voice Board Creation screen will appear. Type in the name of the new Voice Board and a brief description. Click Create when finished.

7. Next, configure the Voice Board settings. Click on Settings from the Options screen. The system will present you with a sequence of set up and administration screens for your Voice Board. After you have finished with a page, select the Next Page link at the bottom right hand portion of the page.

Voice Board Set Up Screens

• Board Info - contains basic title and description for the Voice Board.

• Settings - allows you to set the audio quality level and the maximum recording time for a Voice Board discussion topic. It is recommended to use the system defaults for this page:

  • Allow user to start a new thread

  • Standard Quality audio

  • 3 Minutes max audio message length
• Basic Privileges - enables you to establish the basic access rights and privileges for your Voice Board. It is recommended to select the No Access Control for both Read and Compose Messages. This will allow you to have more flexibility about who can access, read and compose Voice Board messages. Students will only have to type a name in the Screen Name field of the security screen to access the Voice Board.


• Privileged Users- defines who has administrative control over the Voice Board. You can define up to two people. The creator of the Voice Board is already listed as a default privileged user or administrator of the Voice Board.


• Privileged Groups - enables the Voice Board creator to specify which groups will have access rights to the Voice Board. Any student who is a member of a group which is given access to the Voice Board, will automatically have access to the Voice Board. The Voice Board creator sets the participation for everyone in the group at a macro level. It is recommended to check both Read and Compose next to each group you want to have access to the Voice Board. DO NOT GIVE STUDENTS ADMINISTRATIVE RIGHTS TO THE VOICE BOARD.


• Publish - contains options for linking to the Voice Board from within Blackboard or a course web page. Choose an option which best meets your course needs. To use any of the options listed on the publish screen, simply select the one you want, then copy and paste the code for that option into Blackboard or a course web page. See Publish Options.


• URL pointing to the Voice Board - Use this option if you want the student to link to the Voice Board from Blackboard, a course web page or from a another course document.


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


• Link to open the Voice Board in a popup window - Use this option if you want the Voice Board to open in a new window within Blackboard or within a course web page.


• Insert the Voice Direct Conference in a web page - Use this option to embed the Voice Board within Blackboard or a course web page .

8 . Publish the Voice Board link into Blackboard or a web page.
Once the Voice Board has been created, you can record a message for students, and have students reply to a message or have students compose or record a Voice Board Discussion thread.

Accessing a Voice Board by logging into Wimba

In addition to having students access a Voice Board by using one of the four publishing options listed above, you can also choose to have students access a Voice Board by logging into Wimba.

If you plan on having students log into Wimba to access the Voice Board, then you do not need to copy or paste any of the publish options. To access a Voice Board by logging into Wimba, tell students to do the following:

• Select Communication
• Select Voice Board
• Select the List of your Voice Boards and Presentations option
• Select the name of your course's Voice Board from the available list.

Note: It is recommended to have students access Wimba directly from a link within Blackboard or a course web page and NOT by logging into Wimba. One of the main advantages to having a link directly to an voice communication tool from within Blackboard or a course web site is an instructor does not have to create student user and group account information every semester.

If students will be accessing the Voice Board directly from a link within Blackboard or a course web page, you must set the Basic Rights of the Voice Board to NO ACCESS CONTROL.

Using the Voice Board by Logging into Wimba

The main body of the Voice Board contains a list of the previously recorded discussion topics. To the left, next to each of the topic headings is a small black box. Each of these boxes contains a dot or a plus sign. If the box contains a dot, it means there are no discussion reply topics (no sub-topics) below the main topic. If the box contains a + sign, then the discussion topic contains at least one reply.

If you have provided access to the Voice Board via one of the publishing options, then an Authentication screen will appear. To access the Voice Board, students must type a screen name in the Screen Name text field and click submit (just below the Screen Name text box. It is not necessary to enter anything for the Login or Password fields.

If the Voice Board administrator logs into this authentication screen using his or her Wimba email address and Wimba password, then all the Voice Board's administrative options (Compose, Reply, Export, Delete, Forward and Invite) will be available. If someone logs in to a Voice Board using the screen name option, then only the Compose and Reply options will be available.

It is recommended for students to type their first and last name in the screen name field. In this way, they will receive proper credit when they record a discussion topic message. Spaces are allowed in the screen name field. Whatever screen name a student uses will be posted along with the recorded discussion topic. The Voice Board administrator is the only one who can delete an audio discussion topic.

The Java player applet icons in the upper right portion of the screen enable someone to play, pause or stop a previously recorded Voice Board discussion topic.

Along the upper panel of the Voice Board, there are several options to choose from for the Voice Board's administrator:

• Compose. Enables you or your students to record a new audio discussion topic. Selecting this option will launch a Voice Board recording screen. The record icon is the circle on the right side of the screen. Once you initiate recording, you can pause the message, stop the message or play what you have already recorded (right arrow icon). If you don't like what you have recorded, simply click on the record icon again (the circle) and start your recording over again. Type a subject in the Subject text line. You can also type a text message in addition to the auido message. The Cancel icon (large "X") will cancel a recording and return you to the main Voice Board interface screen. Selecting the Send icon (arrow pointing up) will post the recorded message to the message board.


• Reply. This option is used only to reply to an existing discussion thread. Before this option can be implemented, an existing discussion topic must be selected from the discussion topic list. If no existing topic has been selected, the reply option will not launch the discussion topic reply recording screen. You can also reply to a previously recorded reply by highlighting the reply topic and selecting Reply. When reply is selected, the original text description or title is automatically copied into the Subject line. This title can be changed or modified if necessary. The recording controls for the reply are the same as they are for Compose. Once a reply message has been recorded, select the Send icon to post the message.
  
  Note: the students will only see the Compose and Reply options on their Voice Boards. They will not have Export, Delete, Forward or Invite privileges. Other options which are available only to instructors or Voice Board Administrators are the following:

• Export. This option enables you to export a discussion thread. It is rarely if ever used.

• Delete. This option deletes a discussion topic or a reply to a discussion topic. The discussion topic must first be highlighted before it can be deleted. Students will NOT have the option to delete other messages.

• Forward. This option enables you to forward a recorded discussion thread to an email address. The recipient can listen to the recorded voice message by selecting a link embedded in the email message. The link launches a Wimba audio player applet with standard play, pause, and stop controls. The recipient can also save the audio file to his or her system. The audio file is stored as a .WAV file. Students will not be able to forward messages. Only the Voice Board administrator can forward messages.

• Invite. This option enables the Voice Board administrator to send an invitation to the Voice Board via email message. The email recipient will receive an message titled "Wimba Voice Board Invitation" in the subject line and in the body of the message there will be a link to the Voice Board. The email recipient will be required to type a screen name in the Screen Name text box field of the Authentication screen in order to access the Voice Board.

For additional information on how to create Voice Boards, review the on-line tutorial for creating Voice Boards or the Flash audio-based tutorial on Recording Voice Board Messages.

Note: These tutorials require a Flash Player. If you do not have a Flash player, you can download one for free from www.macromedia.com .