| creating, Accessing and using voice email |    |
Voice Email enables ACC instructors to create one or two way recorded audio communications within email messages. Voice Emails sent to students will contain a link to the audio recorded message located on Wimba's server. You can send a Voice Email to one student, to a group of students or to the entire class.
Some examples of how instructors have used Voice Email are the following:
- To evaluate and review language speaking, listening and comprehension skills.
- To provide one on one or group feedback to students.
- To create interactive exercises and activities.
- To critique a speech or a class assignment.
- To review important course concepts and to test comprehension.
There are two ways to create a Wimba Voice Email. One way is to create the Voice Email within Blackboard and another is to log into Wimba and create it within Wimba.
The Voice Email 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 several new Voice Email 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 to the web site updates, there is an animated Flash tutorial describing some of the new features of version 5.0. The Wimba on-line tutorials and quick start demonstrations are at: http://www.wimba.com/demos/ .
Creating Voice Emails from within Blackboard
Wimba's four voice communication tools (voice announcements, voice emails, voice board and voice direct) can be created within one of the three Blackboard Content Areas. To create a voice email within Blackboard for your course, do the following:
1. To create a Voice Email within Blackboard, Log into Blackboard.
2. Select the course you wish to add the Voice Email resource to.
3. Click on Control Panel.
4. Select the Content Area of the Control Panel (upper left corner) where you would like the Voice Email to be stored.
5. Go to the Learning Unit Pull Down Menu in the upper right hand portion of the screen. Select Voice Email from the pull down menu.
6. Click GO to the right of the pull down menu.
7. Type in a Name and Description of your Voice Email from the Add Voice Email screen.
8. You can keep the system default Settings (Section #2) for your voice email:
- audio quality level--Default
- maximum message length--Default
- A setting you may wish to change is the Include Reply Links option. The default for this is NO. However, if you want your students to be able to record an audio reply to your voice email, you will need to select YES for this setting.
- If you want a standard title for the Voice Email, you would select YES for the Pre-Fill Subject Area option. Whatever you type in the text box, will be displayed as the title for all email messages.
9. In Section 3, Email Recipients, you can control who will receive your email messages. The default setting is to have email messages sent to other instructors. You can also select Students, which will send your email message to all the students registered for your course or you can select All, which will send the message to both Instructors and Students. It is recommended to select All for this option.
10. Section 4 or the Options Section, gives instructors the ability to Make the Content Available, Open in a New Window, Track the Number of Views or to Choose Date and Time Restrictions. It is recommended to use the following guidelines for this section:
- Make Content Available: YES--Default.
- Open in a New Window: Change to YES.
- Track Number of Views: NO--Default.
- Choose Date and Time Restrictions: Leave Blank (Default)
11. Click Submit in the lower right hand portion of the screen to post the Voice Email.
Creating Voice Emails by Logging into Wimba
Outlined below are the steps and procedures for 1) creating and developing a new Voice Email, 2) accessing an existing Voice Email to change its settings, and 3) Using Voice Email.
To send one email to the entire class, it is recommended to set up an email group distribution list for your class. (see below)
Unlike Voice Board and Voice Direct, students will access their Voice Email messages directly from their email system's inbox and they will not have to access them from within Blackboard, or from within an external web site or by logging into Wimba.
Students will be able to record audio responses to an email message IF YOU HAVE CHECKED THE "DISPLAY REPLY LINKS IN SENT VOICE EMAIL" OPTION. If this box is not checked, students will not be able to reply with recorded audio email messages and the messages will be one way only (from instructor to student).
To create a Voice Email, do the following:
1. Log into Wimba using the username and password that was provided to you. The username and password are case sensitive.
2. Select Voice Email.
3.Select New located in the upper left corner of the screen.
4. The Voice Email Creation screen will appear. Type in a Name for the Voice Email and a description. Click Create (lower right corner of the creation screen) when done.
5. You will be returned to the main Voice Email screen. You can configure the settings of the Voice Email by clicking on the Name of the Voice Email you want to change.
6. The Name and Description of the Voice Email you selected will be displayed on the Voice Email Information screen. To the left of the screen is a list of the Voice Email settings and menu options. After you have selected the options you want, you can select Apply in the lower right corner to apply the changes.
- Information - contains the Name and description of your Voice Email.
- Settings - allows the Voice Email administrator to set the recipient and originator of the Voice Email, to add a subject to the message and to indicate whether or not to allow recipients to respond via Voice Email. Check the box Display reply links in sent Voice Email to enable students to record a reply to your Voice Email messages. The settings screen also lets the admistrator establish the audio quality . It is recommended to use the system default of Standard Quality Audio and to use the default max length of 3 minutes for recorded Voice Email messages. The Voice Email administrator can elect to Disable or Hide the following fields:
- Sender of the email
- Recipient(s),
- Anyone who is copied on the message (Cc and Bcc)
- Subject of the message
- Text
- Public Access - has a single check box to allow for Public Access or not (generally this is checked).
- Privileged Users - allows the Voice Email administrator to select who will have access the archiving feature of the Voice Email. The administrator is already listed and there is a space to type in the email address of an additional administrator. DO NOT GIVE STUDENTS ADMINISTRATIVE CONTROL OVER THE ACCOUNT.
- Privileged Groups - enables the Voice Email administrator to select (check) the various groups which will have access the Voice Email archives.
- Archives - gives Voice Email administrators and selected students to access the Voice Email archives. Select the "click here to view archives" option. Emails are archived in chronological order by Year, Month, Day, and Title.
- Statistics - provides information on the average number of messages posted per user as well as the total number of messages posted.
- Publish - contains the publishing links to the Voice Email. With Voice Email, the instructor will generally access the Voice Email recording and composition screen, not the students. Therefore, it will generally not be necessary to post one of the publishing options for students because these options connect to the Voice Email message composition and recording screen. There are four publishing links created on the Publish page:
- URL pointing to the Voice Email - Use this option if you want the student to link to the conference from Blackboard, a course web page or from a course syllabus.
- Link to the Voice Email in a web page - Use this if you don't want to display the full web address but want an embedded URL link within Blackboard or from a course web page. (Note: If this option is chosen, be sure to select HTML mode within Blackboard)
- Link to open Voice Email in a popup window - Use this option if you want the Voice Email composition screen to open in a new window within Blackboard or within a course web page.
- Insert the Voice Email in a web page - Use this option to embed the Voice Email composition screen within Blackboard or a course web page. Generally, you will send one recorded Voice Email message to your students or to a small group of students or to one student.
7. Publish the Voice Email or record a Voice email message and send it to your students.
Note: Before you send an email message to your students, it is recommended to set up an Email Distribution list for your Class.
You can set up an email distribution list by going to http://www.yahoo.com . Follow the instructions for establishing a group distribution list. With this list, you'll be able to send one Voice Email message to the entire class while individual students will still be able to reply directly to the instructor.
8. Once the Voice Email shell is created, you can record a Voice Email for your students by selecting the View option from the Voice Email you want. This will launch the Voice Email recording screen. For more information on using Voice email, see below.
9. View an on-line quick start Flash tutorial on how to create a Voice Email account by logging into Wimba.
Accessing an existing Voice Email within Wimba to change settings
Once you have developed a Voice Email, you can change the settings of the Voice Email by doing the following:
1. Select Voice Email from the main Wimba log in page.
2. Click in the name of the Voice Email your want to edit from the list provided.
3. Go through the various Voice Email Option screens (on the left side of the introduction screen) and edit the Voice Email options.
Note: Wimba automatically archives the Voice Email messages you have recorded and sent. These are archived via date and time stamp and the messages can be accessed accordingly.
Using the features of Voice Email
1. Select Voice Email from Wimba's main log in screen.
2. Select the View option from the Voice Email you wish to send to your students.
3. Enter your email address in the From text box if it is blank and the group's or student's email address in the To box.
6. Type text in the lower panel if you'd like to have text accompany the audio message.
7. The Voice Email record screen will launch in a new window. Record your audio message using the round Record icon in the upper left hand order of the screen. When you are finished recording, click on the Stop button. If you want to continue recording, select the Pause icon. If you click on the Stop icon, any recording you make will record over the previous recording.
8. Click on Send and your Voice Email will be automatically sent to the recipient(s) you specified in the To text box. You can also add recipients in the Cc and Bcc categories.
For more information on how to create or send a Voice Email, contact Jim Holzknecht at 223-8011 or at jpholzkne@austincc.edu. In addition, you can contact an instructional development specialist on your campus.
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