Want to try this innovation? All you need in Microsoft Word and a Microphone plugged in to your computer. To get started, please see the following resources:
- Add Voice-over Comments to Word [from ampercent.com]
- Inserting Voice Comments in Word Documents [from the University of Southampton]
- Download a Bookmark to share!
Professor Bruley writes:
I used the audio
recording software that comes with Microsoft Word. I found that this 60 second
recording of my voice, commenting on some aspect of the student’s paper, was
particularly useful for online courses. I always have students submit their
papers by email attachment, and then I use the ‘comment’ to write my thoughts
about the students’ papers. I would record a few of the comments, using this
audio recording capability. The students were able to hear my voice commenting
on something they had done particularly well (usually towards the beginning of
the paper) and sometimes critiqueing something they had NOT done very well,. .
. but, my voice could ‘soften the
blow’ by my intonation being soft – and not harsh and cold as they might
interpret the written comment to be. I usually finished with a summary of my
evaluation of their paper, using this recording ability, too. I usually wrote
my comments, as well as recording them with this capacity of Word. In this way,
students could choose the way of learning that worked best for them (the spoken
word or the written word).
1. What are the
instructor’s needs to use this innovation (technical skills/materials)?
- Microsoft Word software and computer speaker
2. What is the instructor learning curve?
- Very quick, this can be learned within less than 10 minutes
3. What are the students’ needs (technical skills/materials)?
- Microsoft Word software and computer speaker
4. What is the student learning curve?
- Probably quicker than the instructor’s
5. What do you think are the strengths of this innovation?
- The quickness of learning this innovation
- The personalization of comments
- Making the faculty seem more ‘human’ for online courses
- The lack of special equipment needed
- Helping the faculty adapt to the students’ learning styles and learning preferences
- Allows criticisms of the students’ papers to seem ‘softer’
- Allows humor to be used (which is very difficult to use in written comments).
6. What do you think are the limitations of this innovation?
- Faculty may feel uncomfortable recording their voices
- Faculty may edit themselves repeatedly, which ends up taking more time
- Faculty must take class time to teach the students how to use this innovation (perhaps 5 minutes)
7. What, if anything, does this innovation replace?
- It could replace the written comments, but I use both…and the written comment serves as a ‘script’ for my recorded comment
8. Why do you think this innovation would interest others?
- We are teaching online more and more, and anything that ‘humanizes’ the faculty in this process and makes the students feel like they ‘know’ the faculty better, would be of interest to faculty.
- The spoken word imparts more of the intended meaning than just the written word, and therefore this innovation is useful for faculty of both online and face-to-face courses.
Want to try this innovation? All you need in Microsoft Word and a Microphone plugged in to your computer. To get started, please see the following resources:
- Add Voice-over Comments to Word [from ampercent.com]
- Inserting Voice Comments in Word Documents [from the University of Southampton]
- Download a Bookmark to share!
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