This page describes how to set up a
voice board using the Horizon Wimba voice tools
within Blackboard. A voice board is simply an
audible discussion board.
First, login to Blackboard and open
one of your Blackboard courses. You can place
a voice board in any content area. To do
so, click on the content area in your course menu,
then click the "Edit View" button in the upper right
of the screen:
From the tool selector in the next
screen, choose "Voice Recorder" and then click "Go."
The first time you select this, you
may be prompted to install a Java plug-in from Sun
Microsystems. As of July, 2006, the current
plug-in was version 1.5, called the "J2SE runtime
environment 5." This will install quickly on
the fly. Then, you may be warned by your
computer about trusting "the signed applet
distributed by 'Horizon Wimba'." Select
"Always" to always trust Horizon Wimba applets.
You may already have gone through
these steps, in which case you may not see both of
these messages. In any event, after the applet
is installed you will see the "Add Voice
Board" Blackboard area. Begin by naming the
board and providing any textual instructions you
wish:
Next, configure your voice board:
The higher the bandwidth setting,
the clearer and more natural the voice recordings
will sound. The highest setting, 29.6 Kb is
still manageable on a 56K modem.
Note the setting "Make discussion
threads private." The purpose of this one is
to give individual audio assignments to students so
that the instructor can review them, but other
members of the class cannot. This might be
very useful in an ESL or foreign language class
where the instructor could monitor and comment on
individual student prononciations.
The remainder of the Blackboard form
contains the usual options. Click submit to
create the voice board. You will see the voice
board form in your course content area:
Click New to start a thread.
The Compose window will appear:
Click the record button to record
your posting, then click the Send button.
Your posting will appear in the
voice board.
Once you have started a thread,
students can post in reply, and the replies are
indented as in a normal discussion board.
Note the set of options across the
top of the voice board.
The Export options permits board
users to export any or all of the voice board in
various audio formats. This could be quite
useful if the student wishes to place some or all of
the board on their iPod for future reference.
The "Publish" options permits
publishing the voice message on a standard web page
outside of Blackboard, if that is something that you
might want to do.
The drop-down at the lower right of
the recorder permits saving of any individual
posting in the standard audio formats.
There are three file formats in
which the recording can be saved:
mp3 is the most compressed, and
therefore smallest, file.
How
to set up a voice board
