How to...

How to create a voice recording using the Wimba voice recorder

We now have access to the Horizon Wimba voice tools which are integrated into Blackboard.  There are currently six voice tools:

1. Voice recorder

2. Voice Email

3. Voice direct (a voice chat tool)

4. Voice boards (audio discussion boards)

5. Voice Presentation (audio annotation of web pages)

6. Wimba Podcaster (create a simple, syndicated podcast of up to 20 minutes)

This page describes how to make a simple voice recording using the voice recorder in a typical Blackboard content area.

First, login to Blackboard and open one of your Blackboard courses.  You can place a voice recording 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 a the voice recorder in an "Add Voice Authoring" Blackboard area:

Click the record button to record your message:

A recording level meter will appear as you record, and the elapsed time of your recording will also be displayed.  You may click the Pause button during recording and then resume if you wish.  When done, click the square Stop button.

Give your recording a name.

You can apply the standard content availability and date availability filters to this tool if you wish on the same screen.  If you later wish to apply adaptive release to this content you may do that too.

Click Submit at the bottom of this screen, then click OK on the next screen.  You will be taken back to the content area.  Click "Display View" in the upper right corner to see the player as your students will see it:

To play the recording, your students simply click the Play button on the player.  As you can see, the total time of the recording is shown in the player (11 seconds, in this case).  If your students click the drop-down symbol on the player, they will be given the option to save the recording on their local systems:

There are three file formats in which the recording can be saved:

mp3 is the most compressed, and therefore smallest, file.

If you later wish to re-record your message, go to the edit view for this content item and click "Modify."  Then click the rerecord button and re-record the message.

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