A Miniguide to the Use of Audio Files in the Distance Learning Class Free

For providing feedback to a student on an assignment, an instructor may desire to provide formative feedback to the student and ask the student to revise the assign-ment. The student may have submitted an assignment for a class, but the student’s work may reflect a misunderstanding of the assignment or, for other reasons, a need for a revision of the assignment. In such cases, it may be difficult for the instructor to type out an explanation of the problems and shortcomings that the student’s assignment features. However, the ability for the instructor to talk through the problem in an audio file offers tremendous potential for enhancing the explanation and feedback, especially in an online envi-ronment.

Instructors may not type out copious instructions or feedback to students because the act of typing out such detailed feedback on each paper for 20+ students may be physically daunting. Speaking to students and posting audio files for them can help with the ergonomic stresses of online teaching.

Because some written feedback can be cryptic, its tone can be interpreted by stu-dents as caustic. However, an audio file featuring the professor’s voice explaining a concept to a student can smooth out the tone of feedback and allow the instructor to describe the problem to the student in a more appealing manner than written text may afford.

Providing solid instruction and feedback to 20+ students takes time. If the feedback is typed out, the time demands on the instructor are extremely acute. However, one can speak faster than one can type. For this reason, audio posts can be more time effective than written posts for some tasks in the online classroom.

For many of the reasons cited above, audio feedback and instruction can be more thorough, simply because the ability to produce more information in less time may render the instruction more thorough when delivered in audio form than in text form.

When considering the use of .mp3 files, some advice on their use may be well heeded. The following are some tips on the use of .mp3 files in the online classroom:

Just as with any resource in a course, the application of the .mp3 file should have a specific use within your courses. There can be a tendency with any new technology to plaster it all over the place, yet this can distract from your effectiveness as a teacher and complicate the students’ learning environment. Thus, at most have two or three purposes for the .mp3’s presence in your online classroom: This way it will aid your course and not become a toy!

A digital voice recorder looks like an oversized long and narrow cigarette lighter. The three primary manufacturers are Sony, Olympus, and Panasonic; each has a presence in various electronic retail outlets and on the web. The prices vary from $40 to nearly $300, but what is most important is that your digital voice recorder has .mp3 capability and the ability to transfer the .mp3 files to a computer. The latest models perform an automatic conversion to .mp3.

The advantage of using a digital voice recorder is that you can record audio wherever you are. For example, you can print out several student papers, take the papers to a nearby coffee shop, take notes on the papers, and record your feedback to the papers using your notes as a guide. You can then upload the audio files to your computer and to your online class after returning to your computer. Andy has sat in his car in the parking lot while his son was practicing with his soccer team and recorded audio feedback to several students for his online class. This is one illus-tration of the flexibility a digital voice recorder allows.

Furthermore, recording audio files at your computer may be logistically unfeasi-ble. If you share an office with other teachers, speaking into a microphone and creating .mp3 files for your students at your desktop while others are in the room may not be a realistic option. Overall, the privacy and flexibility that a digital voice recorder affords make it well worth the investment it involves if you are going to post audio files to your classroom.

Many students have not previously received .mp3 files from an instructor. They may not be familiar with what .mp3 files are or why they are being used. Giving students a “heads-up” on their use not only takes the “whoa-what-is-this!” reaction away but also allows time for students to ask questions about them.

Before the first week of class, post an .mp3 file to a conference in your class and ask students to listen to it and respond to the conference indicating if they had any problems with it. This arrangement prevents surprises later in the semester in the event that a student is not being able to hear an .mp3 file. In addition, the posting of the initial .mp3 file to the class can stir up some excitement at the beginning of semester.

As for the message in this test .mp3, make it personable, but only focus on one item: the students’ letting you know they can hear it. The file need not contain robust material about the class at this point. Students have too many other items going in the first week of a class. It is probably not practical for you to post more than a test message for the first .mp3 file.

When we speak to students in a face-to-face class, we do not use perfect grammar, we pause, we think in the middle of a sentence, and we change our thoughts as we speak. The same dynamics can occur in making an .mp3 file. As an instructor, use the .mp3 file as a way of talking with the students, not as a way of producing a professional quality broadcast to them.

If you are speaking into the recorder and find yourself changing your train of thought, continue the recording, keep speaking, and allow yourself to change your train of thought. If you find yourself frequently stopping your recordings and starting over, you are probably being too perfectionist with regard to your recording quality.

Instructors can get carried away by the use of .mp3 files to the point that they slowly fade from writing and posting to students: Never let this happen! Students need see you are regularly participating in class in text form as well as audio form. This practice shows enthusiasm and involvement for the course and keeps that umbilical cord pumping strongly that connects the course to the students, thus resulting in an active and involved class.

.Mp3 files are a very cool teaching aid, but that’s all they should ever be, an aid; the day you allow them to take your place in the course is the day your course dies.

Some instructors use only audio in providing feedback to a draft of a student assignment. Other instructors use a mixture of audio and written text. When you first begin using .mp3 files, you may want to experiment with the use of all audio or with the use of a mixture of written and audio as you approach this technology.

Some data point out that incorporating .mp3 feedback on students’ assignments results in students having a better understanding of how to improve their assignments and provides them with a stronger rapport with the instructor. Read the research, talk to others you may know who have incorporated .mp3 files into their online classes, and use your teaching experience to decide your best approach to incorporating .mp3 files in giving students assignment feedback. (By the way: Errol begins each week with a “Weekly .mp3 Greeting” to the class—it gives an overview of what to expect in the week and serves as an additional motivator; this has been extremely well received by his stu-dents!)

When using .mp3 files to give student feedback on major assignments, the length of your .mp3 file might range from 10 to 20 minutes, depending on the assignment length and complexity, the amount of detail you wish to include, and your overall commentary. It is probably a good recommendation not to go longer than 20 minutes. However, as you are first getting familiar with the use of .mp3 files, you may find them complementing your written assignment feedback; in this case the .mp3 file might be considerably shorter, perhaps 5 minutes, or even 45 seconds. Nonethe-less, the length of the file depends on what feedback you are providing in audio form and what feedback you are providing in written form. Many instructors prefer grammatical feedback to be given in written form but more global-level feedback to be given in audio form. On the other hand, Andy actually finds grammatical feedback in audio form to be possibly more effective than grammatical feedback in written form. Reading a run-on sentence to a student and asking him if he can tell why the sentence is problematic is often more effective than typing “ROS” after the sentence. Use your judgment as to the points in the class for which you might use audio.

If you use .mp3 files to provide weekly overviews, to update the class on impor-tant reminders, to highlight a point in a discussion, etc. you will probably want an .mp3 file no longer than 3-5 minutes.

It Is important to know how students react to your .mp3 files: in addition to offering you confirmation of their value in class students might also give you impor-tant advice on the quality and/or contents of the .mp3 file, additional info or uses they’d like to see with the files, and how clear you were in explaining a concept, info, or suggestion.

Unless you are used to making voice recordings, you will probably be surprised at how your voice sounds when playing back your first recording—it may be faster or slower than expected, with words not pronounced quickly, a bit of a monotone, ambient (background) noises, and “mouth noises” (deep breaths, sighs, coughing, etc.) coming from you. A few test .mp3 files will quickly allow you to adjust so students can receive the best possible quality of you, as your voice will leave an impression on them—and you want that impression to be personable yet professional, organized, and in charge of the class.

Audio files in the distance learning classroom bring several advantages for both professor and student. Their use can be powerful and can be a tremendous asset in forging more student ownership of class material, stronger student-professor rap-port, ease and more detail of assignment input for the professor, and greater student involvement in and excitement for the class. It’s a technology that fits smoothly into the online classroom—and one that enhances the overall effectiveness of the professor who adopts it.

REMEMBER: The silent movie was great for what it was—but when it became a “talkie” how much more excited and involved became the audience!