Voice Presentation

Wimba's Voice Presentation tool allows for a more dynamic online presentation or lecture in your class. Aside from allowing you to put your slides online, you can also pull in other online materials such as websites, photos, and videos into your presentation. You and your students can annotate and record comments per slide that creates opportunities for collaborative learning.

Adding Wimba Voice Presentation to your WebCT Vista course requires access to the BUILD TAB. If you don't, please contact your Faculty's Instructional Support Unit.

Adding Voice Presentation

Adding Voice Presentation to your WebCT Vista course requires access to the BUILD TAB.

Login into WebCT Vista using your CWL. Choose the course where you want to add Voice Presentation to.

Click on the BUILD TAB found on the upper left-hand corner of the screen.
Under COURSE TOOLS on the left sidebar, choose COURSE CONTENT to open the course's homepage
Press the ADD CONTENT LINK button in the middle of the screen. It will open a drop-down menu that alphabetically lists all the tools you can add.
Choose VOICE PRESENTATION and click CREATE VOICE PRESENTATION.
You will be brought to a new window where you will be asked to give a title to the presentation.

When you are finished just click CONTINUE and you will then be given the option of choosing the tool's settings.

Settings

Remember you can always change the settings of your presentation at a later date.

After adding Voice Presentation into your course, you will be ask to decide on a number of settings on how you want to use the tool.

General Settings

Title: Give a title to the presentation you are giving.
Description: Provide longer and more detailed information on the presentation such as a general summary or what students can expect.

Audio Settings

Audio Quality: Choose from 4 levels of recording quality namely, Basic, Standard, Good, and Superior. Keep in mind that better sound quality creates more date and not all of your students have the same access to technology and Internet speeds. It is recommended that you set audio quality to STANDARD to reduce barriers to access.
Max message length: Set the maximum length of a comment on a slide to as short as 15 secs to as long as 20 mins.

Detailed Settings

Allow students to comment on slides: Check the box to enable student comments on your slide presentation for a more collaborative learning experience.
Make discussion threads private: By checking this box, students can only hear their comments to an instructor's slide. The instructor can still listen to all the recordings made by everybody in the course.

Once you have chosen all of your settings, just click CONTINUE and Voice Presentation will be added onto your course homepage or the COURSE CONTENT page.

Making a Voice Presentation

User interface of Voice Presentation

Before you start a new presentation, it is recommended that you familiarize yourself with the Voice Presentation window.

Open Voice Presentation by going into COURSE CONTENT under the TEACH TAB and click the tool's icon. You will be brought to a new page and click LAUNCH VOICE PRESENTATION.

You will now see the Voice Presentation page.

On the top left-hand side is the TOOLBAR:

New: Create a new slide.
Edit: Edit a previously created slide.
Comment: Add a recorded additional comment to a slide or reply to a student's recorded comment. You can also add comments on the slide's description.
Delete: Delete either a slide or a comment made on a slide.
Options: Choose different play options, expand/collapse all discussions, import previously recorded audio, or export either the whole presentation or specific comments.

Under the Toolbar is the SLIDE LIST area where all the slides will be listed together with their respective comments. They will appear like a threaded discussion.

Below the Slide List are the AUDIO CONTROLS when you need to listen to specific comments.

The SLIDE DESCRIPTION area is where the typed description for each slide, including typed comments by students will appear.

The large area beside the sidebar is where your slide or the website that you pull in will appear.

Students will see the same user interface as the instructor but with only the Comment and Options buttons on the toolbar.

Creating a New Slide

Open the Compose window by clicking on the NEW button on the toolbar.

You can add a new slide to your presentation by click the NEW button on the TOOLBAR area.

A new window will appear where you can input all the information you want to be on the slide.

Subject: Give the slide a title that will appear on the Slide List area, helpful for students to know what the slide will be about.
URL: Provide the either the web address for a page you want to discuss or where a slide presentation currently resides online.

Right below the URL is the Control Panel for your recording. The buttons are similar to other applications where you can change the volume, record, play, pause, and stop a recording.

On the upper right-hand side of the control is an icon that looks like a small box. Clicking on it will bring out the audio settings for the application. Before you start any recording, please make sure that the right devices are in use for both your output and input.

Under the control panel is the Descriptions area where you can type in anything you want such as written slide notes or instructions for students. Students can see anything written in this box as well as type in any comments.

After reviewing everything you have put in, including your recording, click on the POST button. The new slide will appear in the Slide List area available for students to see and comment on.

Unfortunately, you can't directly upload or import your slide presentation from your computer. You can use the various free online slide-sharing tools such as Google Docs or Slideshare. These services will be able to provide you with URLs for your presentations, which then you can pull into Voice Presentation. Take note though that some of these services are hosted in the US and are subject to local laws there.

Calendar and Edit Settings

The Add to Calendar and Edit Settings links are found on the upper right-hand side of the screen.

You can also add your voice presentation activity into the course's calendar as well as edit the tools settings.

When you go into the course homepage or the COURSE CONTENT page under the TEACH TAB, click on the Voice Presentation icon. You will then find the ADD TO CALENDAR and EDIT SETTINGS links on the upper right-hand side of the screen.

EDIT SETTINGS will bring you to the Settings page for Voice Presentation where you can change any of the settings you chose before.

Add your Voice Presentation Activity to the course's calendar.

Clicking on the ADD TO CALENDAR link will bring you to a new window that where you can set times and dates for the activity. You are required to provide a name for the calendar entry as well as a short description on what you are planning to do.

Once you click the SAVE button at the bottom, it will be automatically added to the course's calendar.

Once the activity is over though, WebCT Vista doesn't automatically hide Voice Presentation from students. If this is something you'd like to do, you will have to do it manually under the TEACH TAB. Click on the drop-down arrow beside the Voice Presentation icon and click HIDE ITEM. Check under the STUDENT VIEW TAB to see if it is actually hidden.