Voice Recorder

Wimba's Voice Recorder is a very simple tool where an instructor can create short one-off recorded messages for all registered students.

Similar to other Wimba Voice Tools, adding Voice Recorder 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 Recorder

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

Login into WebCT Vista using your CWL. Go into the course you want to work with and follow the instructions below:

Open the BUILD TAB found on the upper left-hand corner of the screen.
Under COURSE TOOLS, choose on COURSE CONTENT to go to your course's homepage.
Click on the ADD CONTENT LINK button found on the centre of the screen. A drop-down menu will appear that alphabetically lists all the tools you can add to your course.
Choose VOICE RECORDER and press the CREATE VOICE RECORDER button.

A new page will appear where you are asked to provide a name to the Voice Recorder. Once you have done so, just click CONTINUE and you will then be able to choose some settings for the tool.

Settings

You can change the Settings at a later time by going into Voice Recorder and clicking the EDIT SETTINGS link on the upper right-hand side of the screen.

When you have given a name for the Voice Recorder, you will then be able to choose a number of settings based on how you want to use the tool.

General Settings

Title: Give a title to the Voice Recorder. Any title given during setup will be carried over and can be changed at a later time.
Description: Provide more details to your students such as instructions on how to use the tool or a short message based on what you recently recorded. Students will see the description above the Voice Recorder control panel.

Audio Settings

Audio Quality: Set the recording quality between 4 settings namely, Basic, Standard, Good, and Superior. Please take note that the better the sound quality, the more date it produces. Not all students will have the same access to technology and Internet speeds. In order to reduces barriers to access, it is recommended to set the Audio Quality to STANDARD.
Max message length: Set your maximum message length from as short as 15 secs. to as long as 20 mins.

When you have chosen all your settings, just click CONTINUE and Voice Recorder will be added to your course's homepage or COURSE CONTENT page.

Creating a New Recording

The user interface for Wimba Voice Recorder is simple and similar to many recording applications.

Now that you have added Wimba Voice Recorder to your course. It's time to create a new voice record.

Before you begin recording, make sure that Voice Recorder is recognizing the devices you will be using. Click on the small square icon on the right-hand side of the control panel. It will open a list for your audio input, outputs, and filters. Please make sure that the device you want to use is the one with the check mark beside it.

Start recording by click the RECORD button, denoted by the red circle.
When you are finished just click the STOP button denoted by the black square.

You can also pause in the middle of the recording by clicking on the PAUSE button. Review your completed recording by clicking PLAY. It is also recommended that you listen to your recording again in the STUDENT VIEW TAB in order to check if everything is working properly.

Voice Recorder also allows you to download and save any of your recordings to your computer. Click on the small square icon on the right-hand side of the recording panel and choose SAVE AS... with the following options for file formats:

mp3
wav
spx

Lastly, take note that when you click on the Record button again, you will be recording over your previous messages. If you want to keep copies, we recommend that you save them to your computer.

Calendar and Settings

The Add to Calendar and Edit Settings links can be found in the upper right hand side of the Voice Recorder under the TEACH TAB.

Instructors can add any Voice Recorder activity into the course's calendar as well change the settings that you initially chose during setup.

Go to the TEACH TAB and open Wimba Voice Recorder. On the upper right-hand side of the page, you will see the ADD TO CALENDAR and EDIT SETTINGS links.

Click on the EDIT SETTINGS link to change the settings you chose when you added Voice Recorder to your course.

Add to Calendar

You can add a Voice Recorder activity to the course's calendar.

Click on the ADD TO CALENDAR link and you will be brought to a new page where you will be asked for the times and dates of your activity.

You are required to provide a short title for the calendar entry and describe what the activity will be about.

Once you are finished, just click SAVE and it will be automatically added to the calendar.

Unfortunately, WebCT Vista does not automatically hide Voice Recorder from the students once the activity expires. If you'd like to remove the link from the course homepage, you will have to do it manually.

Go to the COURSE CONTENT page under the TEACH TAB click on the drop-down arrow. Choose HIDE ITEM in order to hide the link from the students. You can check if it properly worked by going into the STUDENT VIEW TAB.