Voice boards

Voice boards allow teachers and learners to communicate using their voices online.

What are voice boards?

Screencapture - Voice boards Click to view digital story
text only version

If you would like to try out the voice boards, there is a short demonstration site at http://webct.netspot.com.au which contains:

  • guides on how to use the voice tools
  • the opportunity for you to experiment with the voice tools in a WebCT® environment
To login to this site as a student:
Username: hw_student01 Password: netspot
Username: hw_student02 Password: netspot
To login to this site as a teacher:
Username: hw_staff Password: netspot

Voice boards are online discussion boards that use voice postings rather than text as the primary means of communicating. However, you can also add text within a voice board. Voice boards:

  • allow you to create threaded discussions using audio files
  • are asynchronous, just like text discussion boards, so you can post a voice message and then others can listen to it later and respond in voice and text.

You can use voice boards for a range of online facilitation and learning activities:

  • building community and facilitating online courses
  • individual oral communication skills development, including pronunciation practice
  • oral presentations to different audiences
  • collaborative group activities
  • oral reports, and
  • assessment.

You can use audio only for these activities or you can use audio and text. Teachers and learners can post voice messages with accompanying text into the voice-based message boards.

Voice boards can be integrated into fully or partially online courses or face-to-face delivery where learners have access to computers and the Internet.

Voice boards are easily accessible technology and:

  • do not require a high level of technical skill from teachers
  • require little instruction for learners, even those with low language and literacy skills, to understand how to use them.

This guide has been created specifically for Horizon Wimba Voice Boards. However, the various sections of the guide should be transferable to other asynchronous voice applications if you are using a different application. Other voice board applications can be difficult to install so investigate carefully before you decide which is best for you.

Horizon Wimba Voice Boards

  • You need to purchase a licence for Horizon Wimba Voice Tools. (For Victorian RTOs, the voice tools are available in the TAFE Virtual Campus).
  • Horizon Wimba voice tools can be integrated into any learning management system (LMS).
  • The voice tools can be seamlessly embedded into WebCT® and Blackboard® for easier access for teachers and learners. They can also be embedded into a webpage outside a LMS, or linked to from webpages.

Who for? Relevance to teaching and learning

Learners

Voice boards can be suitable for learners of all types in all learning situations.

However, there are specific learner groups who are disadvantaged by online text-based delivery and communication who can benefit from online voice tools such as voice boards. These learner groups include:

  • learners with low levels of literacy
  • non-native speakers of English
  • some learners from trade or more practically oriented vocational backgrounds
  • learners who prefer an oral mode of communication
  • learners with disabilities
  • learners with poor or slow typing skills.

These learner groups are often disengaged from training delivered via text but may be successfully engaged by a spoken medium such as online voice boards.

Teachers

Voice boards (spoken discussion board) can be integrated into:

  • fully online courses
  • partially online courses
  • face-to-face delivery where learners have access to computers and the Internet.

This technology allows for learner-to-learner and teacher-to-learner interaction via both private one-to-one and public one-to-many methods of teaching and learning. Voice boards are extremely effective for building online communities, providing intensive speaking or pronunciation practice, facilitating online discussions and reflection or online journals (blogs). They also open up some new opportunities for online assessment.

Online delivery

Voice boards can be integrated into fully or partially online courses as a medium for:

  • building communities – ie, for helping teachers and learners get to know each other and feel comfortable working together
  • facilitating learning activities
  • asynchronous communication between teacher and learners, and amongst learners
  • assessment.

Face-to-face delivery

Voice boards can be used to enhance face-to-face delivery where learners have access to computers and the Internet. Voice board activities can provide an opportunity for learners to work:

  • independently at their own pace
  • collaboratively with other learners in a face-to-face context.

Both independent and collaborative activities can be particularly valuable for learners addressing oral competencies such as communication skills, language development (eg, ESL) or pronunciation.

Self-access

Voice boards can also be used to support structured or unstructured self-access learning activities.

  • Structured self-access can include course related learning activities designed as part of a course but undertaken in the learner’s own time.
  • Unstructured self-access might include practice and consolidation of skills and knowledge undertaken by individual learners as needed. Language learners (especially ESL learners) can benefit from additional listening, speaking and pronunciation practice undertaken in their own time.

To see how voice boards have been used with different learner groups, follow the links below to go to the case studies. These give examples of how the voice boards were integrated into a range of course delivery methods with different learner groups.

Why use voice boards? Challenges and new approaches for teaching and learning

Many of the issues surrounding flexible learning are associated with the limits imposed on online teaching and learning by the nature of text-driven communication. Written text, even with visual support, limits the range and type of learning activity and communication that can be delivered online.

Online voice technologies offer a range of unique advantages and opportunities to support innovative teaching and learning. Voice boards can help teachers and course designers to address some of the issues involved in online course design and facilitation. They can also help in supporting specific learner groups who may otherwise find it difficult to undertake online learning. The following represent a number of issues which can challenge teachers working online.

Facilitating online courses

  • How can you provide the structured (instructional) and unstructured (individual feedback, encouragement, explanations) support that many learners need when working in a fully online environment?

Building communities online

  • How can you build a community and ensure learners and teachers ‘get to know each other’ and feel comfortable working together when many learners may not be comfortable or fluent with written text as a means of communication?

Oral communication competencies

  • How can learners develop oral communication and presentation skills in an online course?
  • How can you provide models of, and pronunciation practice for, terminology-specific learning outcomes?

Reflection

  • How can you make it easy for learners to capture their reflections on the learning process?
  • How can you encourage learners to keep a record of their learning and to reflect on the learning process when literacy skills are a barrier to keeping a written diary or journal?

Low literacy learners

  • How can you provide an alternative to written text for delivering information, instructions, content, etc to learners with low literacy skills, a disability or where reading and writing is a barrier to developing skills and knowledge?

English as a second language (ESL) learners

There are a number of online and multimedia resources for ESL learners. However, very few of them provide an opportunity for learners to practice speaking skills and most of them do not allow teachers to author activities.

  • How can you provide customised listening and speaking practice for a number of individual learners with different learning styles and pace of learning, especially in large classes?
  • How can you provide access to learning activities designed around specific spoken vocabulary, language structures and pronunciation in response to learner needs?

Assessing online

  • How can you cater for online learners with low literacy skills where reading and writing is a barrier to providing evidence of competency?
  • How can you authenticate assessment tasks submitted online?
  • How can learners in an online course provide evidence of the underpinning knowledge they have gained and the steps they have taken in developing competence, particularly for oral competencies?

Why use voice boards? New practices: how voice boards can help meet the challenges

Facilitation

  • Voice boards allow you to deliver highly structured learning activities which may need complex instructions or explanations. This type of learning activity can be difficult to design using an online text medium as the instructional language or the explanation of complicated content can sometimes be more complex in written form than the actual learning activity itself.
  • Voice boards allow you to provide personalised feedback, encouragement and explanations to individuals in an immediate and personal format (voice).
  • Voice activities can be an effective way to engage youth learners who may also have low literacy skills. This learner group is often not interested in having to deal with a lot of written text and is unwilling or unable to respond fluently or at length in writing.
  • For most people, voice postings are quicker to make than text responses. The time this can save means you may have more time to respond to individual learners rather than responding to the class as a whole.
  • Although it is quicker to post a spoken message than it is to post the equivalent written message, it takes longer for a teacher to listen to and assess spoken posts than it does to read/mark written posts.

Community building

Voice boards can be an effective means of creating a sense of community. However, it is critical that you, the facilitator, feel confident using voice online.

  • You can build a community and ensure learners and teachers ‘get to know each other’ and feel comfortable working together even when many learners may not be comfortable or fluent with written text as a means of communication.
  • An advantage of using voice boards (as opposed to text discussions and email) is that when you are facilitating online courses, the voice tool allows you to build your profile as a ‘real person’ more quickly. It also allows learners to do the same thing, (ie, to establish their individual personalities more quickly).
  • There will always be people who are more comfortable with text online. Voice boards allow you to use both voice and text.
  • Using voice adds a conversational element to discussions and feedback and so can help build a sense of community more quickly.
  • Depending on your confidence and level of experience with using voice online, some teachers may feel the need to script their postings in advance (ie, to compose them before posting). This can affect the quality and tone of a message – as a message read from a prepared text may not sound as engaging or spontaneous as a message posted without rehearsal.

Oral communication competencies

Using voice boards, you can provide the opportunity for learners in an online course to practice and develop oral communication and presentation skills.

  • You can provide models of (and pronunciation practice for) learning outcomes that require correct pronunciation of terminology.
  • Voice boards also allow learners to assess others’ contributions and to collaboratively solve problems where the learning outcome involves oral communication skills.
  • Voice board activities allow learners to self evaluate against the models provided and possibly also against peer postings. By comparing their own recorded postings against the model, learners are able to make judgements about their own progress and repeat individual activities until they ’hear’ they have got it right. This is of particular benefit for pronunciation and English language learning.
  • Voice boards can be used to provide models of spoken language or pronunciation. These types of activities encourage learners to take responsibility for their own learning and to set their own standards of achievement.

Reflection

  • You can use voice boards for reflection and journaling activities. This is a great way for learners to be able to record their learning and experiences of the learning process.
  • If you set up individual voice boards as blogs, learners will generally feel ownership over their own space and become comfortable with recording thoughts that they may have difficulty expressing in writing.
  • Voice journaling will also usually give you a better picture of how a learner is progressing. Many learners will say more than they would write and the tone of a posting will often give you additional insight into how that learner is feeling about the course.

Low literacy

  • Voice boards provide an alternative to written text for delivering information, instructions, content, learning activities and assessment for learners with low literacy skills.
  • All of us learn to speak before we learn to read or write. Because writing is something that many people do not do, it is important to realise that for some learners having to read and/or write text can be a barrier to learning. ‘It’s a lot easier just speaking your mind rather than having to think of what to write down…’ (Participant: industry trial conducted at Schefenacker Vision Systems, SA).
  • For learners with low literacy (especially ESL), spoken instructions and language models can be easier to follow.

English as a second language (ESL)

There are a number of online and multimedia resources for ESL learners. However very few of them provide an opportunity for learners to practice speaking skills and most of them do not allow teachers to author activities.

  • You can provide customised listening and speaking practice for a number of individual learners with different learning styles and pace of learning. This can be done even in large classes where it is otherwise difficult to provide individual support to every learner.
  • You can provide access to learning activities designed around specific spoken vocabulary, language structures and pronunciation in response to learner needs.
  • Collaboration: in ESL contexts, using voice boards in face-to-face settings (eg, computer labs) can provide an opportunity for learners to give peer support, directions and explanations in their first language while they have access to the learning activities and spoken models in English.
  • Voice postings may be easier for some ESL learners to understand than long text instructions. Keep the language clear and simple, speak slowly and, where appropriate, repeat the instructions in different words.

Assessing online

  • Voice boards can enable online learners with low literacy skills to provide evidence of competency where reading and writing would otherwise be a barrier.
  • Assessment tasks submitted orally on a voice board can also help with the problem of authenticating assessment submitted online. You will have become familiar with the voices of learners during the course and so will have a way of authenticating a task submitted orally.
  • Voice boards can be used to assess a set body of knowledge within a given time frame.
  • Voice boards allow learners to assess others’ contributions and to collaboratively solve problems.
  • Through voice board postings you can track the process of individual learners in developing competence (ie, the underpinning knowledge they have gained and the steps they have taken), particularly for oral competencies.

How? Integrating voice boards into teaching and learning

The case studies describe how voice boards (and other voice tools) can be integrated into teaching and learning to provide opportunities for learning that would otherwise not have been available to the learners.

Listen to the photostories to hear how teachers in vocational education and training, industry and English as a language contexts have integrated online voice activities.

The downloadable learning activities documents describe some of the voice-related learning activities in more detail.

The pedagogy documents describe the underpinning theory of learning that forms the basis of each learning design.

So, how do you integrate voice boards into your course? The following section will take you through the steps and offers some advice for first-time users of voice boards.

Planning

Voice boards can be used for multiple purposes: building community; facilitating online courses; and individual oral communication skills development (including pronunciation practice, oral presentations to different audiences, collaborative group activities, oral reports and assessment). With this in mind, you need to make sure your learners are clear about the purpose of the voice board activities in your course.

  1. When planning and designing your learning program, consider how voice board activities could benefit the learners. Some of the things you will need to consider are:
    • the profile of your learners
    • learning outcomes
    • access to resources – such as computers, internet
    • facilitating the course
    • assessment.
  2. Decide on where your voice boards will be hosted.
  3. Set up the voice boards prior to course commencement.

Setting up voice boards

It is easy to add voice boards to a course. You can add one, or several depending on the types of learning activities you have planned.

  • If you are using the Horizon Wimba Voice Tools in WebCT®, you can add multiple voice boards to a page.
  • Consider the length of postings – the default recording time is 3 minutes. This can be made shorter or longer (up to 5 minutes) depending on the activity you have planned.
  • For more information on setting up voice boards in WebCT® and a step-by-step guide, go to Technical notes and follow the links.

Developing learning activities

You have planned the facilitation and learning activities that you want to integrate into your course. Now you will need to design the activities and create them in a voice board.

Earlier sections of this guide, Why use voice boards? Challenges and Why use voice boards? New practices, discuss how voice boards can contribute unique benefits to teachers and learners. And the case studies provide concrete examples of activities other teachers have developed.

Once you have designed your facilitation and learning activities, there are a few things you will need to keep in mind as you develop the activities in voice boards.

  • Scripted or unscripted? You may need to script instructions and structured language activities. However, responses to learners’ posting may not need to be scripted.
  • When giving instructions in voice boards it is important to speak clearly and not too quickly. Use a welcoming tone.
  • Add the instructions in text as well as voice to provide both options for learners.
  • You will need to record each voice activity and enter any associated text at the same time.
  • If you are creating structured or scaffolded activities, plan carefully.
  • You can not edit either the voice file or the text in an activity after it has been created. You will need to create the whole activity again if you want to make changes.
  • You can copy and paste text into a voice board activity, but not audio files. Copying and pasting from other applications can be done using Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V. There is no paste command in the voice boards.
  • If you are numbering activities in a voice board posting or in the heading of a posting and realise later that you need to add additional activities within the numbered sequence, you will have to re-record all the existing subsequent activities so that you can change the numbering.
  • Think before you post: Replay the voice message before posting, just like you would review a text message. You can then re-record if necessary.

Posting messages: if you are new to voice boards, the following steps may help both you and your learners:

  1. compose - think about what you want to say, perhaps make notes
  2. rehearse the message mentally, out loud, or with the aid of written notes
  3. script the final post or at least make sketch notes
  4. record the post and add text as appropriate
  5. review the post (listen to it)
  6. amend if necessary
  7. send the post.

As you gain more experience with voice boards you will probably shorten this process and:

  • compose the message (ie, think through what you want to say)
  • record the post and add text as appropriate
  • send the post.

Preparing learners

  1. Learners with basic computing skills master the process of posting to voice boards without much trouble. Computer literate learners will pick up the navigation and functionalities of voice boards very quickly.
  2. For language learners and learners with minimal computer literacy, a demonstration, (using a datashow or on an individual basis) is a good way of introducing both the technology and the learning activities.
  3. Remind learners that some voice board activities are designed to be accessible to other learners in the courses.
  4. Clearly define the purpose, expected outcomes and assessment requirements (if applicable).

Assessment

Voice boards offer a number of new possibilities for online assessment and preparation for assessment activities.

  • Authentication: candidates for assessment can be identified by their voices. Authentication of the author can be problematic when assessment tasks are submitted online in text format.
  • Presentations, oral reports: learners can use voice boards to record their presentations or reports for assessment purposes.
  • Processes and procedures: learners can describe or explain the steps needing to be taken without having to provide a written response (when this is not part of the competency).
  • Communication skills: learners can respond orally to demonstrate how they would handle a given situation (eg, responding to a customer, providing information, etc).
  • Spoken competency: language learners (ESL) can demonstrate competency for a range of spoken learning outcomes.

There are also possibilities for using online voice boards for recognition of prior learnling (RPL) purposes and for judging the readiness for candidates for assessment.

You will need to ensure assessment tasks are valid, fair and reliable and that the conditions are appropriate for assessment.

Tips: what to watch out for so you do not trip up

Planning activities

Plan voice board activities carefully so that you use the tool and the online medium to the best purpose. Not every learning activity is best done via this medium.

  • It is generally good practice to add a text version to your voice posting. Using both voice and text should ensure access for learners who have either a visual or hearing impairment.
  • Often summary points in text are useful and can focus the listener on the main points.
  • Be clear about how long the voice board activities will continue. In a face-to-face situation, the entire task may be completed in one lesson. In a blended environment, a task or set of tasks may be set over an extended period of time.
  • If there is a requirement that learners respond to others’ postings, they need to know this in advance so they allow the time to return to the board and review and respond to others’ postings.
  • One learning activity per voice board posting can make it easier to track that topic.
  • Reviewing learners’ voice postings takes more time than reviewing text submissions. You can not scan voice postings like you can with text. You need to consider this before setting assignments that may require lengthy answers.
  • A blended approach using face-to-face activities, print/visual resources and the online voice activities can be most effective with language and literacy learners.

Technology

  • Good quality headsets and microphones make a difference in public computer rooms. Learners can speak quietly and still get good pickup on microphones. Even with some background noise, the recordings are very clear.
  • Pre-teach the various aspects of audio control before having learners post to the voice board. Sound quality of recorded messages can vary greatly depending on the:
    • – quality of the microphone
    • – type of microphone (headset, internal PC mic, external desktop mic)
    • – distance of microphone from speaker’s mouth
    • – record volume level setting
  • The instructions for using the technology may require a higher level of language than the actual learning activities. Therefore, it is best not to include these for low level language learners. Use a face-to-face session to ‘teach’ the technology.
  • With large groups who have low level language or computer skills, introducing the technology could be challenging. A strategy for dealing with this is to run small tutorial groups initially before using the activities with whole class.
  • Built-in instructions on using the tools could be useful for higher level language learners wanting self-access.
  • Some learners find using a voice board reduces the anxiety normally associated with speaking in front of an audience. Others may experience fear when first using the board, so be prepared to help them get started.

Recording techniques

  • It is good practice to leave a second or two after pressing record before recording a message to avoid clipping the first word or two. Similarly, after recording your message, wait a second or two before turning off the record button to avoid clipping the last few words of the message.
  • Use the pause button to minimize the ‘ums’, stumbling and drawn out pauses between points.

Facilitation

  • Audio and written instructions need to be very clear.
  • Make sure you note the location details and the key points of a posting as you listen.
  • Take written notes as you listen if you intend to respond to the post as it is unlikely that you will be able to retain all the detail that you may want to respond to.
  • Strategies for handling conflict will be very different from those used in text. Voice (even asynchronous voice) is much more immediate and intimate than written text. A useful strategy for managing any potential conflict can be to include an activity on how to give positive feedback and how to respond to feedback. You can do this early in the course as a ‘fun’ icebreaker voice activity.
  • Recording feedback to each individual leaner and every posting could be difficult to manage if you are working with a large group of 20 or more. A strategy for managing this is to provide a number of practice activities, encourage peer feedback and ask learners to let you know when they are ready for your feedback on a specific post.

Working environment

If you are working from home or a noisy office background, noise can be an issue. On the other hand, the background sounds of other people talking, a dog barking or phones ringing can create a more relaxed environment and a context for what could otherwise be a disembodied ‘voice online’.

Technical notes

  • Voice boards can be integrated into learning management systems (LMS) such as WebCT®, and Blackboard®
  • They can be embedded into a webpage outside of a LMS or linked to webpages.
  • Any software required needs to be downloaded and installed (eg, JavaTM, media players).
  • Ports will need to be enabled.
  • You will need to purchase a licence for Horizon Wimba Voice Tools. For Victorian registered training organisations (RTOs), the Horizon Wimba Voice Tools are available in the TAFE Virtual Campus (TAFE VC).
  • The voice boards are easily integrated into a TAFE VC course.

Download a guide to using Horizon Wimba Voice Board

Here is an example of what an RTO has done to support teachers setting up voice boards using the Horizon Wimba Voice Tools. Documents developed by GippsTAFE. Used with permission.