Audio Feedback - A How-To Guide
Last updated: 06 October 2010
Published in:
Creating new digital media |
Tags:
audio |
sound recordings |
teaching |
Summary
This document provides a simple step-by-step guide to creating and embedding audio feedback using Microsoft Word 2000 and 2007, the most common format for student text works. There is also a mention of embedding audio in PDFs, which is discussed at the end of this document, with a link to the appropriate Adobe online resource.
Introduction
Audio feedback is becoming an increasingly common method of delivering high quality feedback to students in a non-text based manner. Our document Audio Feedback discusses the merits of this approach based on research and technologies available in this field.
Before embarking on recording digital files for students, you should read our advice on Audio Feedback and specifically the section What technical knowledge do I need to know?, as it contains information regarding structuring feedback, and some technical pointers for creating digital audio files.
A significant point worth noting here is the management of digital files. Appropriate file naming, directory structuring and file storage should be carefully considered and adhered to when you are making extensive numbers of digital files.
Microsoft Word 2007
There are two approaches to inserting audio files in MS Word, both of which are introduced here. Method 1 allows you to record audio directly into Word, whereas Method 2 allows you to insert a pre-recorded audio file into Word.
Recording your audio files separately (as in Method 2) can allow you to create multiple files without having word documents open on screen, and helps to separate audio files from the Word files easily. This method also allows you to easily edit the audio file in software other than Word, and any updates are reflected in Word.
Both approaches allow you to insert multiple audio files at specified locations within a document, thereby allowing you to place segments of feedback alongside related sections of the document.
For information on creating a spoken word audio file with the free software Audacity, please refer to our document Creating an Audio Podcast.
Method 1 - Record and embed a sound file within MS Word 2007
Step 1
Connect a microphone to your computer. Make sure it is configured in Control Panel (for a PC) or System Preferences (Mac) to be the default recording input device.
Step 2
Open MS Word. From the menu bar at the top of the page select the Insert tab, shown in Figure 1 below.
Figure 1. The Insert tab
Step 3
From the Text menu select the drop down icon, Object, and click on Object..., as shown in Figure 2 below.
Figure 2. Object button
Step 4
In the Object dialog box (as shown in Figure 3 below) you are presented with a number of options under the Create New tab. Now, the features you have installed on your computer will define the options available to you (this is something usually administered by your IT network administrator), but the most common option and suitable option available here is Wave Sound (if this is not available try selecting Media File). To present the audio file as an icon, check the Display as icon tick box.
Figure 3. Object dialog box
Step 5
After selecting Wave Sound and then clicking OK, a Sound Object dialog box will appear as shown in Figure 4 below.
Figure 4. Recording dialog box with controls
Step 6
The Wave Sounds object records files to the WAV file format which is uncompressed, full quality audio. For lengthy recordings (and for storing multiple recordings) a compressed format, which makes the file size smaller, is more desirable.
In the Sound Object dialog box click on File > Properties as shown in Figure 5 below.
Figure 5. Sound object dialog box
Step 7
In the properties window select All Formats from the drop down menu and click on Convert Now...
Figure 6. Properties window
Step 8
In the Sound Selection window change the format from PCM to MPEG -Layer 3 (MP3) and click OK in both windows.
Figure 7. Sound Selection window
Step 9
When you are ready click on the record button (see Figure 4 above) and start talking. If your settings are correct from Step 1, then you will see the waveform display change whilst you are talking to reflect the volume of your voice. Click on the stop button to end recording.
When you have finished recording and close the recording dialog box, an icon is created in the word document (shown below) which, when clicked, plays the audio file.
Figure 8. Play audio file icon
Method 2 - Importing a pre-recorded sound file into a Word Document
Step 1
Open MS Word. From the menu bar at the top of the page select the Insert tab, shown in Figure 1 below.
Figure 8. The Insert tab
Step 2
From the Text menu select the drop down icon, Object, and click on Object..., as shown in Figure 2 below.
Figure 9. Object button
Step 3
In the Object dialog box select the Create from File tab shown in Figure 9 below.
Figure 10. Object dialog box
Step 4
Click the Browse button and locate the audio file you wish to insert. Leave the box labelled Link to file unchecked to insert the audio file into the document. You can display the audio file as an icon in the document by checking the box labelled Display as icon.
Embedding audio (and other media) in PDFs
Clearly not all student assignments are submitted using the Microsoft Word file format, and sometimes Microsoft Word may not be the preferred choice of software.
PDFs are another common file format for text and image based documents and can contain embedded Flash media files (note, only Flash files due to the proprietary nature of Adobe software and formats). The Flash Audio (.fla) format is a compressed file type and can be embed into PDF documents using the full version of Adobe Acrobat Reader. There are detailed instructions in our advice document Using Multimedia in a PDF.
Last updated: 06 October 2010
Published in:
Creating new digital media |
Tags:
audio |
sound recordings |
teaching |
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