audio files

[Michael B. Ross]

I would appreciate any feedback any of you might have to my idea.

I teach several university classes, and I am always looking for ways to save time and my energy. Of couse, I also want to be effecient, fair and excellent in my teaching.

I am considering the feasibilty of responding to students' papers submitted by email by sending them an audio file. In other words, a student would email me a paper as an attached MS Word document. I would open the document, and while reading it, record a short feedback. Example: "You have submitted an excellent paper. Your grammar, however, falls below the acceptable level.... etc. "

I, then, would save the audio and attach it to a reply email.

Is this do-able? I would guess that the audios would be less than two minutes. If it is possible, what program should I use to record the audio? What type of file should it be--MP3 or something else?

Can any of you help me with this?

Michael

[G R 'Scott' Cundiff]

Audacity is a free program that will do what you want. Get the free mp3 plug in. After you record it, save the file as mp3 and it will be very small and can easily be attached to email.

Do a google search for audacity. It is a great program -- we record the Sunday sermons with it. You can hear the quality at our church website: www.alvinnazarene.org (http://www.alvinnazarene.org)

[David R. Felter]

Michael, this can be done easily using an Open Source program called Audactiy.

I really like Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/). It will allow you to record and output directly to an mp3 file. If you go this route, make sure you also download the LAME mp3 encoder (same link) as this will allow Audacity to actually encode the mp3 file.

Good luck!

[Garth Lahana]

Michael

I found this one othrough Google... It's called mp3voice.exe, and you can download it here (http://www.etn.nl/mp3voice/). I gave it a try and it worked great. I'm curious what you think of it.

Garth
PS - I scanned the file for viruses and it didn't have any that I could see

[Michael B. Ross]

Hey, I have downloaded Audacity and the lame file. It took a few minutes to figure it all out, but it seems to be working. I love it. Thanks.

Now, is Mp3 a file that all students will be able to open? Is it a standard these days? They all are on the university network. Are there any technical issues I should consider? Will the students need a specific program to listen to the mp3?

[Michael B. Ross]

Hey, I have downloaded Audacity and the lame file. It took a few minutes to figure it all out, but it seems to be working. I love it. Thanks.

Now, is Mp3 a file that all students will be able to open? Is it a standard these days? They all are on the university network. Are there any technical issues I should consider? Will the students need a specific program to listen to the mp3?

Also, my Toshiba laptop seems to not have a built in microphone. Is there a pariticular type or brand I should buy for it?

[Hans Deventer]

Now, is Mp3 a file that all students will be able to open? Is it a standard these days? They all are on the university network. Are there any technical issues I should consider? Will the students need a specific program to listen to the mp3?


Michael, trust me. EVERY student will be able to listen to MP3 files :basic05

[Michael B. Ross]

Hans, you make me smile. Maybe the question should be, "WILL the students listen to my file?"

I think I am going to try the MP3 procedure. It will save a lot of work for me, plus I will be able to keep electronic copies of all papers and my responses in an appropriate file.

Thanks for your response.

Michael, trust me. EVERY student will be able to listen to MP3 files :basic05

[Gina Stevenson]

uh, Michael ... you might want to even try burning those files to a CD besides saving them on your computer ... "just in case" ... or you could find out you didn't "keep" them, afterall, if a crash ever occurs.

I will be able to keep electronic copies of all papers and my responses in an appropriate file.

[Michael B. Ross]

Yes, Gina. You are right. I probably will burn them to a cd as a class group. I will need to keep them for 2-3 years.

uh, Michael ... you might want to even try burning those files to a CD besides saving them on your computer ... "just in case" ... or you could find out you didn't "keep" them, afterall, if a crash ever occurs.