recording audio comments
The only serious obstacle I’ve encountered is actually getting the comments to the students. At first I thought I’d just email the sound files; after trying to email one sound file, I figured out that .wav files are insanely huge. No problem—I used audacity to convert the .wav files to mp3s, which are about 1/10 the size. Still, the files are large (8-10 MB each), and many of my students’ email inboxes either aren’t large enough to receive the files or don’t have enough room in them to receive the files. Even some of my students with gmail accounts have had trouble receiving the files, which surprised both the students and me. Now I’m asking students to bring memory sticks to class and I’ll bring my laptop to class and I will transfer the sound files to their memory sticks during class. Not ideal. I really don’t want to get into burning CDs for each student, but at this point, that may be more efficient than what I’m doing.
And I do think that the hassles I’m dealing with at this point are worth it. I feel that my audio comments convey my thoughts about the portfolios much more honestly than my written comments. For example, whenever a student turns in work that shows little or no effort, I generally write a note to let the student know that I know she/he can do better work, but I often spend much too much time crafting the note to convey that while I am mightily disappointed in the student’s lack of effort, I have faith that the student will do better next time. I often either end up writing something that sounds much too harsh or so gentle that no student could possibly be motivated to try harder. BUT, with the audio comments, I can say, “I get the sense when I see that there’s no conclusion to your essay that you lost interest in the project and I’m very disappointed to see that. Next time, come talk to me when you realize you’ve lost interest and we’ll see what we can do.” Saying the comment, emphasizing “very disappointed,” and then sounding lighter when I say the sentence that begins, “next time,” makes a much more—I think—compelling comment.
I also feel more confident that students will actually listen to all my comments. With written comments, I suspect that many students simply look to see what their letter grade is and then skip the comments. Several students who have already received my audio comments have told me that they listened to them more than once. Wow. I wonder if any students who received written comments ever read them more than once.
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