Instead of a stack of papers, our High School English teachers now have folders in Google Drive full of student assignments to grade. This does not make the task of reading and providing timely and actionable feedback any less daunting. But 121Writing’s audio recording tool just might.
You can easily leave audio comments in a Google Document using 121Writing’s tool. It is a very simple process. Once you’ve added the Voice Recorder tool to your Google Drive, you just choose to open a document with Voice Recorder, hit the record button and talk. After you’ve shared your recording with the student, they will be able to click the comments button in their Google Document to find a link to your recording, which displays their document and any highlighting of text that you did while recording. This video demonstrates the process:
Students do not need to have the Voice Recorder installed in order to access your recording. Using the Google Drive or the Quick Office apps on my iPad, I was not able to access the comments. If I logged into Google Drive using the Chrome app and choose to run the Desktop version, then I could access the comments and listen to the recording. Users can not use voice recorder on tablets and other mobile devices to record audio at this time.
There are several benefits to audio feedback. Audio feedback is more personal, can be more in depth, and is less likely to be misinterpreted. This could be especially beneficial for peer editing assignments. Audio feedback can be provided in a shorter amount of time than written feedback. The video below explains the benefits of using audio feedback in an online course, which is relevant to the scenario of providing feedback on digital documents in a face-to-face course.
Source: I read about 121Writing on the Free Technology Teachers Blog.
Digitally Enhanced by Janetta Garton 