PowerPoint Audio Feedback

Providing useful feedback when students submit audio homework can be problematic. We need to combine text and audio in a way that allows students to compare their original speech to corrected text and audio from the teacher. Text-only or audio-only feedback really doesn't cut it. The format needs to be simple enough that the teacher won't be spending too much time on each answer. It should be in a single file so it is easy to transport (e.g. as an email attachment).

The setup

Here below we see a group of PowerPoint slides that give feedback for a student's audio homework. PowerPoint has the advantages of being easy to edit, mixing media, and including all media in a single file.

Here we include the student's original audio submission, the text of the student's words with teacher's markups, and audio feedback from the teacher.

(The sample PowerPoint can be downloaded here. Download it and copy the parts you wish to use from there to make your own template.)

In a separate PowerPoint for each student, we give the student's name and assignment name. On the feedback slide, we insert the file with the student's audio homework. Insert / Audio / Audio on my PC

If the homework is longer, we might need to use multiple slides. The text corresponding to the audio is placed in a textbox, broken up into small, manageable segments. Colored highlights or parenthetical comments explain where there are issues with the student's work.

Finally, the teacher can insert audio as needed to provide corrective feedback. Insert / Audio / Record Audio

Integrating Technology in the Second Language Classroom

Using PowerPoint to give Feedback for Audio Homework

The setup