For 2024-25 we are trying out a new tool called Poodll! This tool focuses on audio and video recordings, and makes use of text-to-speech and voice-recognition technologies. It also has a very deep integration with Moodle which makes it extremely flexible. Here are some of the options.
Recorders embedded in the rich text editor
When you have the rich text editor in Moodle you will see these additional recording (shown below) and widget buttons (as long as that field allows file uploads).
Instructors can use these buttons to add more impromptu audio or video to share with students anywhere in Moodle. You can also ask students to use these tools to add audio or video to their Forum posts, online Assignment submissions, etc.
Assignment Recording Options
Moodle's Assignment also now has recording options for both student submissions and instructor feedback.
Text-to-Speech (TTS)
Poodll offers a plethora of 'widgets', including Text-to-Speech (TTS) and Voice Recognition tools. The TTS widget allows an instructor to enter text into Moodle that will have an automatic computer-generated audio reading of the text along with phrase highlighting. There are a number of voices available in a large number of languages.
Voice Recognition with Poodll Wordcards
Voice recognition is when you submit a recording and the computer attempts to recognize the words you say. This is now a common technology used on many devices (e.g., Siri, Alexa), so the concept should be familiar. With Poodll Wordcards, instructors can design a series of vocabulary exercises to help students retain new words and practice proper pronunciation. In the recording exercises, the student is awarded up to 3 stars as feedback for their pronunciation. These recordings are not saved so storage space is not an issue.
Recording Quiz Question
Poodll also includes a new question type in Moodle Quiz called Cloud Poodll. This question can be integrated with your other quiz questions, allowing students to record their responses and instructors to review them and manually grade them. These files are stored on a remote media server (which is part of our subscription), hence the reference to Cloud Poodll.
With the Cloud Poodll question, the instructor can choose one of several different audio recorder 'skins', set a recording time limit, set the speaking language and attach audio transcription for either the student or the instructor (or both!).
Poodll Minilesson
Poodll Minilesson is a modification of Moodle's Lesson module, with added page types for recording and voice recognition. While there are several recording exercises for students to use, they are all using the voice recognition tools and not saving student recordings for instructors to review.
