How to create a digital audio recording question for your students - New in BookWidgets

Tadaa! 🎉

The question type you’ve all been waiting for: you can now create a question that students have to answer with their voice! They just have to push the record button, talk, and that’s it!

Adding an audio recording question in BookWidgets

When adding a new question in a BookWidgets quiz, worksheet or split worksheet, choose the audio recording question question:

audio recording question in BookWidgets

Now, just ask your question. No more, no less. Pretty easy, isn’t it?

Let’s test it! As we’re looking for some fun BookWidgets testimonials, you can just say what you like about BookWidgets or how you are using BookWidgets in your lessons. Don’t forget to mention your name and school when submitting your answer. Just click (or let your students click) on the image, and do the following:

  • Click on the “record” button: ⏺
  • Leave your message or testimonial
  • Click on the “stop” button: ⏹
  • Play your message for yourself: ▶️
  • Submit your answer

Audio recording question - quiz

Click to open

Grading an audio question in BookWidgets

As this is an audio question, it can’t be automatically graded. To grade it yourself, go to the “Grades and Reporting” tab to check out what your students said, and give grades or feedback.

This is how it will look like for the teacher: grading an audio question in BookWidgets

How to use an audio recording question in the classroom

Let me give you some ideas on how you can use the new audio question in your lessons.

1. For students with special needs

When you have dyslectic students or students that have a hard time typing things, you can give them the option to answer the questions with their voice.

2. For speaking exercises

The most obvious reason for using the audio recording question is definitely for speaking exercises. You can easily let students practice speaking in little groups or individually at home. You give them more chance to practice, as you no longer need to be there to hear them speak.

3. For pronunciation exercises

With an audio recording question type, you can focus more on your students’ pronunciation. you urge your students to, for example, translate a word using their voice. This way, your students have to show their knowledge of the vocabulary and pronunciation.

Of course, I suggest not to take pronunciation tests in one classroom, as students will hear each other talk. But why not as homework?

4. For opinions - arguments

Want to know your students opinion on a topic or statement? Why not let them speak with their own voice? It’s often easier to persuade a person when they can hear the stressed words in their voice.

5. For group work debates

Let your students work in pairs or groups, and let them prepare a group debate. Now, they can just debate from home using the audio recording question. This can be just a practice run for the real deal in the classroom, or you can immediately grade their group debate for real.

6. For music lessons

What about singing? A lot of students feel embarrassed when they have to sing in front of the classroom. Let them do it from home and give individual feedback. You can also pick out the best ones and replay them in front of the class later on.

This way, you also avoid embarrassing situations for your students (that even could even end up in bullying)

7. For poetry reading

Practice reading poetry, as you need a lot of expression in your voice for this. It’s not easy to read a poem out loud. With an audio recording, your students can practice this, and you can give feedback to make their poetry performance even better.

8. For student questions

It’s a good idea to leave some room for student questions at the end of an assignment. When students don’t understand something, they can just ask the teacher what doesn’t go that well. It’s easier with the audio recording question, as students often go “wrong” when typing down a question.

Conclusion

I hope this new BookWidgets question type adds a lot of value for you and your classroom practice. Don’t forget to share this with your fellow teachers, so they are up-to-date about this newest BookWidgets addition as well.

Create a quiz with an audio recording question right here:

P.S. We recently added two other audio question types. Read all about them here.

Create a digital audio recording question for your students

Lucie Renard

Join hundreds of thousands of subscribers, and get the best content on technology in education.

BookWidgets enables teachers to create fun and interactive lessons for tablets, smartphones, and computers.

Choose from over 40 exercise templates (quizzes, crosswords, jigsaw puzzles, ...), and adapt them with your own content.