This article talks about a BETA version of the tool. If you're not a part of an institution that participates in the testing, please refer to the other article.

Introduction

In this article, we'll walk you through how to set up Interactive Audio from the perspective of a teacher. Interactive Audio allows students to engage with audio material through inline question cards and discussion threads.

If you'd like more information on how this tool works, check out:

• Interactive Audio: For Teachers (Active Assignment)

• Interactive Audio: Overview

• Interactive Audio: For Students

Tool In Action

How this article is structured

Setting up an activity follows three stages, shown at the top of the activity whenever you're in edit mode:

1. Build activity — get an overview of your activity and add or remove learning steps.

2. Edit steps — configure each step individually.

3. Finalize activity — configure settings that apply across the activity, such as deadlines and grade weighting.

Everything below describes what you can configure before the activity is published. Students cannot access the activity at this stage.

Note: When you open a published activity, you'll land on the Active Assignment view by default. To return to setup, click Edit in the upper-left corner. See the Active Assignment article.

Accessibility

We're devoted to making our tools as accessible as possible for all learners. To read more, see Accessibility: Within FeedbackFruits Tools.

Stage 1 — Build activity

This is your starting point. Here you see every step in the activity in order and can shape the activity before configuring the details.

A default Interactive Audio activity contains:

1. Instructions
2. Listen to audio

Use the learning-steps panel to add optional steps such as Rate Students’ Discussion Contributions, Participation Grading, or Reflections. You can either click a step to add it, or drag it into the activity.

Once your activity structure is ready, continue to Edit steps.

Stage 2 — Edit steps

Here you configure each learning step individually. A Student preview is shown alongside the settings so you can see how the activity will appear to students.

Step 1: Instructions

Write the instructions students see when they open the activity. Type directly into the instructions field; the student preview updates alongside.

Step 2: Study material

In this step, add the audio material students will interact with and configure how they can participate.

Material

Click Upload material to add the audio you want students to work with. The current Interactive Audio article also supports adding an audio URL. Once the material has been added, you can place question cards and discussion threads on the audio timeline.

Question cards

Question cards allow you to add questions directly to points in the audio for students to answer while listening.

Discussion threads

Discussion threads allow students to discuss specific parts of the audio and reply to each other's contributions.

Anonymity

Enable Anonymity if student contributions should appear anonymously to other students. Teachers can still identify the students who contributed.

Advanced settings

Click Advanced settings to configure additional options for student contributions.

You can configure whether:

• Students can create new discussion posts — allow students to start their own discussion posts.

• Students can create new questions — allow students to create their own questions.

Stage 3 — Finalize activity

The Finalize activity stage contains settings that apply across the activity.

Deadlines

Turn on Deadlines to add end dates to applicable learning steps. Please note that once the deadline passes, students can no longer access the material or answer its questions. If no deadline is set, students can access the activity at their convenience.

Grade weighting

Turn on Grade weighting to configure how the learning steps contribute to the activity grade.

Once everything is configured, click Done.