Faculty Tutorial: Create a Podcast
Purpose: To introduce faculty to the features of Collaborate “Voice Podcaster.” Adding the Podcaster Tool to Your Course From within your course in “MyHills,” select “Customization” in the gray “Course Management” menu.
In the sub‐menu that opens, select “Tool Availability.”
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The “Tool Availability” page will open.
Check the box next to “Blackboard Collaborate Voice Podcaster.”
Then, click “Submit.”
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In the blue Course Menu, select “Course Tools.”
The “Tools” page will open. The “Voice Podcaster” should now be available on this page.
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Podcaster Overview On the “Tools” page, from within a course, select “Voice Podcaster.”
The “List of Voice Podcasters” page will open. Select “Add Voice Podcaster.”
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The “Create Voice Podcaster” page will open. Under “Information,” fill in the “Title” and “Description” for the podcaster.
The “Title” is a required field. Choose a title for your podcaster that is clear and understandable; avoid ambiguous abbreviations. The default “Title” will be the title of the course followed by “podcast_name.” The “Description” is an optional field. Use the description to provide users with additional information about the podcaster. Note: You can record and post numerous podcasts within one podcaster. Just be sure that the title of the podcaster makes sense for all the podcasts you record.
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Under “Settings,” it is recommended to leave “Display short message titles” unchecked. Then, the entire title of the podcaster will be displayed.
If you would like students to be able to listen to your podcasts, but not be able to create new podcast recordings, keep “Allow students to post to podcast” unchecked. If you would like students to reply to your podcast, check the option “Allow students to post to podcast.” This will allow students to respond to your podcasts by creating new podcast recordings. Note: All published podcast posts are available to everyone enrolled in the course. If students post to a podcast, other students can listen to their posts.
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It is recommended that you leave the “Audio Quality” set to “Standard Quality.” This option will allow students to listen to your podcasts using either a high‐speed or dial‐up Internet connection.
The “Podcast auto‐published after” option gives you time to review a podcast and delete it, if necessary, before it is published. Choose the amount of time from the drop‐down menu that you would like it to take for your posts to be published. Your post will not be published until the chosen amount of time has expired. Also, the podcast will not appear in the podcaster within your course until the chosen amount of time has passed. Note: Once posts are published, they are available to be downloaded to the computers of any subscribed users and they are available in your course podcaster.
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Click “Submit.”
The “List of Voice Podcasters” page will open again. The “Podcaster” you created should now appear on this page. Select the podcaster to open it.
A pop‐up asking if you “want to run this application” will open. Select “Run.”
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The “Podcaster” will open. To create a new podcast, click “New.”
In the Compose window, type the title of your podcast in the “Subject” box. Note: The title of each podcast you record should be more specific than the title of your podcaster.
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To begin recording your podcast, click the red “Record” button. You may pause your recording by clicking the “Pause” button, and then continue recording where you left off by clicking the “Record” button again. Once you are finished recording, click the “Stop” button.
Note: If you click “Record” after clicking stop, you will record over what was previously recorded.
To listen to your recording, click the green “Play” button. Note: It is recommended that you review your recording to ensure it is as you want it, before posting. See the “Podcast auto‐published after” setting earlier in this tutorial for instruction on how to delay posting.
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If you would like to give additional information about your podcast, type it in the window below the recording area.
Once you have completed your recording, click “Post.”
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Your podcast will appear in the “Voice Podcaster” window.
Click a Podcast once (which will highlight it in blue) to make the “Edit” and “Delete” buttons available.
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Click the “Edit” button to make changes to a podcast. In the “Edit” window you have the options to change the title or description of your podcast, and to re‐record your podcast. Click “Post” to save changes or click the “X” in the upper‐right corner to cancel and return to the “Voice Podcaster” window. Note: If you select the “X” in the upper‐right corner, a pop‐up asking “Are you sure you want to cancel?” will appear. Select “Yes” to cancel.
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To delete a podcast, click the “Delete” button. Click “Yes” when asked “Are you sure you want to delete this message?”
The “Export” feature is a helpful tool because it allows you to save your recordings and re‐use them in subsequent courses. To export a file, click the “Export” button.
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In the “Export” window, choose either the “WAV” or “MP3” option for “Select the export format.” Then, click “Next.”
In the “Save” window, click the location where you would like to save your exported file. Type the name of your file in the box to the right of “File Name.”
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To import an audio file, click the “Import” button.
Locate the file(s) you want to import using the “Import” window. Select a file by clicking on it. Then, click “Ok” to import the file into the Wimba Podcaster.
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Click the “Options” button for additional choices to play podcasts. “Play on click” will allow you to play a podcast by simply clicking on it. “Continuous Play” will allow you to play all podcasts within a podcaster by clicking only on the first one.
Students can have podcasts automatically downloaded to their iTunes accounts by clicking the “Subscribe” button. Students who “Subscribe” to a podcaster will not have to log into MyHills to retrieve podcasts, because new podcasts will automatically download to their computers via iTunes. Then, they can play the podcasts on their computers, smart phones, iPods, and other mobile devices. Note: Students who choose not to “Subscribe” will still be able to access all podcasts through MyHills.
Students who would like to copy a link to the podcaster into their RSS Feed Reader may do so by selecting the “RSS Feed” button.
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Select “Help” for additional information on the “Subscribe” and “RSS Feed” options.
Select the arrow in the upper‐right corner to detach the podcaster from the page in MyHills and open it in a separate window.
Then, click the “X” to reattach the podcaster in MyHills.
Congratulations! You now know the basics of how to use Collaborate Voice Podcaster!
Office of Online Learning Looking for more computer tutorials? Please visit: www.indianhills.edu/tutorials. For further assistance on this topic or other technical issues, please contact the IT Help Desk Phone: (641) 683‐5333 | Email:
[email protected] | Web: www.indianhills.edu/helpdesk
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