CALL Potpourri
Issue 10, Fall 2005
TELL @ ELI Archive

If you are teaching (or have taught) a listening/speaking class, you know that designing homework and computer lab activities that would focus on the development of listening skills is greatly supported by a vast variety of resources on the Internet. You also know that it is more difficult to design homework that would support students’ speaking skills development and would provide the teachers with the opportunity to check the homework outcomes outside of class and provide feedback. In the past, audio e-mails were explored by some of the ELI teachers, but because of the usability issues – such as access and storage of the audio files --these applications were not frequently used.

In this issue, I would like to present Audio Portfolio: a web based program developed by the Language Learning Center at Michigan State University, a program which whose intent is to make speaking homework and activities design using computers easier to complete and manage.

How do the instructors access the program? The instructor needs to have an Audio Portfolio account within which he/she can create classes and sign in students. A test account has been set up for the ELI (user name: isarieva; password: eli).
The cost for an annual account is $50.

What can the instructor do from her/his account? The instructor can: 1) create classes; 2) sign in students to these classes; 4) access the recordings made by her students and view their written comments; 5) provide written feedback about each recording.
What can the students do in their Audio Portfolio class? They can: 1) record their speech and listen to their recordings; 2) They can name their audio clips and provide written comments to them; 3) When they are satisfied with the results, they can submit the recording and the text comments to the instructor and/or share it with somebody else by providing a URL (web address) to their recording.

How do the students access the program? After the instructor has signed the students into the class, each student can access the class using the user name and the password provided by the instructor (they can later change their user profiles).

What equipment do instructors and students need to access Audio Portfolio? Instructors and students need a computer with Internet connection to access the program. They will also need a microphone and headphones. Webcam is optional.

How are the recordings organized? The recordings are organized by class and student name and can be accessed from the instructors account.

Does Audio Portfolio allow to share only audio? No – Audio Portfolio allows the audio to be accompanied by a video of the speaker if there is a webcam available.

Ready to practice?

Need ideas for activities with Audio Portfolio?