Providing Audio Feedback in Microsoft Word

Providing quality feedback to students is one of the best ways to help them learn. Unfortunately, it often seems unduly cumbersome and time-consuming to faculty. Giving feedback by speaking is faster than writing or typing so this tip will focus on an easy way to give students verbal feedback.

Most students submit their assignments as Microsoft Word files. This program has a tool for inserting audio within a document. All you need is a microphone and to know where to find the voice recording tool. (NOTE: We don’t recommend this tip for those who use Mac computers. Inserting audio into a Word file on a Mac works only in the Notebook view. When a document is switched to that view, the formatting is seriously affected. If formatting were an important part of the assignment, switching to the Notebook view would jeopardize the student’s grade.)

Microsoft Word

To setup a quick link to the “Insert Voice” tool in Microsoft Word 2007, do the following:

1. Click the Microsoft Office Button , and then click Word Options.
2. Click Customize. In the list under Choose commands from, select All Commands.
3. In the list of commands, click Insert Voice, and then click Add.
4. Click OK. The Insert Voice icon now appears in the Quick Access toolbar and is ready to use in any document.
5. To record a comment, move your cursor to the insertion point, and then click on the Insert Voice icon.
6. In the dialog box that appears, click the Record button and then speak into the microphone. When you’ve finished recording, click the Stop button , and then click OK. Close the Insert Voice box to complete the process.
7. Save the file and send it back to the student.

Using this tool makes giving feedback to students both fast and efficient – and students will definitely appreciate the feedback that you give them.

The only caveat is that voice comments add about 2 megabytes to the file size for each minute you record. So, keep overall file size in mind as you make comments.