Low Bandwidth Solutions: Audio and Textual
Videos are great. I love videos. I use videos. Videos require a lot of data, bandwidth, and—quite frankly—time to construct. There are other options. You might even instruct students to use these resources in tandem, e.g., provide the powerpoint and instruct the student to turn to slide two, three, and so on.
- Audio
- Textual
Audio
Students use audio quite a lot. They are constantly listening to music and podcasts. A podcast is an audio file that they can download to their phone. Once you have an audio file, you can embed it in Canvas. Here is a quick tutorial.
How to Record Audio Directly Into Canvas
You can record your audio file directly into Canvas. It will embed it in a page.
https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-12981 Links to an external site.
How to Record in Zoom
Zoom is a handy way to record audio. I put together a quick tutorial on this.
How to Record on Your Smartphone
Your smartphone is likely an easy and very portable way to record any audio lectures.
https://www.wikihow.com/Record-Audio-on-a-Mobile-Phone Links to an external site.
How to Record Audio on your Computer Using Audacity
Believe it or not, it is probably easier to do it on your smartphone. Smartphones usually have software installed for this purpose, and the microphone will likely be better. However, should you wish to use your computer, here you go.
Audacity is a very popular piece of software to record spoken audio specifically for podcasts. It is free. This video below provides a tutorial. You can download and begin using Audacity here Links to an external site..
Textual
Canvas provides some rather easy ways to give our students text. Students can easily read the material in the Canvas app on their phone, or on their computer browser.
How to Embed a pdf or Any Document in Canvas
You can simply embed the File into the module for students to read.
How to embed a PowerPoint in Canvas
This video shows an option to embed a PowerPoint in Canvas. You can always provide a link for the student to use, but this will display the PowerPoint whether or not the student has PowerPoint.