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What is Poodll?
Poodll is an audio recording platform used worldwide, by universities, language schools, companies, and high schools. It's one of the most popular audio recording platforms available for the Moodle LMS.
VCC is using the "Poodll Media" package, which includes the Cloud Poodll recorders in Moodle's editors, assignments, and quizzes, and Poodll Widgets. (Using the Cloud Poodll recorders ensures that audio or video recorded via Poodll is protected securely inside Poodll's cloud-based data centre.)
Recording in Moodle's editor
Anywhere you can use the Moodle editor, you should be able to find Poodll's audio recorder icon in the toolbar.
(VCC Moodle supports both the Atto and TinyMCE editors.)
In the Atto editor, the Poodll audio recorder icon is located here:
In the TinyMCE editor, the Poodll audio recorder icon is located here:
When launched, Poodll's audio recorder looks like this:
The Poodll Audio Recorder in more detail
The Poodll audio recorder has four tabs across the top: Audio, Upload, Options, and History.
The Audio tab
To begin recording, hit the green microphone icon. You will see an image of the audio signal from your voice, indicating that your microphone is working. Hit the "Record" and "Play" icons as many times as you need to record your voice.
Once you're happy with your recording, click "Upload" to save it as a file. It will be saved into Poodll's cloud and inserted into your current Moodle resource or activity.
Note: You may notice that after recording you must hit "Play" once before you can continue to upload and insert your audio clip.
The Upload tab
Upload allows you to upload your own audio file, instead of recording from a microphone. This can be especially handy if you have a audio files that were previously recorded.
The Options tab
Here are options for how the audio should be inserted into the Moodle editor, how long the audio file should be stored on Poodll's server before being deleted (max. 365 days), if subtitles (captions) should be generated, and which language is used in the audio (so that captions will be as accurate as possible).
The History tab
Anywhere you can access the Poodll recorder icon (e.g. in the Moodle editor), you can access the "History" tab to view all your previous Poodll recordings. Clicking on a file in the list will provide options for Renaming the file, previewing it (including downloading a copy), deleting it, or creating a copy in the Moodle editor.
Reviewing and Managing Files
By default, files are listed chronologically, with the newest recording at the top, using an internal filename that Poodll created when the recording was made.
It's not obvious which file contains which recorded content until you inspect it more closely and play it.
Each item in the History List can be expanded to reveal its properties:
Each file's details can be viewed, or it may be deleted, or duplicated:
The details for the selected file allow you to preview it (e.g. listen to it, or watch it):
From the list, you can also rename a file, to make it easier to recognize in the future:
User-specific behaviours during recording
Students:
- Students can download after recording, but not BEFORE they upload/save their answer. (In Cloud recorder, and in Audio quiz question)
- When reviewing their activity attempts after submission, Students can download a copy of their Poodll-submitted audio by right-clicking on the audio player and using "Save audio as".
Instructors:
- When reviewing quiz or activity attempts, Instructors can download a copy of a Student's submitted audio using "Download" button under "..." menu, or by right-clicking on the audio player and using "Save audio as".
Audio/Video Assignment Submissions
Poodll allows Students to record audio or video clips as submissions to Moodle Assignment activities.
Note:You can change the way the recorder looks. The default "Cloud Poodll Rec. Skin" may default to "Burnt Rose", but if that makes the recorder look too dark, you can set the skin to "Plain".
Audio/Video Assignment Feedback
Poodll allows Instructors to record audio or video clips as feedback to submitted Moodle Assignments.
Note: In addition to "Audio Feedback" and "Video Feedback", you can select "Screencast feedback (beta)". This will let you record face and voice as a screencase using Poodll's free Loom connection.
Audio/Video Quiz Questions
The Cloud Poodll question type lets Instructors add questions that Students must answer by recording audio or video clips.
Using Poodll Widgets
Poodll Widgets are a collection of pre-made mini-applications and design elements that you can insert into any Moodle content. Poodll Widgets are embedded into Moodle content as a kind of "shortcode", using keywords and code that's enclosed in curly braces.
With Widgets, you can add navigation and design elements like tabs, accordions, and pop-up menus. You can add interactive features like audio recorders, audio and video players, a countdown timer, and many other things. There's even a widget that automatically converts a block of text into an spoken narration. There are almost twenty widgets to choose from.
Note: Use Widgets at your own risk! Widgets should be considered an intermediate to advanced feature, meant for instructors or course authors who are confident in Moodle. Try them in your Moodle sandbox shell until you're confident in how they work. Widgets are not available to Students in VCC Moodle - only to Instructors, Staff, or Managers.
Compatibility and Performance
- Poodll works with these desktop and mobile platforms tested by eLSupport: Windows, MacOS, Android, and iOS.
- Browsers successfully tested include Google Chrome, MS Edge, Safari, and Mozilla Firefox.
Poodll User Support
VCC's eLearning Support team can help you get started using Poodll and can provide articles and tutorials to help you develop experience.
The Poodll Support Centre has an extensive collection of their own knowledgebase articles and tutorials.
You can also open a support ticket directly with Poodll technical support.
Related Resources: