Question types: Record audio question type
qtype_recordrtc
Maintained by 
Tim Hunt, 
Chris Nelson, 
Mahmoud Kassaei
A manually graded Moodle question type, where the student records a short audio response to answer the question asked.
390 sites
511 downloads
18 fans
Current versions available: 2
This question type is like the standard essay question type, but instead of writing some text, students have a recording widget where they can record some audio (in future, we plan to also add video recording). We've basically taken RecordRTC (https://docs.moodle.org/38/en/RecordRTC) and implemented it as a question type.
We consider this an evolution of an Essay question with RecordRTC buttons available to students. We have essentially taken the existing parts and distilled them into a specific question type for the ease and convenience of teachers designing quiz questions and for the students taking them.
Like the standard essay question type, it still requires human grading.
While this question type has obvious uses in Moodle Quiz, it has been primarily designed to be used in an embedded question context (see https://moodle.org/plugins/filter_embedquestion).
This question type has two behaviours: deferred feedback, for use in formal Moodle Quiz tests where a tutor would mark the students' recordings; and a new self-rating behaviour, where students mark themselves.
The self-rating behaviour is used essentially whenever the behaviour is interactive or immediate. We have assumed two use-cases: 1) the student listens to a 'model' audio clip and then records their attempt to follow it. They compare the two clips, and then rate their mimicry. Or 2) the student attempts to pronounce a written sentence verbally, and the feedback contains a model pronunciation clip, allowing the student to then compare the clips and self-rate their accuracy.
This plugin was created by The Open University UK, specifically for its School of Languages and Applied Linguistics.
We consider this an evolution of an Essay question with RecordRTC buttons available to students. We have essentially taken the existing parts and distilled them into a specific question type for the ease and convenience of teachers designing quiz questions and for the students taking them.
Like the standard essay question type, it still requires human grading.
While this question type has obvious uses in Moodle Quiz, it has been primarily designed to be used in an embedded question context (see https://moodle.org/plugins/filter_embedquestion).
This question type has two behaviours: deferred feedback, for use in formal Moodle Quiz tests where a tutor would mark the students' recordings; and a new self-rating behaviour, where students mark themselves.
The self-rating behaviour is used essentially whenever the behaviour is interactive or immediate. We have assumed two use-cases: 1) the student listens to a 'model' audio clip and then records their attempt to follow it. They compare the two clips, and then rate their mimicry. Or 2) the student attempts to pronounce a written sentence verbally, and the feedback contains a model pronunciation clip, allowing the student to then compare the clips and self-rate their accuracy.
This plugin was created by The Open University UK, specifically for its School of Languages and Applied Linguistics.
(We hope that we could look at giving Essay a self-rating behaviour next, which could be used in a similar embedded fashion as an alternative to Pattern Matching sentences. Although if you're thinking about that area already, you might find Gordon Bateson's essay auto-grade plugin of interest.)
Useful links
Screenshots
Contributors
Tim Hunt (Lead maintainer)
Chris Nelson: Product owner
Mahmoud Kassaei: Developer
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We've kept v1.0 as simple as possible, but we'll be refining it over the next several months. I should signpost that in the next version, we'll probably be turning on the video recording option, and as a result, it'll require a slight rename.
We're only just planning roll-out to OU students for the next academic year ourselves, so it's still very much early days. All we've really done for v1.0 is make RecordRTC a dedicated quiz question type (rather than being Essay with the Atto RecordRTC button available - there were obvious benefits to streamline the interface). Therefore it has all the support (and current issues) of the 'main' RecordRTC plug-in, the latest being reported at https://docs.moodle.org/38/en/RecordRTC
In the short-term, I assume that Chrome on an iDevice should work, but if I recall correctly, Apple have a security policy of not allowing websites access to the microphone. I need to test that assumption myself, but my understanding is that app access to the microphone is OK, which is why we'll be working on ensuring the question works with the Moodle App for September.
Checking the Moodle App on iOS, RecordRTC (when a button in Atto), doesn't seem to work either. However, I am pretty sure that non-browser apps *can* access the microphone with user permission when its built in. I am not an expert in this area, but it appears that Moodle will need to add support for RecordRTC into the app, and also add app permissions for microphone access. I'll discuss this with the manager who looks after the OU-branded version of the Moodle App as they are better placed to raise this general app/iOS issue.
Dear Chris,
Thank you very much for your efforts to make this plugin usable for iOS devices.
Unfortunately I can't use it. I loaded the plugin on a 3.8 platform but when I test to see how a student receives the question, I get this error: "WebRTC not supported
Your browser offers limited or no support for WebRTC technologies yet, and cannot be used with this type of question. Please switch or upgrade your browser. "
Maybe this happens because my site is not https? Since I have not uploaded the SSL certificate or are there other problems that I can't understand?
Thanks for your help.
Antonello Ratta
I just want to inform you that I had the same error message than Antonello Ratta with Safari on Catalina (10.15.4) while my site works on HTTPS. The problem disappears when I use Chrome ou Firefox and the plugin works fine. So, I will suggest my students to use this two web browsers. Thanks again !
This is a Moodle Quiz question type rather than the general Atto-based record button. There's more info on the Atto button at: https://docs.moodle.org/36/en/RecordRTC
I have installed the plugin on our moodle with version : Moodle 3.5.3+ (Build: 20181120), After that U have created a question as this type but when I clicked on preview moodle show the following errro:
Call to undefined method question_attempt::get_outer_question_div_unique_id()
Would you please help me?