Spoken answers

Use the audio recorder when saying it out loud is the skill: speaking practice in a language, reading aloud, retelling a story, or explaining a solution in their own words. You hear how a student puts a thought together, not just where they end up.

Recordings are never marked automatically.

1. In a worksheet, use the + between two items and choose Audio recorder. If it is not in the short list, find it under View all.

2. Click the pencil to open it and write the task at the top, for example "Talk about your favourite place and explain your choice."

3. Under Question settings, Recorder title is an optional line shown above the record button, such as "Two sentences about your favourite place".

4. Set the Maximum recording time (seconds). It is 60 seconds unless you change it.

5. Leave Allow manual stopping on so students can finish early. Turned off, every recording runs until the time limit.

6. Click the tick when you are done.

Students click Start recording; the first time, the browser asks to use the microphone. While recording they can Pause and Continue, and click Stop recording when they are done. Recording also stops by itself at the time limit.

They can listen back, use Record again to replace the recording, and click Submit when they are happy with it.

Open Results on the question to see a card for each recording, where you can play it or download it. Give points and feedback in the Grading Dashboard.

• Say in the task what the recording should cover and how long it should be. A focused prompt gets a better recording than "say something about it".

• Keep the time limit close to what the task needs; 30 to 60 seconds is plenty for most speaking tasks.

• If a student's browser has blocked the microphone, they see a message and have to allow it in their browser settings before they can record.