Taking Oral Diagnostic Assessments (ODAs)

Basic Steps

1. Login to CourseWork.
2. Select the course for the ODA.
3. You can find ODAs listed under Assignments.
4. Open the ODA.
5. Do the Listening section: Play the QuickTime clip, answer the questions.
6. Do the Speaking section: Follow the instructions listed before the recording button.
7. When you are ready, click the Record Response button and the Java applet will start up.
   
8. Click the red RECORD button, then speak. You will see the seconds ticking, but the green line in the center of the box will remain flat. The red RECORD button will also change into a green STOP button.
   
9. When you are finished speaking, press the STOP button. You can check your recording by pressing the PLAY button.
10. When you are done, press the SAVE button on the applet (looks like a little floppy disk).
11. You will then see a message saying that your recording has been temporarily stored and you can close the window.
    
12. !!!!!-IMPORTANT-!!!!!
    Back in the CourseWork window, when you are finished with all of the recordings on the page, be sure to click the gray SUBMIT button at the bottom of the page. If you don’t, your work will not be sent to the instructor.
    

Problems You May Encounter

• The network in general and CourseWork specifically are very sensitive to changing demands and sometimes you may find that you have trouble logging in. This is especially true at times like around lunch (12:00 ~ 1:30) when everyone is checking their mail, doing assignments, etc. Please be patient or try a different time period. If you are curious, you can see the current status of the network at http://monitoring.stanford.edu.
• In rare instances the applet malfunctions and is not able to record. For example, when you press the record button, the seconds do not move and the play button is displayed. In this case close the recording applet, and exit CourseWork. Whether you choose to submit the work you have done so far depends on the circumstances. If there are several recordings on the page and you have an unlimited number of tries for each recording, it might be a good idea to go ahead and click submit, so save what you have. However, if you have a limited number of attempts, DO NOT CLICK SUBMIT on the CourseWork page. That way you can just start over and no attempts are recorded.  When this happens, it is usually best to try a different browser: if you were using Internet Explorer switch to FireFox, if you were using FireFox, switch to Internet Explorer.

Notes

• Please keep in mind that whenever you take an ODA or test, you should *NOT* write it out before you do it. ODAs are meant to assess your ability to speak, not read.
• Also, Firefox has been known to have problems with Quicktime files in CourseWork, so if you are having trouble hearing your audio response, try using Internet Explorer.

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