The other day I was in late and a student knocked on my door asking how to recover a lost recording submission on CourseWork. Apparently she had used up her 2 or 3 attempts on the recording applet, but was still not satisfied, so she clicked the "Remove" link next to the file playback. As a result, not only did she not have any attempts left, she no longer had any audio file left in the assignment. Clicking the "Remove" link does exactly what it says: it removes the file, irrevocably.
I have had other students who somehow ended up with no file and no attempts, and I thought it was a bug in the recording applet, but now I am beginning to suspect otherwise. Instructors should do their best to convince students that the audio response items are not high stakes assignments and they should simply do their best and make a submission.