A few years ago I
was looking for a relatively easy way to create announcements for a course I
was teaching. I wanted the announcements to be audio based only and a colleague
suggested I use SoundCloud – I’ve been using it every since!
SoundCloud is an
audio distribution platform that was initially created to allow musicians to
share recordings with each other. In order to use SoundCloud you need to create
an account, which allows registered users to listen to unlimited content and
upload 180 minutes of audio. There are pro ($63 a year) and pro unlimited ($135
a year) versions available as well with additional functionality. I use the
free version. I use SoundCloud to create podcasts when I want to create audio
announcements for courses I am teaching or workshops I am facilitating.
I’ve found
SoundCloud to be very easy to use, after creating an audio file with
SoundCloud, users are giving an embed code that can be used to share the audio
file in a course, on a blog, or on social media networks such as Twitter or
Facebook.
I know a number
of individuals who use SoundCloud to create podcasts for their courses and one
feature they really like is that SoundCloud visually presents the audio files
in a waveform graphic and allows listeners to click on a segment of the
waveform and leave comments. These comments appear while a particular segment
of the podcast is playing.
Submitted by Brian Udermann, Director of Online
Education
