8. Troubleshooting and Frequently Asked Questions

Most problems with Poodll Languages can be solved by checking browser permissions, the activity’s language setting and whether processing has finished. This section covers Poodll MiniLesson, Poodll Solo, Poodll WordCards and Poodll ReadAloud. For more detail on recorders and uploads, see the troubleshooting section of the Poodll Media Teacher’s Guide.

A browser must have permission to use your microphone before it can record or recognise speech.

1. Open the Moodle page containing the activity.
2. Click the site information or permissions icon beside the address bar. Its appearance depends on the browser.
3. Check that Microphone is allowed. In Chrome, its switch should be on.
4. Reload the page and try again.
5. Check that the correct microphone is selected in your computer’s sound settings and that it is not muted.
6. Close other programs that might be using the microphone.

Figure 8.1. Checking the browser’s microphone permission.

Important: Microphone access normally requires a secure HTTPS connection. If your Moodle site does not use HTTPS, contact your Moodle administrator.

Speech recognition is good but not perfect. If correct speech is being marked wrong, check these points in order.

1. Language. Confirm that the activity’s target language is the language being spoken.
2. Recording quality. Listen to the recording, if available. Background noise, a distant microphone and other voices all reduce accuracy.
3. Transcriber. Try Guided STT (Poodll) rather than Open STT (Strict). Guided recognition is more generous because it expects certain words.
4. Acceptable alternatives.
   • In ReadAloud, add Alternatives for words often misheard (see Section 5.6).
   • In WordCards, add Acceptable mistranscribes for the word (see Section 4.4).
5. Names and unusual words. These are harder to recognise. Where possible, avoid them or provide alternatives.

If your target language has limited recognition support, consider activities that do not depend on it, such as the Self Check item in MiniLesson.

Some results are processed after the student finishes.

Ask students not to close the page until any upload has finished.

AI generation runs as a background task through the Moodle cron job. If cron is not running, generation will not progress. Ask your administrator to check it.

Check that you have filled in every input the template requests. Try a shorter input, or try a different template.

Check the spelling and the activity’s Target Language. Inflected forms and idioms may not be in the dictionary. If it is available, use Create with AI, or add the word by hand on the Words Admin tab.

Generated media can take some time. If a picture is still missing, generate it again or upload your own image. For audio, check that the item or word has a suitable voice selected for the target language.

If the Listen or Practice steps have no audio or do not pause correctly:

1. Check that a TTS voice is selected and that it matches the Passage language.
2. Check that the passage is not longer than 3000 characters.
3. Open the Model audio tab and look for a warning that the audio has not been marked up.
4. Select Re-Generate model audio markup, then save.
5. If that does not help, change the voice in the settings. Save and retest.
6. You can also set the breaks manually - though a bit fiddly it is the most precise way to set word timings.

If you recorded or uploaded your own audio, allow about five minutes for processing and then refresh the page.

The activities work on mobile browsers, and all four plugins support the Moodle mobile app. Features can vary by device.

• Use a current browser, and grant microphone permission when prompted.
• Keep the page open until any upload has finished, especially on mobile connections.
• For assessed work, test the activity on the types of device your students use.

No. The activities run in a web browser. Students need a working microphone for speaking tasks and a reliable internet connection.

Partly. WordCards can be set up with activities that do not require speech. MiniLesson has many non-speaking items, and Solo has a typed sequence. ReadAloud’s Read step requires speech.

Many languages and regional variants are supported. However, text to speech, speech recognition and AI features vary by language. Check the language list in the activity settings and test your task. See What languages does Poodll support?.

It is useful but not perfect. Recording quality, accents and unusual words all affect it, and AI grades depend on your instructions. Review results before relying on them for high-stakes decisions. See Section 6.5.

Yes. You can review and adjust grades on the Grades tab in Solo and the Grading tab in ReadAloud. For MiniLesson, change the grade in the Moodle gradebook.

Not necessarily. In ReadAloud, use Save and re-evaluate all attempts and Re-push evaluations to gradebook on the Administrator tab (see Section 5.6).

WordCards tracks word learning only for students. Use Switch role to… Student or a test student account.

Activities that record usually have a Days to keep file setting, with options of 1, 3, 7, 30, 90, 180, 365 or 730 days, or Never expire. The default in Solo and ReadAloud is 365 days.

Yes. The activities work with Moodle’s standard backup, restore and import tools. In MiniLesson, you can also export items as JSON and import them elsewhere. Test one copy before rolling it out widely, particularly if the course has a different language.

If enabled, it copies selected settings from one activity to others. Use it with care, as changes cannot be undone. See the Poodll MiniLesson Push Feature.

The plugin may not be installed, an administrator may have turned the feature off, or your role may not include permission. Contact your Moodle administrator.

If the checks above do not resolve the problem, contact your institution’s Moodle support team. Include:

1. The Moodle course and activity where the problem occurred.
2. Which activity you were using: MiniLesson (and which item type), Solo, WordCards or ReadAloud.
3. The activity’s target language and transcriber.
4. Your device, operating system and browser.
5. The exact error message, if any, plus a screenshot.
6. Whether the problem affects one person or several people.
7. Whether speech failed to record, failed to process or was processed but scored incorrectly.

Additional help is available from the Poodll Support Center. Your institution’s Moodle support team should be the first contact for site-specific configuration, subscriptions or permissions.

• Microphone or camera permission denied
• My microphone is recording silence
• Tuning your Read Aloud activity
• Marking up model audio in Poodll ReadAloud
• Dealing with students who try to trick ReadAloud
• Generating MiniLesson items with AI