issues with read speaker tool

[lshulman]

The new "read speaker" tool is not as helpful as it might be.

For one thing, I find the icon to activate it blocks (covered up) some text in student submissions.

But, more significantly, it reads absolutely everything, including stuff that is not even being displayed (like the content of an associated rubric that I am not actually viewing and header information on the assignment being viewed). I did not have time for it to go through all of this to wait for it to finally get to reading the actual text the student submitted. 

I think this tool may need some tweaks to make it truly effective.

[Chris_Hofer · Accepted solution]

Hello @lshulman …

To be certain, are you referring to ReadSpeaker … as described on this site?  Lifelike Text to Speech (TTS) - ReadSpeaker

Or, are you referring to the Microsoft Immersive Reader that is now integrated into some parts of Canvas courses?

If you are referring to ReadSpeaker, that is not something that is a core part of Canvas.  Your school may have integrated ReadSpeaker for Education…as described here: https://www.eduappcenter.com/apps/532?filter_text=#.YaREIS9lDi0

You would want to reach out to the Tech Support folks at ReadSpeaker if you are experiencing any issues with the Canvas integration…since it is a third-party product integration with Canvas.  https://www.readspeaker.com/education/canvas/

Hopefully this will be of some help to you.  Sing out if you have any other questions about this…thanks!

[lshulman]

It IS ReadSpeaker (not the Microsoft tool). 

It does seem to work better in some parts of Canvas (discussions, Pages) than in others. I was having issues with it when trying to use it in SpeedGrader.