It is part of our commitment to partners and conversation participants that if they give us their time and stories, we'll make sure that their voices can be heard. But if we aren't able to produce a transcript, we can't uphold our end of the bargain.
When recording your conversation on the virtual platform of your choice:
- Don't start recording the moment you get into the virtual platform, instead, leave the first few minutes open for participants to come in, greet them, or engage in small talk.
- This is important because the first few minutes of welcoming people into the virtual space might not be audio you want to be transcribed and show up on the Fora Platform.
- Do remember to press Record when you are ready to officially begin your conversation.
- Ask all participants to mute themselves when others are speaking in order to minimize crosstalk or loud noises.
- Please note that Fora’s supported file types include: .mp3, .m4a, and .wav.
- Once the conversation is complete, download your audio file and upload them onto the platform.
- If your file type is different from the ones listed above, you can use a free third party site such as CloudConvert to convert your audio files.
Things to consider when facilitating a virtual conversation:
- Allow participants to choose whether they would like to keep their cameras on or off. Having cameras on in a virtual setting can help the space feel more conversational while some participants might feel more comfortable speaking if they do not need to have their cameras on.
- Remind participants that all video is discarded and only the audio from conversations is retained and uploaded onto Fora.
- If you have the capacity to have two facilitators be present for virtual conversations, one can focus on guiding the conversation, while the other can focus on copying and pasting the prompts from the conversation guide into the chat box to accommodate different learning styles.
- For best practices and tips on how to facilitate your conversation, click here.