Dictate in any app · Education

Voice typing in Blackboard

Blackboard is where a lot of higher education runs, and its feedback boxes are plain text. Hold a key and talk: Typally transcribes and types it into Blackboard without you touching the keyboard.

Disclosure: Typally is our product. We have tried to describe what Blackboard already does without talking you out of using it.
Dictate into Blackboard No card, no trial timer. 100 minutes of dictation free every month.
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In short

  • Blackboard's own dictation: None for composing. Some versions offer audio or video feedback recording.
  • What Typally does instead: works above the app rather than inside it — Blackboard sees ordinary typed text.
  • Best used for: assignment feedback

Does Blackboard have built-in dictation?

None for composing. Some versions offer audio or video feedback recording.

Why dictate in Blackboard at all?

Course content, announcements, feedback and discussion moderation all land on the same instructor, usually alongside a full teaching and research load. Written communication is the first thing to be compressed.

In practice people use it for: Assignment feedback, course announcements, discussion board moderation, syllabus text, and module descriptions.

How to dictate in Blackboard

You do not configure anything in Blackboard. The hotkey works wherever your cursor happens to be:

1

Install Typally

Windows or macOS, then sign in. No card for the free tier.

2

Put the cursor in the Blackboard field you are filling

Text goes wherever Blackboard has focus. One click first saves undoing a paragraph in the wrong box.

3

Press and speak

Hold, talk, release. Long passages are fine.

4

Read it before you move on

Blackboard sessions time out and long forms can lose content. Save often when working through dictated feedback.

What Typally adds in Blackboard

Typally types into Blackboard's feedback boxes, announcements and discussion replies, so the marking pile becomes a speaking job rather than a typing one. Its cleanup pass turns spoken feedback into readable prose, which students can reread while revising — something a recorded audio comment cannot offer.

What this looks like in practice

A lecturer records the weekly announcement by speaking it, conversationally, in under a minute. Attendance at office hours goes up, because the announcement finally sounds like a person suggesting something rather than an administrative notice.

One habit that makes it work better

Dictate the weekly announcement as if speaking to the room at the start of a lecture. Announcements written in administrative prose do not get read.

What to watch out for in Blackboard

Blackboard sessions time out and long forms can lose content. Save often when working through dictated feedback.

Frequently asked questions

Does Blackboard have dictation?

Not for composing. Some versions support recorded audio or video feedback, which is different from text.

Can I dictate a syllabus?

Yes, and talking through a course out loud tends to produce a clearer structure than writing it cold.

Does dictation work in the Blackboard discussion board?

Yes — the reply editor is an ordinary text field.

Try it in Blackboard

There is a permanent free tier of 100 minutes a month. Pro costs $7.99/month and raises the limit.

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Also dictate in: Canvas · Moodle · Schoology · PowerSchool · Turnitin · see all apps