One way to improve this activity is to think about the music which might introduce the piece. A great teacher I know turns the music which precedes the recordings into a whole class assignment. The students talk about how the musical lead might reflect the spirit of the This I Believe goals. They then pose possible musical leads, drawn from copyright free materials, debate and discuss, and decide upon a single line of music to introduce each essay. I believe this might further enhance their understanding of copyright and fair use, and increase the sense of cooperation and collaboration in the class. These activities would greatly reduce the distance which can be felt in an online class and it can create more unity among the various posted essays.

I also think that development of an instructional lesson on Audacity, which might also include information about the development of recording and its history and impact on the world, might heighten appreciation of the digital tool and its importance to culture. This might encourage them to think about the assignment not just as an exercise in reflection and values, but also civic responsibility and how writing and speaking participated in that responsibility.    

I have also considered having students at the end of the whole process give themselves their grade evaluation. Once they see what people were able to do, heard and discussed all the essays, received feedback, I think a simple rubric with the learning goals for the assignment (which they have at the beginning) which allows them to assign a holistic score for the assignment might be useful as well.

I do wish they could post their own assignments on my webpage or on webpages of their own creation, but web creation is not a goal of the class, and there is not enough time to teach them how to do that. It is a bit time-consuming for me to build the webpage and create all the postings, but in the long run it is worth it to have a public audience. I will keep thinking about this issue and see if other solutions might present themselves.