You can view the following two complimentary lessons complete with exercises, exercise solutions and review questions. There are a total of 27 lessons contaned on the CD in addition to sample tests to prepare for the VoiceXML Developers Certification Test.

VoiceXML Background
People speak and listen with other people. People should be able to speak and listen with computers. Applications that enable users to speak and listen with the computer have many benefits which are enumerated at the beginning of this lesson. VoiceXML and its related languages are designed to develop applications that enable users to interact with a computer by using a telephone or cell phone to speak and listen. The W3C Speech Interface Framework currently consists of five separate languages that fit together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle to specify all aspects of a speech application. VoiceXML, the most important of these languages, is a dialog language that controls the exchange of information between the user and the computer. Just as Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator browsers enable users to interact with information in the World Wide Web by viewing, clicking, and typing, a VoiceXML browser enables users to interact with information by listening and speaking.

Menus
Menus are one of the two dialogs supported by VoiceXML. Like their visual counterpart in HTML, verbal menus present choices to the user who responds by selecting a choice. VoiceXML menus present a verbal message called a prompt to the user that often enumerates available choices. The user indicates the desired choice by either speaking the choice or by pressing the buttons on a touchtone telephone or cell phone. Developers use one or more VoiceXML menus to enable the user to narrow his or her request by “navigating” to the desired information. This lesson presents the syntax of the VoiceXML <menu> and <choice> elements.