By Jennifer Bland
Are you looking for a way to engage students in your online and hybrid courses? Look no further than VoiceThread! VoiceThread is an interactive presentation tool that is available as an integrated tool in Blackboard. It will allow you and your students to create presentations with slides, images, documents, and videos. Students can narrate their presentation and post it in the course for all course members to view and comment with voice, video, or text. Think of VoiceThread as a super-charged discussion board!
VoiceThread allows you multiple ways to connect with your students and for students to connect with each other. The multiple conversation options allow for increased accessibility and access. And, like a discussion board, it’s asynchronous, so you can talk with each other at any time! We have all felt alone in an online course before. VoiceThread lets students know they are not alone and students and instructors make connections with one another.
If you have been using VoiceThread, you will be interested in their latest updates:
- The new Assignment Builder option allows you to set up your assignment in VoiceThread with your preferences, sends students to an assignments page with directions and easy-to-find record buttons, and a Student Gallery so they can respond to their peers’ posts. You can also grade within VoiceThread now and send the grade back to Blackboard!
- You can now send reminders to students who have not submitted their assignment in VoiceThread yet as well as see a list of students who have completed or have not completed the assignment. Check the assignment page in VoiceThread to find this information!
- Course Copying has improved! Now when you copy a Blackboard course with VoiceThread assignments, the assignments are copied over and will include the instructor’s starter posts!
- Instructors can choose how they would like to structure the grade on the assignment. You can use percentage, points, or complete/incomplete now!
- Students now see a list of requirements that instructors set while they are working so they can make sure they are including all the proper information in their submissions.
- Instructors can set a minimum number of slides students to submit as well as how students comment: by webcam, microphone, telephone, or text. Any options you do not select will not appear when students are creating their submissions.
- And many others! To see the other updates, review the VoiceThread 2022 Roadmap.
Note: You will need to select Enable Evaluation in Original Course View and Create Gradebook entry for this item in Ultra Course View first before opening VoiceThread to configure your assignment and settings. Visit VoiceThread’s Adding Activity to a Blackboard Course page (find VoiceThread under Tools) for more information.
Check out the VoiceThread Workshops page for more information on upcoming webinars and past recordings.
For help implementing VoiceThread or any other tool in Blackboard, contact the Center for Academic Innovation and Faculty Support at academicinnovation@uscupstate.edu .