Introduction

Voicethread is a versatile online platform that allows you to upload images, slides, videos, or PDFs and engage in dynamic, asynchronous discussions through audio, video, or text annotations. Voicethread is best used for interactive demos, class lectures, video announcements, and collaborative student projects. 

Logging In to Voicethread

Logging In Using the Website

To get started: go to https://umaryland.voicethread.com and log in with your UMID and Duo.

You will then need to verify the account via email. Launch Outlook and respond to the Voicethread email.

Logging in using Blackboard

If you have not yet connected your Voicethread account to Blackboard, you will need to do that for the first time.

Navigate to the Content area for your course, click on the Build Content menu, and select VoiceThread. You will be taken to a new browser tab. To learn more about the Blackboard Interface and options available, please visit the Voicethread in Blackboard page in our knowledgebase.

If you have an existing personal Voicethread account with a UMB email address, you will be asked to verify your account via email. Click the VERIFY BY EMAIL button.

You will then need to verify the account via email. Launch Outlook and respond to the Voicethread email.

When complete, you will be taken to the main Voicethread in Blackboard page.

Understanding the Classic Voicethread Interface

The Voicethread Classic interface looks like the image below. On the left hand side of the screen, you have four tabs: All, Groups, Courses and Threadboxes. For this instruction page, we will focus only on all but Threadboxes. To learn more about Threadboxes, please visit the Voicethread Threadbox Support page

Understanding the New Voicethread Interface

The New Voicethread Interface is more universally accessible and is available for anyone to toggle on or off as they please. While the concept of Voicethread remains the same, different user interface elements are present. A dropdown arrow next to VoiceThreads replaces the tabs. Built-in help is available via the Get Started ribbon at the bottom of the screen. 

Creating a VoiceThread

The 5 basic steps of Voicethread presentations are: Prepare> Create > Add Media > Comment > Share.

Preparing Your Slides for Voicethread

If you are going to use slides in a Voicethread presentation, it is important to follow these crucial steps:

• Remove any items on your slide that will date your presentation such as: Semester and Year, Course Number etc.

• Keep specifics about assignments and exams separate from the Voicethread presentation. 

• Remove Animations or Slide Transitions

• Remove Links from your Presentation

• Remove Media from your Presentation

Saving Your Presentation as a PDF

During the Import process of a PowerPoint presentation, Voicethread will convert the presentation into static images. In many cases, it does this using a specialized approach that may not always preserve the slide content. In our experience, we have found saving the PowerPoint slide as a PDF will preserve the look and feel of the original presentation.

1. From within PowerPoint, click the File menu.

2. Click Save As

3. Choose Download as PDF

4. Your presentation will now be saved in the Downloads folder of your computer. This will be the document that you will use to upload into Voicethread.

Creating a VoiceThread (using the Classic site)

• 1. Click Add Media (plus sign) and drag your media onto the Add Media icon. Mouse over a blank thread and click the Edit icon to go into Edit mode.

  2. Drag PDFs, slides, photos, videos, etc. onto the Add Media icon, or click on the Add Media icon (or very large + sign) to see other options, such as adding by URL, webcam photo or webcam video, or other sources. Note: Webcam photo takes a still photo using your webcam, and the video option allows you to record a video for students using your webcam. If you just want to record a video of yourself speaking, use the webcam video option. Otherwise, to narrate on top of slides, click My Computer and browse to find the files/slides.

  3. If you want to include other video resources, you would choose the URL option and paste in the URL to the video. If you get an error, that site or media is not supported. (Please note that VT no longer supports importing YouTube videos this way - but you can add links to them using a text comment on any slide). 

  4. Once your slides are uploaded, it will take some time to process them. The length of time to process slides varies but can take 15 minutes or more. Once complete, click Comment to enter comment mode and then add a comment to each page with the audio and/or video narration that should be included on that slide. (See more info on recording comments below.)

  5. Keep in mind you can always come back to Edit mode to re-order, delete, add more or replace slides. This is covered below.

  6. If your group members need to add slides or comments, share and give them edit abilities. (For more information, see the section on sharing.)

  7. If you want to moderate the comments that are contributed to your slides, make certain to Enable Comment Moderation in the thread settings. Learn more about comment moderation.

  8. When your presentation is ready, share it with the class. (For more information, see the section on sharing.)

  9. Video instructions for creating a VoiceThread are available on their website. Here's a page dedicated entirely to Tips for creating a quality VoiceThread.

Creating a VoiceThread (using the New Voicethread site)

Record or Upload a WebCam Video

You can record or upload a webcam video (rather than comments on a slide) in Voicethread. (Keep in mind, this is different than adding a video comment onto a slide, which is normally smaller and off to the side of a slide.)

• 1. Go into Edit mode

  2. Click on "+Add Media"

  3. Select "WebCam Video" to record one on the fly and you will see a countdown before you begin recording. Play it back when finished to make sure it works well. 

  4. or select "My Computer" to locate a video you have already recorded and wish to upload as its own "slide"

Working with Existing VoiceThreads

Renaming a Thread

When there are blank voice threads in your account, it is a good idea to rename them to something that matches the content. 

• 1. Mouse over a blank thread and Click the Edit icon to go into Edit mode.

  2. Click edit next to the voice thread name.

3. The Thread Settings window appears. Click the Title field and type in a new name.

4. When complete, click Save.

Commenting on a VoiceThread

In VoiceThread, you can comment in several ways: using voice (with a microphone, telephone or, on pro accounts, uploaded audio file), text, or video (via a webcam).

To comment, you simply click on the (+) comment button at the bottom center of the VoiceThread page,

and then decide which type of comment you want to leave:

• • text (ABC) 

  • telephone (just put in your phone number and it will call you!)

  • audio (microphone) 

  • video (camera)

  • or the up arrow to upload an audio file as an audio comment

Click on the appropriate icon, and then follow the prompts to leave your comment. *You will need to Allow Flash to access your microphone and/or your camera. Once your comment is recorded, you will have an option to either save, cancel or record more which adds to the comment.

Deleting or Moving Comments

Comments can be deleted by clicking the trash can icon while viewing a comment.

Comments can be moved (reordered) by dragging and dropping the comment icon.

Sharing a VoiceThread

Time to get the link to share your voicethread! Whenever you need students or colleagues to view and/or add comments to your thread, you can get a link to share with them. Here's how:

1. Click the Share icon

2. Click Basic

3. Click Copy Link

4. VERY IMPORTANT STEP: Click Who has access and select Anyone can view  (or Anyone can comment if you want someone to add comments) using the pulldown menu, and click Save changes. 

1. Anyone you give the URL link to can view the VoiceThread. You can provide it to others in a discussion forum, email, or text when submitting an assignment, or paste the link into a Word document and upload that. 

2. If you are collaborating with someone from outside UMB, they, too can view and/or comment on the thread, but they will need to set up a free account at https://voicethread.com/register, verify the account, and be logged in to add comments. 

3. If someone has trouble viewing your thread, check #4 above! 

If you want to test that the link is available to students, open a new/different browser, in which you are NOT logged into Voicethread, and paste the URL into that browser to see if it plays when not logged in. You will see "sign in" in the upper right corner, rather than your email address. If you see your email address, you are already logged into Voicethread:

Sharing Securely with Edit Rights

It is possible to share with other instructors or the IDEA Team with Edit rights by doing the following:

• 1. Click the Share icon (in the far upper left 3 line hamburger) and Click the Secure tab

  2. Click the Contacts tab

  3. a. If an IDEA Team contact exists already, click it.
     3b. If it does not exist: Click the + sign to add an IDEA Team contact : Add our name and email (ideateam@ssw....) and click Save

  4. Tick the Edit icon to make it green

  5. Click the Share (blue) icon to share (and the notify by email box being checked is good too!)

Sharing a Thread with a Group

Another way to share a thread with a particular group is simply to drag a thread from the right side of your screen over the name of a group in the left column. 

You will then be presented with the option to share and/or make a copy of the thread, as well as what type of access you want to give the group: view, comment and/or edit.

If you create a thread on your own, the easiest way to share it with IDEA Team is to share or copy it to a group that we are in, and click Edit, to make sure we have Edit access to help you and your students. 

Copying a thread will also reset all the dates for attached comments to the current date.

Post into Blackboard:

First, see "Sharing a Voicethread" above, to get the link that you need to share with your students. You can add the link to your thread as a content item in a Blackboard folder known as a "web link" and paste the URL (from Sharing a Voicethread above) into that link for students to access. They do not need any special software or accounts if you have done all of the above - it should just open in their web browser like any video. Use the Build Content menu to choose "Web Link" and paste in the share URL to your thread:

OR you can embed it as a hyperlink in any text field in Blackboard: 

Another (different) way to provide the link is to just insert a hypertext link in a Blackboard item. To do this, go to the discussion forum, announcement, email tool, or item in Blackboard where you want to link to the thread. 

To insert a simple hypertext link, type the text to click on or paste the link in and highlight it, and use the link icon in the toolbar: 

You can add the link to your thread as a content item in a Blackboard folder known as a "web link" and paste the URL into that link for students to access. They do not need any special software or accounts if you have done all of the above - it should just open in their web browser like any video. Use the Build Content menu to choose "Web Link" and paste in the share URL to your thread:

Embedding Voicethread into Blackboard pages:

1. To embed the video into a Blackboard page or item, start by clicking Share in Voicethread, then Basic and Embed.

2. We suggest you change the size boxes to 640 x 360 so the embed will be a bit larger on your page.

3. Decide if you want students to be able to add comments or not - and uncheck the Comment box if not

4. Click the blue Copy Embed Code button which will copy everything in the code box to your clipboard 

Now, back in Blackboard, Edit or create the item where you want to embed the thread. 

Type in the intro text to introduce students to the presentation/concepts. This will help you locate where to paste the embed code.

Click the < > icon in the toolbar to open the HTML editor.

Now, in the HTML editor, locate the intro text you typed, and in the line below it, paste the Voicethread embed code you copied and click Save to finish.

You will then see the thread embedded in your page, and click Submit to finalize this process. 

Using Voicethread for Student Projects

Many instructors use Voicethread for student presentation individual or group-based projects. If you do so, please include something like this message with your instructions to students, so that students have the information they will need to successfully navigate to and use UMB Voicethread:

Be sure to read and use the tutorials for students on using Voicethread: (https://sites.google.com/site/sswideateam/students/voicethread-for-students)

Updating a VoiceThread Slide

Note: The below function requires EDIT access to the Voicethread. If you created it yourself, you have this. If IDEA Team created the thread for you, we may need to provide Edit access instead of just Comment access for you to be able to do this. Please email us for Edit access! Be be careful! Anything you delete is gone - there's no versioning! 

With EDIT access, you can update either the slides or the comments on VoiceThreads at any time. Let's say you have a narrated slide with a typo and want to only replace the slide, but keep the audio comment. Here's how:

Part 1: Preparing the updated slides:

• 1. Correct the slide in PowerPoint (please use the application, not your web browser)

  2. Click File menu and pull down to: Save as - pictures then click Options - At the bottom, select Save current slide only; Select a Format (the default, JPEG will work fine.) and click OK.

  3. PC Powerpoint: Export > Create PDF/XPS Document > Options > put in the slides (from 1 : 1 or etc.) to select only 1 slide to export.. click OK. Click Publish. 

  4. OR if you don't see Save as > Pictures - do File > Export and change the Format pulldown menu from PDF to JPEG, then select Current Slide Only.

  5. The Save as field may still have the original name of your slide set - we recommend you append the number of the slide to the end of that name. For example: courseintroduction-slide15

  6. Note Where it is saving. (We recommend the desktop.)

  7. Click Save.

Repeat for any slides you wish to update

• 1. Now, to VoiceThread:

  2. Log in to Voicethread

  3. Click VT Home and locate the thread you wish to update. (It may show up under Shared with Me if your ID set up the VoiceThread, or you may need to search for it using the box in the upper left.)

  4. Mouse over the VT and select Edit

  5. Mouse over the slide you wish to update and click the Pencil icon.

• 1. Click Replace at the top of the image in the center of your screen

If there are already comments on the slide, click Yes to upload a new slide but keep the comments. (You can always replace comments later)

Select the individual updated slide file you saved above and click Save.

Student Introductions and Comments: Copying for Each Semester

Many instructors use Voicethread as an ice breaker and great way to have students introduce themselves to each other asynchronously, because they can do so on their own time, BUT can use audio and video so you can hear their voice and see their face/body language. This also makes VT a great tool for asynchronous role playing, scenario responses or simulated cases. 

However, it is not possible to re-use the same student introduction threads from year to year, they need to be Copied and reset with a new link for each semester or year. You cannot simply delete old comments from students and re-use the same link each semester, because students from previous semesters will both receive email notifications of the new messages AND be able to see new student responses in classes in which the old students are not enrolled. Therefore, we ask all instructors who use VT for student introductions or student comment interaction, to copy/duplicate and replace all such VT links with new ones, each semester. The IDEA Team will assist you with this process. Please reach out at least 2-3 weeks prior to the semester to have this set up. 

Please note that threads which are "view only" and which do not include student comments (such as lecture recordings, video recordings, or other media that students only view) do NOT need to be copied and reset each semester, and can continue to be re-used with the same links in your Blackboard course.