There are some new features in VoiceThread Assignments! 

New features were added to VoiceThread Assignments at the end of September and we would like to share them with faculty. These features enhance the functionality of VoiceThread Assignments to allow increased flexibility for submissions, due dates, and commenting. New features are available in Blackboard now and as you create new assignments.

Separate close and due dates + late submissions

When building an assignment, you can now set both a due date and a close date. This enables you to continue making the assignment available to students even after the due date passes. It will only become unavailable after the close date.

Additionally, students can submit after the due date has passed, and their submissions will be marked as "Late" on your grading page so you can decide whether to deduct any credit for missing the due date.

Replying to comments after submitting

After students submit a commenting assignment, you might want them to go back and reply to classmates to keep the conversation going. Now they can use the threaded reply option to continue the conversation even if they've submitted and received a grade. The image below illustrates how a student can make a reply comment even after submitting successfully.

Slide requirements

Create and comment assignments can require students to add a specific number of slides before they can submit. Set this requirement in the same place you set a required number of comments.

New location for importing from other VoiceThreads

Previously the option for importing slides from other VoiceThreads was inside the Media Sources option. Now it is available right on the main slide import page to make it easier to find and faster to use.

Other recent updates

Just in case you missed these other great updates from the last couple of months, these have also been added since June:

• Hands-off course copying: If you use a learning management system that supports automatic copying of LTI-integrated links, all of your student submissions and comments will be removed from your assignments automatically each time you copy the course to re-use it.
• Watch assignment feedback: If students are completing a "Watch a VoiceThread" assignment, they can access a detailed list of which slides or comments they haven't yet viewed or listened to completely.
• Caption editing: You can now edit closed captions in the Assignment Builder and in the student view. Note that you can't do this in the grader yet, but that's coming soon.
  Bonus: This means you can create and edit closed captions in VT Universal now, too!
• Maximum comment requirement: Rather than setting only a minimum or exact number of comments required on a VoiceThread, you can set a maximum number of comments students can record.
• Selecting comments to include: When building a commenting or watch assignment and selecting a VoiceThread you've already created, you can also choose which comments you want to include in this fresh instance.

Shifting to teaching in online and hybrid formats has created opportunities to identify how students can share multimedia projects and receive feedback through peer critique. While various tools support multimedia, faculty often wonder what tools can enhance asynchronous peer engagement for multimedia projects and how to use these tools with Blackboard.

UMBC community members have used asynchronous tools like VoiceThread for multimedia engagement. VoiceThread is a learning tool for enhancing student engagement and online presence. With VoiceThread, instructors and students can create, share, and comment on images, Microsoft PowerPoint presentations, videos, audio files, documents, and PDFs, using text, a microphone, webcam, phone, and audio-file upload. 

The VoiceThread platform supported communication between presenters and visitors at conferences like URCAD, USM LSAMP, and SURF. In addition, faculty incorporate VoiceThread in Blackboard to share lectures, presentations, and student work. The most recent feature for VoiceThread in Blackboard, VoiceThread Assignments, creates a new level of integration between student work, collaboration, and Blackboard.

Kristen Anchor, Lecturer, Media and Communication Studies (MCS), uses VoiceThread Assignments in her MCS courses. She devised several innovative approaches to manage and facilitate media project assignments, peer learning, and peer critique. For Anchor, peer critique is an integral part of the learning and creative process. She explains to students, "Critique is helpful for two reasons: (1) Getting feedback on your work, and (2) practicing your visual and communication skills about media (as the critic)." How can instructors design online courses with asynchronous components to support this essential student interaction? Anchor finds VoiceThread helps students achieve course goals and meets the instructional need to support multimedia projects and peer engagement.

Anchor thoughtfully delivers VoiceThread assignments by providing students with assignment instructions and reference guides for using VoiceThread. She presents students with assignment instructions within Blackboard and again after they launch the VoiceThread Assignment. Students receive project examples as references with their assignment instructions. Anchor uses the VoiceThread Student Gallery for each project, an optional feature that faculty can select when creating a VoiceThread Assignment, to support peer critique.

The Student Gallery feature makes peer critique in VoiceThread possible; it allows students to see submissions from their peers and add audio, video, and text-based comments, allowing for asynchronous peer feedback sessions.

Kristen Anchor will share her excellent ideas about using VoiceThread to support student projects and engagement, along with tips, tricks, and thoughts for faculty considering adopting VoiceThread for their instruction moving forward. Please register and join us Thursday, October 21st, at Noon to learn more.

~ By Josh Abrams