When students click to open your VoiceThread, they should see the opening slide first with a comment bubble at the bottom of the slide.
Once students click that comment bubble the VoiceThread commenting fan will open. If you, as the instructor, allow your students to text comment they would click the icon “ABC.”
A text box will then open, allowing them to type their comment or response to VoiceThread. They must click the blue “Save” button at the bottom right corner of this text box in order to save their comment. They can go back and edit it before they submit their assignment if they choose.
Once students have hit the “Save” button, they will be able to view their comment in the VoiceThread. The pencil icon in the VoiceThread box to the left of the screen allows them to edit their comment before they’re finished. The trash can icon next to the pencil allows them to delete the comment if the student wants to start over.
Once the student completes their comment, and they have fulfilled the instructor’s requirements (listed to the left of the VoiceThread slide) for this VoiceThread commenting assignment, then they must click the big blue “Submit Assignment” button in the top right corner of their VoiceThread window. If they do not click “Submit Assignment,” then the assignment has technically not been completed.
This screen will show up in the Instructor View only. This is a side bar along the screen after you open up your VoiceThread assignment through the link in Blackboard. Instructors can see who has submitted and who has not submitted the assignment here. The only option that instructors are capable of doing for the “Not Submitted” students through the VoiceThread integration is to “Remind all students” via email of their VoiceThread assignment, or the instructor can click on individual names to remind students to complete the assignment on time.
This is the same Instructor View only screen as before except with a student that has completed the assignment. You can choose to grade these students by alphabetical order or reverse alphabetically only by clicked the ‘AZ’ and down arrow symbol to the right of the screen.
By clicking the student’s name, the instructor will be able to see all the comments submitted by that student. The instructor can choose to play them in whatever order desired, or listen to the chronologically as the VoiceThread starts to play. By clicking the “0” next to the student’s name, you can submit their grade after listening to the comments. Remember, VoiceThread grades on a scale of 1-100, so if your assignment is worth 50 points in the grade book, do not put the score of 50 as the student’s grade in VoiceThread. That 50 will translate to a 50%, not 50 out of 50.
Below is a screen shot of a student making a 100%, which was recorded in the Grade Center as 15 out of 15. VoiceThread will notify you, via a little green bar with a check mark saying “Grade saved,” when the grade has been successfully entered through VoiceThread and entered in the Grade Center.