- What is Voicethread?
- Why use Voicethread?
- What can Voicethread replace?
- What browsers work best with Voicethread
- Why doesn't Voicethread connect from within Blackboard?
- I cannot see student submission for grading?
- I clicked on a Voicethread link, and now I see a page titled "Voicethread Account Verification"?
- What does it mean to receive this error message, "The authentication failed; the signature on your request did not match the expected value"?
- My student's comment is playing over my video/audio.
- Audio quality changes when using Voicethread from Chrome.
- Additional Resources
What is Voicethread?
Voicethread is a tool that can allow you to have a conversation around media. It can be used to facilitate multimedia-based discussions and presentations.
Why use Voicethread?
This tool gives instructors a different approach to present content to their students and provides a new platform to have a class discussion with a different form of assessment.
What can Voicethread replace?
Voicethread can be used to replace the following:
- Text-based ice-breakers and student introductions
- Voice-over Powerpoint
- Text-based discussion boards
- In-class student presentations
What browsers work best with Voicethread
Currently Chrome and Firefox are the best browsers to use with Voicethread. These fully support all functionality.
Voicethread can be viewed in Safari and Edge broswers, but recording is not available.
For updates on this status, see
Why doesn't Voicethread connect from within Blackboard?
You’re not automatically signed in to Voicethread when you click on a VT link.
Make sure your web browser accepts third-party cookies.
I cannot see student submission for grading?
The Voicethread assignment feature now shows all students, regardless of submission status in the “Ungraded” section. A student will only not appear if they have never connected to Voicethread from one of the links in your course.
Any student that has already connected to your Voicethread course will display as either Submitted, In Progress, or Not Attempted.
I clicked on a Voicethread link, and now I see a page titled "Voicethread Account Verification"?
This means you already had a VoiceThread account under your email address, and the system is now trying to connect that existing account with your Blackboard profile. You’ll only need to complete this step once. To proceed through this page:
- Click on the link that says “Set it here” to set a verification password for your account.
- Proceed through the steps to set a password. This will involve receiving an email from VoiceThread.
- Use that password you just set on the verification page.
What does it mean to receive this error message, "The authentication failed; the signature on your request did not match the expected value"?
If the issue is isolated to a single link, the description entered by the instructor when setting up the VoiceThread link in the course likely contains a line break. Descriptions in Blackboard must be a single, continuous paragraph.
To correct this, edit the description so that it does not contain any line breaks at all.
My student's comment is playing over my video/audio.
This means that the student clicked playback while they were recording their own audio/video comment. You can contact the student to recreate their comment. You can also delete the original comment.
Audio quality changes when using Voicethread from Chrome.
When recording audio or video comments through Chrome, Voicethread can sometimes boost the microphone volume to 95%.
For Windows:
Check your sound properties by choosing Advanced from the Microphone Properties tab.
Uncheck the option that reads “Allow application to take executive control of this device”
Additional Resources
Not seeing your issue above, click here for other General Troubleshooting issues, including clearing the browser cache, recording and playback issues, file uploads, etc.