
The College of Charleston offers faculty access to Turnitin. Integrated with the OAKS Assignments/Dropbox tool, Turnitin helps assess student assignments and prevent plagiarism. Turnitin checks written assignments for plagiarism from public online sources as well as its own database of student work. It also checks for spelling and grammar mistakes.
Important Browser Information
Browser requirements
- Chrome and Firefox are fully supported. Make sure you are using the latest version.
- Microsoft Edge and Safari can be used to open and view VoiceThreads but currently cannot be used for recording audio or video. If these browsers implement support for HTML5 in the future, audio and video recording in VoiceThread may be possible.
- Internet Explorer does not support HTML5 and therefore cannot be used with VoiceThread.
Creating a Basic VoiceThread for Beginners
Basic VoiceThread for Faculty Text Tutorial
IMPORTANT NOTE FROM VOICETHREAD REGARDING YOUTUBE INTEGRATION: The YouTube integration is working now, but it’s still intermittent because we’re (VOICETHREAD) relying on a third party that seems to have some issues. We are working on an alternative that will use true YouTube embeds so we are not susceptible to this type of unreliability. The tradeoff is that we won’t be able to strip off YouTube’s ads, but it will be a much more stable solution. I’ll let you know when this is done.
Adding a VoiceThread into OAKS
Adding VoiceThreads into OAKS News, Content, Discussions, etc.
While the tutorial shows how to add a VT in Content, the same process can work in almost any tool in OAKS.
Text Tutorial | Video Tutorial | |
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Add a VoiceThread to OAKS Content | ![]() |
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updated: 12/22/22
Adding Graded VoiceThread Assignments
VoiceThread is a great tool that is integrated with OAKS (D2L/Brightspace) but few of us use it to its greatest potential. With the integration, you can quickly and easily add VoiceThreads to Content as well as ASSIGN students tasks such as to watch a VT, comment 2x on a VT, or create their own VT! The grade can then be tied right to the OAKS Grade book.
Text Tutorial | Video Tutorial | |
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Add a WATCH Assignment | ![]() |
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Add a COMMENT Assignment | ![]() |
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Add a CREATE Assignment | ![]() |
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updated: 12/22/22
Grading VoiceThread Assignments
Accessing VoiceThread for Students
Copy a VoiceThread to a New Class
Prior to 12/22, VoiceTheads copied between OAKS courses had to be relinked. After 12/18/22, there is a new way to add VTs to OAKS so this is no longer the case. If you copy the VoiceThreads properly, you will not have to relink the assignments.
NOTE: This only works if you have added the VTs using the new method.
Text Tutorial | Video Tutorial | |
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Copy a VoiceThread to a New Class | ![]() |
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updated: 12/22/22
Creating a Collaborative Class VoiceThread Assignment
Creating an assignment where students add their own slide to a collective VoiceThread
We normally use VoiceThread (VT) to record lectures and occasionally allow students to comment or ask questions. But what about creating a single VT where all your students actually contribute the content? For example, instead of having every student create their own VoiceThread to introduce themselves, create one VT where each student contributes a slide. It’s easy to set it up so that students can edit the VT!
Suggested Uses:
- Online discussion board
- Class introductions
- Foreign language practice
- Reflection
- Social Learning
- Hear multiple ways of solving a problem
Comment Moderation and Private Replies
One of the settings you’ll find when looking at a VoiceThread’s playback settings is Moderate Comments. Comment Moderation makes other people’s comments invisible to everyone except the VoiceThread’s creator or someone who’s been granted editing rights.
Types of Media Available in VoiceThread
Media Sources – allows you to use images already on the web.
- No one file can be larger than 25MB for students (basic account).
- You can add the following:
- images – .jpg, .gif, .png, .bmp
- audio – .mp3, .wav
- video – .mp4 (h.264, 600x 450 is recommended)
- documents – .doc/.docx, .pdf, .xls/.xlsx
- presentations – .ppt/.pptx, .pdf
- links to web files
- recorded video from your webcam
- My VoiceThreads – allows you to reuse images that are part of one of your other VoiceThreads previously created.
- Flickr – allows you to use images you have already posted to Flickr. Note: it only allows you to view photos that are part of a set in Flickr.
- Google Drive – allows you to use files stored in your CofC Google Drive.
- New York Public Library – allows you to use images already uploaded and used in a VoiceThread created by the New York Public Library.
- Zoom – allows you to import recordings from Zoom into VT (up to six months old; edits do not copy, meaning if you edited your Zoom video, those cuts are not reflected in VT [you get the entire video]). A note: if you delete the recording from Zoom.us after sharing within a VT, the video will remain in VT (it creates a copy).
- Kaltura – Clicking on Media Sources allows you to add a recording you previously created in Kaltura.
- Click Kaltura
- Click Owned by me This is the ONLY option you will see any recordings.
- Click on the Kaltura recording you want to use and click Import
- Click OK
- Click X in upper right to close the Media Sources page . Here you will see the VoiceThread processing that recording.
IMPORTANT UPDATE ON YOUTUBE INTEGRATION FROM VOICETHREAD: The YouTube integration is working now (11/12/20), but it’s still intermittent because we’re (VOICETHREAD) relying on a third party that seems to have some issues. We are working on an alternative that will use true YouTube embeds so we are not susceptible to this type of unreliability. The tradeoff is that we won’t be able to strip off YouTube’s ads, but it will be a much more stable solution. I’ll let you know when this is done.
Accessing VoiceThread's Accessibility Features
Automatic Closed Captions in VoiceThread Tutorial
This tutorial will cover:
- Creating CC for existing VoiceThreads made before 09/09/18
- Viewing CC in a VoiceThread
- Editing CC on VoiceThreads
- Downloading CC from VoiceThread
- Creating a transcript from a downloaded caption file
Tutorials from VoiceThread
- Closed Captioning: https://voicethread.com/howto/closed-captioning/
- Full-screen mode: https://voicethread.com/howto/full-screen-mode/
- VoiceThread Universal (for screen readers): https://voicethread.com/howto/voicethread-universal/
- Zooming: https://voicethread.com/howto/zooming/
Automatic Closed Captions for VoiceThreads
Using VoiceThread on Mobile Devices
Troubleshooting VoiceThread
You can visit the CofC Knowledge Base and search for VoiceThread to access all of the articles to help you diagnose any issues you are having.
You can also visit the troubleshooting videos created by the VoiceThread company
- Clearing your browser cache: https://voicethread.com/howto/clearing-the-browser-cache/
- Comment could not be processed: https://voicethread.com/howto/comment-could-not-be-processed/
- Enabling cookies and local storage: https://voicethread.com/howto/enabling-cookies/
- File upload issues: https://voicethread.com/howto/file-upload-issues/
- Save PowerPoint presentations as PDFs: http://bit.ly/ppts2pdfs
- VoiceThreads are not loading: https://voicethread.com/howto/voicethreads-are-not-loading/
Tutorials from VoiceThread
Creating: https://voicethread.com/howto-categories/creating-web-application/
Doodling: https://voicethread.com/howto-categories/doodling-web-application/
Editing: https://voicethread.com/howto-categories/editing-web-application/
Commenting: https://voicethread.com/howto/how-to-comment/
Groups and contacts: https://voicethread.com/howto-categories/groups-and-contacts/
Identities: https://voicethread.com/howto-categories/identities-web-application/
Listening to and viewing comments: https://voicethread.com/howto/listening-to-and-viewing-comments-2/
Navigating: https://voicethread.com/howto/getting-around-in-a-voicethread-2/
Notifications: https://voicethread.com/howto-categories/notifications-web-application/
Settings: https://voicethread.com/howto-categories/settings/
Sharing: https://voicethread.com/howto-categories/sharing-web-application/