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.  

 Comment Moderation is:

  • A way to monitor students’ remarks or participation privately
  • A way to limit the visibility of people’s comments to other viewers
  • A means of privately assessing student comments
  • A means of filtering content (particularly on publicly shared VoiceThreads)

Once comment moderation is turned on, all new comments will be hidden from other viewers. The creator of the thread will still see and hear the comments, but the comment will have a closed eye icon in its speech bubble. You can make any individual comment visible to the class simply by clicking on the “closed eye” icon while the comment plays. 

If you want to give private feedback to a student, you can click on the lock icon and then choose your commenting method. (This looks just like threaded replies, except your threaded conversation is private and hidden from the rest of the class.)

Only you and the person to whom you are replying will see your Private reply.

Private Replies:

The private reply feature allows you to start a private, two-way conversation with someone who has commented on a VoiceThread.  Private comments are represented by a round Identity image with a padlock icon.  

To start a new private conversation or add to an existing one, click on the private reply button inside a person’s comment window.  It looks like a padlock.

You’ll then see your own Identity image appear as a preview in the conversation channel so you can see where the comment will be inserted, and you’ll see the name of the person to whom you are replying in the comment fan at the bottom of the VoiceThread.  Select the option you want to use, and then record your comment normally.

After you have saved your comment, you’ll see that new comment appear in the conversation channel.  As you and the other person in your private conversation interact, you’ll see that conversation connected by a white line.  No one else will be able to see this conversation.