Create a Presentation

What can I do with VoiceThread?

VoiceThread allows you to create presentations with audio or video narration. You can add many types of media to your presentation’s slides, including images, documents, and video.

VoiceThread is a web-based application, so presentations you create in it can be played on the web and are therefore viewable on any computer or mobile device. You won't have to upload or share a file so that others can see your presentation.

Also, VoiceThread is interactive. Once you’ve shared your presentation, you can allow viewers to add comments to its slides through audio, video, or text. Basically, you can receive feedback, answer questions, and hold a discussion right within your presentation.

Creating your Presentation

Creating a presentation with VoiceThread is a simple, 3-step process:

  1. add media (files, images, video, etc.);
  2. record comments and annotations; and
  3. share your presentation.

This short video, which was created by VoiceThread, walks you through all 3 of these steps. However, note that the last step, sharing, will be a bit different if you'll be sharing your presentation with a group your instructor created for your class.

Advanced Options

You can find more detailed information on creating a presentation in VoiceThread in the Creating section of its support site, including importing copyright-free images and video from external sources like YouTube, Flickr, Khan Academy, and others.

Note that VoiceThread has different "Creating a New VoiceThread" guides for its website and mobile app.

Sharing your Presentation

If your instructor has created a group for your class in VoiceThread, you'll need to share your presentation with your group, then embed it or link to it in a discussion thread in Blackboard.

Publication Options

By default, all VoiceThread presentations are set to “private,” which means they’ll only be visible if you share them with a group or an individual person.

If you want someone outside of your class to be able to access your presentation, you’ll need to change its publication status. However, even if you select the “Anyone can comment” or “Anyone can view” publication option, your presentation won’t show up in search results. Someone will need to have the direct link to your presentation to find it.

Working in a VoiceThread Group

This video walks you through how navigate to your group in VoiceThread and three different ways to share a presentation with your group.

Sharing a Presentation in Blackboard

In some cases, your instructor will require that you share your VoiceThread presentation as a thread in a Blackboard discussion forum. You can add your VoiceThread to a thread in two ways: via a link or embed it right within your thread.

Link to a presentation

When you share a link to your presentation, anyone who clicks on it will view it in a new page in VoiceThread, not within Blackboard.

  1. Get the share link for your presentation.
  2. Navigate to the discussion forum where you'll be sharing your presentation in Blackboard.
  3. Add text for the link to your presentation, i.e., its title, in the "Message" textbox.
  4. Highlight the text, then click the link button in the toolbar.
  5. Paste the link to your presentation in the "Link Path" textbox.
  6. Select Open in New Window (_blank) on the "Target" dropdown menu.
  7. Click the Insert button. The text in your thread should now be a hyperlink.

Embed a presentation

You can paste an embed code for your presentation in the textbox for a discussion thread in Blackboard. Then, once you post your thread, your presentation will be viewable right within the Blackboard discussion forum.

To copy your presentation’s embed code,

  1. Hover over its thumbnail in your VoiceThread account until a set of icons appears.
  2. Click the arrow icon at the bottom of the thumbnail, which opens sharing settings.
  3. Click the Basic tab in the Share window.
  4. Click the Embed link on the left side of the window.
  5. Click the Copy Embed Code button. An embed code for your presentation will now be saved to your clipboard, and you can paste it into your discussion thread in Blackboard.

To paste the embed code in your discussion thread,

  1. Create a thread in the discussion forum in Blackboard.
  2. Click the HTML button on the bottom-right side of the "Message" textbox's toolbar. The "HTML code view" window will open.
  3. Paste your presentation's embed code in this window (i.e., click CTRL + V on a PC or Command + V on a Mac).
  4. Click the Update button at the bottom-right side of the window. The window will close, and a blank box, which is a placeholder for your presentation, will appear in the "Message" textbox. Once you submit your thread, your presentation will appear in place of the blank box.