This is a guest post by educator and VoiceThreader Dr. Raelynne M. Hale.
Interactive Weekly Lectures through VoiceThread
The second type of VoiceThread that I use on a regular basis in my fully online, asynchronous courses is an interactive lecture. This lecture includes informational slides that I narrate to teach students about new topics as well as interaction slides where students are asked to leave text, audio, or video comments. Students may be asked to contemplate a question and to type a personal response, or they may be asked to participate in a class discussion where they share an original view or listen to another classmate’s ideas and elaborate on their thoughts.
It is important to note that these types of student-to-student interactions work best when the students have met one another within the online course and the instructor has created an open learning environment by inviting them in and creating community in the online classroom - such as through an Introduce Yourself VoiceThread or other Ice-breaker style activities during the first week of class.
The goals of an interactive weekly lecture are to:
Have students see my face, hear my voice, and overall, add some human to the online world
Introduce and expand on content students have read or learned on their own in another format (audio-video)
Provide a space for students to reflect on the new topics and provide their ideas (through text and audio-video comments)
Provide a space for students to hear other students’ ideas and perspectives (through reading text comments made by their peers on interaction slides or listening to audio-video comments posted by their peers on discussion slides)
Provide a space to give class-wide feedback (through the instructor leaving public posts and comments to expand discussions and clarify ideas)
Create a sense of community where students learn together and not in isolation
Small Group Discussions on VoiceThread - A Few Examples
Something else that I wanted to replicate in the online environment were my rich classroom discussions. I loved having discussions with my classes and listening in on their small group discussions as I walked through the classroom answering questions and facilitating. Online, the classic text-only post-and-reply-to-2-peers discussion board just wasn’t producing the types of discussions I was hoping for. So, I got creative.
One way that I did this was by creating different slides for each discussion topic and assigning students to particular slides. This worked great and I could organize the groups each time to help students hear from and interact with different students.
However, I also wanted students to have some autonomy and pick discussion topics they were interested in, so I began creating VoiceThreads with numbered discussion questions and maximum student limits. For example, if I had a class of 30, I would create six different discussion slides and set the discussion limit to five students per discussion question. Students would select a slide to participate on and would leave their original post, replies, expansion to replies, and thank you messages all on the slide they chose. At the end of the two-week discussion period, they were invited to listen to the other discussions if they would like, but it was not required. This style resulted in wonderful back-and-forth discussions between students, but always took two weeks to facilitate in the online environment.
Finally, I settled on a blend of these styles. I would have students select a reading or artifact from our textbook or course materials and then they would participate on the corresponding slide in the VoiceThread. I facilitated the discussion and always made sure students had groupmates to discuss with and it worked really well! Students enjoyed being able to select topics they were interested in and the discussion thrived.
Pro Tip: When creating discussions in an online environment, make sure to set up multiple, regular deadlines each week. For example, a typical schedule for my courses is shown below:
Post original comments to the discussion by Tuesday at Midnight
Post a reply to one peer in your discussion by Thursday at Midnight
Make sure to reply to peers who do not have replies already first
Next week, post a reply to anyone who responded to your original comment by Tuesday at Midnight
Listen to the expansion comments made by your peers on your replies and leave a wrap-up and thank you message by Thursday at Midnight
As one may notice, these back-and-forth discussions take time in an online environment. Something that may have taken 30 minutes in a classroom, take two weeks to facilitate in an online environment and lots of organization and follow-up by the instructor.
These group discussions are what have made my online courses more meaningful and are often the things students enjoy the most and comment that they learned the most from in the course. It is also often the reason that students feel they have gotten to know their classmates and feel less isolated when taking online courses.
Stay tuned for part 3 in this series to learn more of the ways I use VoiceThread to engage with my students!
About the Author:
Dr. Raelynne M. Hale is a Teaching Assistant Professor at Kansas State University. You can connect with her on social media at:
This is a guest post by educator and VoiceThreader Dr. Raelynne M. Hale.
When I began redesigning my courses online in 2018, I longed for a way for them to be interactive, engaging, and fun like my in-person courses. I wanted to make sure that students could see and hear one another each week and that they could interact with the content and me, while having the feel of being “in class” despite being on the other side of a computer screen.
I wanted students to gain a sense of community and to experiment with the course content (and in many cases with the target language they were learning) with other students and not just through auto-graded activities with their textbooks. I wanted them to share their experiences, thoughts, and ideas, and to hear other students’ stories too.
It took a long time and a lot of experimenting with many platforms and tools, but I found one that really took my asynchronous courses to the next level - VoiceThread!
With VoiceThread, educators can create a presentation with multimedia slides, record comments via audio, webcam, or text on each slide, then share it with their students. They can then decide how students interact with the presentation. There are currently four different assignment types:
students can be assigned to participate on a number of slides by leaving audio, video, or text comments and replies and will not be able to submit until they have left the required comments;
students can also be assigned to add additional narrated slides that they have created to the original presentation;
students can be assigned to simply watch the presentation their instructor has created and VoiceThread will only allow them to submit once the presentation and every slide and narration has been viewed;
students can be assigned to create their own presentations and share it with their classmates, who can interact with those presentations too!
But I want to share how I have used the platform in creative ways to encourage student-to-student engagement in my courses - from lower-level Spanish language courses to graduate-level courses in translation and Environmental History.
For a quick overview of how I use VoiceThread in engaging ways, you can watch the short video presentation that I prepared for California State University, Fullerton’s Online Education Training department when I was awarded the Virtual & Online Innovations and Curricular Enhancements (VOICE) Award in 2022.
VOICE Award Winner 2022 - Raelynne Hale - VoiceThread Engagement Activities
I will share more ideas over the next few posts, starting with the example below. I have provided a short explanation about the VoiceThread style, why I chose it, and how I set it up so that you can create your own engaging online lectures as well! Please feel free to use my materials as inspiration but do make them your own by adding your own personality and videos as authenticity is important in creating an online community and encouraging students to participate.
Creating Community - ¡Preséntate! Introduce yourself on VoiceThread!
This VoiceThread serves three main purposes:
Introduce Yourself to Students
Introduce Students to the VoiceThread Tool
Have Students Introduce Themselves to Each Other
During week one of each online course, I have students participate in a special VoiceThread where they will watch my tutorial and introduction slides, then create, add, and narrate their own introductory slide, and then return to watch their peers’ slides and leave replies to peers.
This VoiceThread really helps to create community and students have said that they really feel like they are welcomed to the course, get to know their classmates, and feel less alone in the online environment.
*Pro Tip: *This VoiceThread can be used in any course, at any level, and with any size class! If you have more than 30 students in a class, think about breaking the class into groups of 10 or 15 and having those small groups participate in a VoiceThread of their own. This way, you create community, but do not overwhelm yourself or the other students by having 100s of students participating on one VoiceThread.
(*Note: Student slides and comments have been removed to protect students’ identities in all of the VoiceThread example links on this post.)\
Stay tuned for parts 2 and 3 in this series to learn more of the ways I use VoiceThread to engage with my students.
About the Author:
Dr. Raelynne M. Hale is a Teaching Assistant Professor at Kansas State University. You can connect with her on social media at:
The quote above is from Paul Lockhart’s essay A Mathematician’s Lament. In the essay, Lockhart argues that the way mathematics is taught in schools is often ineffective and uninspiring. He believes that students should be encouraged to think creatively and to explore mathematical concepts for themselves. He also argues that discussion is an essential part of learning mathematics, as it allows students to share their ideas and to learn from each other.
VoiceThread can be a valuable tool for math teachers, because this is exactly what VoiceThread was designed to do: offer various ways to engage students through discussion, facilitate problem-solving, and promote mathematical thinking. Here are just some of the ways VoiceThread can be used in online math courses.
Problem Solving Discussions: Teachers can upload math problems or equations to VoiceThread and ask students to provide their solutions or explanations. Students can respond with voice, webcam, or text comments, sharing their thought processes, strategies, and reasoning. This encourages critical thinking, collaboration, and the exploration of different problem-solving approaches.
Visual Representations: VoiceThread allows for the uploads of images, diagrams, graphs, and videos too. Math teachers can upload visual representations of mathematical concepts, such as geometric figures, coordinate planes, or data charts. Students can analyze and discuss these visuals, identifying patterns, making connections, and applying mathematical concepts by using the Doodle Tool to annotate on the slides.
Math Explanations and Tutorials: Students can create math explanations and tutorials using VoiceThread. They can record their voice or add text comments to explain mathematical concepts, demonstrate problem-solving steps, or provide examples. This allows for peer-to-peer learning, reinforces understanding, and develops communication and instructional skills.
Math Discussions and Debates: VoiceThread enables asynchronous math discussions and debates. Teachers can pose math-related questions or prompts, and students can respond with their voice, webcam, or text comments, engaging in meaningful discussions. This encourages students to justify their mathematical reasoning, consider alternative perspectives, and deepen their understanding of mathematical concepts.
Math Investigations and Projects: VoiceThread can support math investigations and projects. Students can upload their work, such as data sets, graphs, or mathematical models, and explain their findings or conclusions through voice, webcam, or text comments. This allows for the sharing of research, collaboration, and the presentation of mathematical concepts in a multimedia format.
Math Reflections and Self-Assessment: VoiceThread can be used for math reflections and self-assessment. Students can record their reflections on their math learning, discussing their strengths, challenges, and areas for improvement. They can also assess their own work by providing voice or text comments on their solutions or mathematical reasoning.
These are just a few examples of how VoiceThread can be used by math teachers. The platform’s multimedia capabilities, interactive features, and collaborative nature make it a versatile tool for enhancing math instruction, promoting student engagement, and fostering mathematical thinking and communication.
This fall, VoiceThreaders will be able to try out the brand new VoiceThread! The core experience will not change, so VoiceThread will still do everything you already do now, and it will have a fresh new look along with some powerful new features. It has also been built from the ground up with accessibility in mind.
Some highlights of that new experience include:
A single experience accessible to everyone, including screen reader users
Redesign of the VT Home Page to match the design of integrated assignments and the mobile app
Fresh visual update to the media player to streamline, modernize, and enable support for new features
A few new features:
Increased control of comment playback through the conversation channel
Bulk actions on comments (delete, reveal moderated comments)
True transcripts for captioned content
Ability to pan while zoomed in and commenting
On top of being a massive usability and accessibility boost, this will pave the way for lots of new features in the coming months.
Speaking and listening are a big part of what Language Teachers do in face to face classrooms, but it can be difficult to replicate these activities in online courses. So many online courses silence student voices and that is a big problem for language teachers. VoiceThread can be the solution to this problem because it humanizes the online learning experience for students. Here are six ways VoiceThread can be used in language teaching:
Speaking Practice: VoiceThread allows students to practice their speaking skills by recording comments in the target language using audio or webcam comments. You can create prompts or questions related to the language topics being studied, and students can respond with their recorded answers. This provides an opportunity for students to practice pronunciation, fluency, and oral communication skills.
Listening Comprehension: You can record or upload audio and video slides and then ask students to listen and respond with their comments. Students can answer specific questions, summarize the content, or engage in discussions related to what they heard. This helps develop listening comprehension skills and encourages active, authentic engagement without the stress of live conversations.
Pronunciation and Intonation Practice: VoiceThread allows you to provide targeted feedback on students’ pronunciation and intonation. Students can record their spoken responses, and teachers can respond with voice or text comments, offering guidance, corrections, and suggestions for improvement. This personalized feedback can help students refine their pronunciation skills. You can respond directly to each student using the Threaded Reply feature.
Oral Presentations: VoiceThread can be used for student presentations in the target language. Students can create multimedia presentations by uploading slides, images, or videos and adding their voice narration. This allows them to practice their presentation skills, demonstrate their understanding of the topic, and receive feedback from both the teacher and peers.
Collaborative Projects: VoiceThread facilitates collaborative language learning projects. Students can work together on a shared VoiceThread, adding their voice or text comments to contribute to a discussion, debate, or group project. This promotes collaboration, critical thinking, and communication skills in the target language.
Cultural Exploration: VoiceThread can be used to explore and discuss cultural topics related to the target language. Teachers can upload images, videos, or articles that represent different aspects of the culture, and students can share their observations, ask questions, and engage in cross-cultural discussions through their comments.
These are just a few examples of how VoiceThread can be used by language teachers, but you can transform any of your current lesson and assessment ideas into VoiceThreads. The ability to use multimedia slides, interactive commenting, and the power to provide personalized, human feedback make VoiceThread a versatile tool for enhancing language learning and promoting communication for any languages that you teach.
2023 was a huge building year for us, and 2024 will be one where we can start adding great new stuff on top of the new scaffold. We’re excited to let you know what’s on the horizon!
2023 in Review
New VoiceThread
New VoiceThread is here, and we’re very excited! This is a major enhancement that will significantly increase human connectedness for both students and educators with its new accessibility features, a simplified design, and some significant new affordances.
For the next 5 months, we will be helping each institution make the transition to New VoiceThread on their own terms and timeline. You can flip the switch for your users any time between now and June 30, 2024.
To help you plan this transition, we’ve developed a number of supportive tools, from training materials and webinars to customized training sessions. To get you started, we have built a VoiceThread room to collaborate with you. The room starts off with a succinct 8 min overview, and because it’s a VoiceThread, we can always add more slides to help answer any questions you come up with. You can also read a full breakdown of the new features here.
To try it out now on your own personal account, just go to your display preferences page and select “New VoiceThread.” We’re big fans of self-paced change, so you can also go back to the same place to switch back to the legacy version of VoiceThread any time. Legacy VoiceThread will be supported until summer 2024.
New login options
Logging in isn’t exciting, but it’s enormously important! Smooth access is key to success, and more thought and work goes into that than you might think. In 2023 we introduced a redesign of our core login page to make it simpler for people to get where they need to go, as well as introduce a “Sign in with Apple” and “Sign in with Google” option for people wanting to access individual accounts without creating a separate password.
Assignments updates
Graded assignments are a powerful way to ask your students to complete specific tasks and receive a grade right in your LMS. This year we introduced the ability to grade students who haven’t begun to do any work (because sometimes you’ll want a policy of zero for this outcome, but sometimes not) and updated the watch assignment to help students see exactly which slides and comments they still need to watch in order to receive credit.
What's Next?
We have lots of great stuff on the horizon! And this year, we’re breaking down our plans a little differently. We have some things that we’re definitely working on this year and then some things that we really hope to finish by the end of the year but can’t yet be sure. Those less definite items are labeled “Bonus” below.
Full rollout of new VT
You already know that the new VoiceThread experience is available to everyone. You can transition over to that new version any time between now and June 30. If you haven’t opted into the new version by that date, we’ll be switching you over automatically.
Accessibility Updates
Dark mode: For people who need or prefer a dark background.
New in-line hinting workflow for new commenters.
Bonus: Ability to edit captioning chunk timings and create new ones.
Bonus: Overhaul of the “Manager” for license admins to have full screen reader and keyboard accessibility.
Content Management
Delete, edit, and share VoiceThreads in bulk
New button in comment window to copy a link to a specific comment
New activity feed that includes more than just comments
Drag-and-drop to share VoiceThreads with groups, courses, or ThreadBoxes
Updated course interface and sections to better organize content within a course
Course-level analytics
Add tracks/sections/channels to ThreadBoxes to help organize larger conferences
Bonus: Drag-and-drop to delete VoiceThreads
Assignments
Customize when and how students can see the Student Gallery in Create Assignments
Require students to comment on a classmate’s submission for a grade in a Create Assignment
Bonus: Group assignments
Bonus: Rubric grading
Bonus: Support for “submitted” status with an LMS gradebook integration
Mobile
Full mobile browser support, so a separate VoiceThread app is not required at all
Ability to grade assignments on mobile devices
Login
Ability to sign in with Microsoft
New licensing option
“Student pay” mode for institutions that ask students to purchase their own access to VoiceThread
The arc of change in the teaching and learning universe may be long, but it bends towards a more accessible, equitable, inclusive, and human-centric world. We plan on shortening that arc just a little bit in 2023. But first, let’s take a look at what happened last year.
2022 in Review
Google and Apple Login
Anyone who has a Google account or Apple ID can use it to access VoiceThread now. On the main VoiceThread login page, you can simply click on the “Sign in with Google” or “Sign in with Apple” button. If you already have a VoiceThread account under that email address, we’ll just sign you into it.
Assignment Features
Formal assignments and other integrated activity types, available to any institution that uses VoiceThread in an integrated LMS, received a number of updates:
Updated design and functionality for building VT Home, Course View, and Individual VT links
Options to change a VoiceThread’s settings while building an Individual VT link
New option to reconnect an existing assignment to a new link in your LMS
Set a prerequisite assignment before students can work on the current one
Added a close date that differs from due date
Ability to disable the Assignment Builder in the Canvas “Modules” area (available upon request)
Introduced an updated “slide gallery” view so that it is accessible for screen readers and keyboard users
Doodling Preferences
Whether you set your doodles to fade or not fade, that preference will be remembered until you opt to change it again.
Mobile Updates
We made a number of updates to the mobile app. Some of this is visible, but a substantial amount can only be “felt.” We did a major refactor to make the app more stable, improve error handling and cache/memory management, reduce load times, and make modals and messaging work better. Additional items added:
Option to request account deletion on the “My Account” page
Moved closed captions to the bottom of the screen
Support for all new assignment features from the student experience
Google and Apple login added
Improvements to device rotation during recordings
Option to switch identities from all editing pages
Ability to message app users that an update is available
Accessibility Updates
Added a slide description field so content creators can make their image slides more accessible
Automated creation of descriptions and alt text from PDF and document slides
Translated the new assignments interfaces
Introduced an updated “slide gallery” view to assignments so that it is accessible for screen readers and keyboard users
Moved closed captions to the bottom of the screen
Security
Strong security is a quest that never ends, but we made great strides in that area in 2022.
Received our first SOC 2 report.
Updated our backend QA environment to ensure that only anonymized data can be used in any test scenario.
Increased group security when adding new members.
Added authenticated callbacks for third-party closed caption integrations.
Backend Work
Behind-the-scenes work isn’t glamorous, but it is what makes all of our upcoming work possible!
Automated key rollover to ensure strong security of integrations
Refactored the closed caption handling
Refactored our reporting infrastructure
Performed several intensive library updates
Built manifests and API endpoints to support upcoming features in 2023
Coming in 2023
The New VoiceThread
We’ve been working for a long time on unifying the VoiceThread experience across all platforms and for all types of users. This wasn’t possible back in the days when Adobe Flash was required and then HTML5, but we’re finally there now. This year, we’ll be releasing a completely overhauled version of VoiceThread that will be exactly the same for everyone and that was built with accessibility in mind from the ground up. Some highlights:
A single interface accessible to everyone, including screen reader users.
Redesign of the VT Home Page to match the design of integrated assignments and the mobile app.
Redesign of the media player to streamline, modernize, and enable support for new features.
A few new features:
Ability to pan while zoomed in and commenting
Bulk-reveal moderated comments
Bulk-delete comments on a slide
True transcripts provided for captioned content
There will be many more new features to come over time as a result of the new interface. When the new version is ready, we’ll alert everyone via email and give you the ability to test it on your own timeline. All administrators will have a window of time to decide when they would like their institution to move over to the new version so you can line up the transition with a convenient time for your users.
Zoom Oauth
Zoom is deprecating its JWT integration, which is what we have used in the past. We will be adding support Oauth integrations instead. We’ll be working with institutions to transition over before the June cutoff date.
Google Group Integration
If you use Google Classroom and already have a Google Suite integration for authentication, we will be able to create class groups in VoiceThread for each Google class and enroll students. This matches the roster integration for LTI integrations in learning management systems.
Microsoft Integration
We will be adding Microsoft integration for login and importing slides from OneDrive.
Assignments
For courses using formal assignments integrated in an LMS:
New assignment type that requires students to comment on their classmates’ submissions from a previous assignment
Ability to grade students who haven’t begun to work on an assignment
Option to prevent students from seeing the Student Gallery in “Create” assignments until they have already submitted their own VoiceThread.
Update the grader to better support instructor edits for captions, allow exporting, and remove the “Edit” button when it should not appear.
Ability to view and even create assignments outside of an LTI integration in an LMS
Google Integration Update
Integration with Google Suite is the way many people access VoiceThread, especially in K-12. We’ll be adding two new features to our Google connection:
Roster synchronization: If you use Google Classroom, we can automate the creation of VoiceThread courses to match those rosters.
Sign in with Google: For independent users who want to sign in with Google instead of having a password specifically for VoiceThread.
Accessibility
The “New VoiceThread” will be our last step in unifying the standard and “universal” versions of VoiceThread. There will be a single, fully accessible experience for all users. This goal has been several years and iterations in the making, and we’re so proud to be reaching that goal this year. Of course we will never stop making improvements and collecting feedback, but this will be a major benchmark in the 16-year journey of bringing accessible multimedia learning environments to all students.
Additional features coming:
Time chunk editing for closed captions
Closed caption color/size/font customization
Update ability to set personalized defaults for closed caption preferences
Mobile App
The mobile VoiceThread experience is another area where we’ll never be done growing, and 2023 will be no exception.
Bulk VoiceThread editing actions
Support for the updated slide gallery view
Support for new media player features of the “New VoiceThread”
Accessibility improvements to match the web experience
Ability to play VoiceThreads in the mobile browser instead of forcing the app to launch
Ability to grade assignments
Student Purchase Option
Some institutions and individual instructors want to use premium VoiceThread features with their students, but there is simply no funding available. A number of these institutions would like the option to require students to purchase their own “seats” in a license instead of funding everyone centrally. This should make VoiceThread more accessible to those institutions.
Thank you, as always, for your feedback, partnership, and innovation in bringing all these new features to life. We look forward to a brighter and more hopeful year!
Veteran VoiceThread educators have been expanding their classrooms and providing students a place for them to practice their interpersonal and collaborative skills for over 15 years, and now we have formal validation of that winning strategy. After undertaking a review process with independent experts at the LearnPlatform, VoiceThread has been certified to meet Levels III & IV standards that are defined by the U.S. Department of Education Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). This is an important and impactful validation for us; however, ESSA validation is only part of the story.
VoiceThread’s co-founder and CEO, Steve Muth, explains “ESSA Level IV & Level III certification not only affirms that there is a research basis underlyingthe unique affordances that VoiceThreading offers, but it also validates the overall direction of our mission — humanizing the learning experience for both students and educators. We have known for a long time that high quality human-to-human interaction is not an elective component of a successful learning journey; it is a core requirement.”
What is ESSA? Why does it matter?
The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) is a United States law passed in 2015 that empowers state and local educators to identify the needs of their own students and to select tools and strategies tailored to meet those needs. Tools with ESSA certification have undergone rigorous evaluation to prove that they are effective in improving student outcomes across the board.
What are the ESSA tiers of evidence?
ESSA’s tiers of evidence help learning institutions ensure the interventions deployed are backed by robust research. There are four tiers in total. The Level IV indicates that the intervention has a “well-defined logic model based on rigorous research,” and that further study is in the works to verify the approach’s efficacy. Level III attests that promising evidence of efficacy exists and is well documented in research findings. The Learn Platform reviewed our logic model and reviewed existing research to evaluate if there was sufficient evidence to support that logic model in the lived experiences of students.
What’s next
The VoiceThread executive and product teams will continue to work with the LearnPlatform to document, refine, and iterate on our logic model. The logic model is only the beginning of our efforts to understand and document specifically how VoiceThread has a positive impact on student learning. Partnering with learning researchers at K-20 institutions around the world, we plan to find out which affordances are most impactful, how, why, when, and for whom.
This is a guest post written by Nursing Educator and VoiceThreader, Joe Gomulak-Cavicchio EdD.
My first experience with VoiceThread came as an Educational Technology master’s student. I was learning about how to use it with K-12 students. However, I was thrilled to see it being used when I moved to higher education and jumped at the change to use VoiceThread in my own class. I knew when I was developing my completely asynchronous course, Integrating Technology in Nursing Education, it was going to play a prominent role.
Up to that point, I heard that graduate nursing students do not like online learning and they prefer face-to-face classes because it allows them the space to connect and have interactions with one another. Additionally, I knew from my own experience as a student, trying to juggle work, home, and school was quite the task and that I wasn’t always ready to engage with course content when a synchronous class occurred. I knew these graduate nursing students were working all different shifts and were not always going to be able to put forth their best effort. Therefore, I felt that if students were able to find ways to connect and humanize the other participants in the course that they could find online learning an enjoyable experience.
I knew I wanted to have weekly discussion boards and wanted to use VoiceThread. This would give us a chance to see and hear each other. However, the question I asked myself was, is this enough? Are we really connected? Then I did what all teachers do and thought about my experience as a student. As a face-to-face student we would spend the beginning parts of class sharing any news we had. Voila, I knew that this was going the start of how we were going to connect. I knew that if this was going to be a success I had to be a part of sharing good news.
However, sharing news was only a piece of the puzzle, I wanted something more, something to get more of my personality out there so students could really feel like they knew me. That is when I decided to share a joke with my class as a part of these weekly sharing discussion. I am not talking about the witty type of jokes that make you think, I am talking the ones that make you groan because they are so bad.
My wife and I met at the glue factory where we both worked.
We bonded immediately.
To my delight, this approach was a huge hit. Students would come on and before diving into the content they would comment on the joke, share one of their own, or just share good news. We all had a good laugh especially when a joke was delivered with utter seriousness. Students have also felt comfortable sharing if they are having a tough time because of the tone and connection that has been set.
The amazing thing is that this connection has extended beyond this class. I have had former students email me and share jokes when the come across a particularly groan-worthy one. Some former students have even shared that they have downloaded daily joke apps and share them with their coworkers during a pre-shift huddle.
About the Author:
Joe (@TechInNursingEd) is an assistant professor of clinical nursing, instructional designer, coordinator for online learning, and ADA access coordinator at the University of Rochester School of Nursing, where he has been for the past 8 years. He enjoys finding new and fun ways to engage with students online and in person
This is a guest post by educator and VoiceThreader, AJ Fitzgerald.
A common complaint about secondary and post-secondary education is that it’s simply not practical enough. Students commonly wonder aloud amongst their friends, “Why are we learning this?” Here on the internet, memes abound about how infrequently the average adult uses high school subjects like calculus and cellular biology in real life. The commenters often ask why they couldn’t have learned something useful instead, like taxes.
Though I’m proud to know calculus and certainly won’t be handing out tax advice anytime soon, I also recognize important feedback when I hear it. So this “practical information gap” is something we set out to address amongst our first year students at Temple University Rome. The (imperfect) solution we came up with was a 1-credit seminar that would cover such “practical” topics as adjusting to college (especially for international students), university/campus resources, study skills, goal-setting, time management, budgeting, education financing, and career prep.
Time constraints meant that we could only offer a brief introduction to each of these topics, but I knew that I wanted students to leave the course having practiced these important skills. For our career module, that meant actually drafting a resume and cover letter. But translating the third piece of the standard application process, the job interview, to the classroom environment proved a bigger logistical challenge than the rest. One hour wasn’t enough to conduct mock interviews during class time, and requiring students to meet me after class wasn’t ideal either. So in the first two semesters of the course we skipped the practical element of job interview prep – instead I shared some tips and advice during class and then moved on to their resume and cover letter drafts.
Though I don’t necessarily have fond memories of the initial lockdowns here in Italy, nor the frantic shift to online learning, that period was a great opportunity to re-assess much of what I’d been doing in my courses. I first started using VoiceThread for a creative writing class in Spring 2020, and found it a valuable tool to keep my students connected and engaged across oceans and time zones. After participating in a few training workshops as I continued to familiarize myself with the platform, I finally had the idea to try implementing a simulation exercise in my first year seminar. “VoiceThread Job Interview” was the result.
I keep telling myself that I should re-record the video slides for this activity, but I still rely on those original clips from Summer 2020. It had been months since a student physically stepped foot on our study abroad campus, and I still remember the eerie feeling of recording them in a cold, empty classroom. You can see plainly that my lockdown haircut was still in full effect, and I stumble over my words in a few places.
The recordings may not be perfect, but perhaps the authenticity of these imperfections helps put students at ease. After all, it’s meant to be a low-stakes activity for formative, not summative, feedback. I grade it on a complete/incomplete basis, and the point is for students to work out their thoughts and nerves in VoiceThread before moving on to high-stakes interviews in real professional settings. I ask them all the most common questions so that they can begin rehearsing their answers, and afterwards I provide individualized video feedback to each student. Comment moderation ensures that each student’s submission is shared only with me and not their fellow “candidates,” just as in a real interview. I initially worried that students would hesitate with the roleplaying aspect of this activity, but instead they often seem to dive in uninhibited. Some even dress for the part!
Compared to an in-person mock interview, VoiceThread’s biggest advantage is that it’s recorded. Students can re-listen to my feedback as often as they need, and they can also play back their own answers to get a feel for how they appear to the interviewer. Separating each interview question into separate videos slide allows for targeted feedback on each specific response. And as the human resources industry relies more and more on technology in the hiring process, I think VoiceThread uniquely prepares students for the type of online interview platforms they might soon encounter in real life.
We’re now back to teaching classes in-person here in Rome, but I still find myself returning to VoiceThread often when designing assignments and activities. Of course it’s great for student presentations, or make-up assignments when students miss class. Occasionally I also use it to return essay feedback quickly. But still my favorite application is the kind of practical simulation discussed here, and I look forward to designing similar activities in future semesters.
About the Author: AJ Fitzgerald is a writer/educator and Coordinator of the Academic Support Center at Temple University’s Overseas Campus in Rome, Italy. Holding degrees in both Physics and English, Fitzgerald’s creative/research interests lie at the intersection of STEM and the humanities: the relationships between science, science policy, literature and other creative media, as well as the socio-cultural impacts of advancements in science and technology. Follow him on Instagram (@ajftz4), Twitter (@ajfitz4), or LinkedIn.
