VoiceThread Canvas Integration

Canvas Integration: Benefits

If you are regularly using VoiceThread with a class, we strongly recommend that you use VoiceThread’s Canvas integration. Here are some of the reasons why you might want to do this:

  • The integration allows your students to seamlessly pass from Canvas into the VoiceThread application, without being prompted for a login.
  • All enrolled students will automatically have permissions to VoiceThreads you share in their Canvas course - no need to set permissions on VoiceThreads, or “invite” students.
  • In the VoiceThread application, a course folder for your course will automatically be created, housing all of the VoiceThreads for the course
  • VoiceThread integrates with the Canvas Gradebook. You can easily create VoiceThread assignments, and grade them in a grading area in VoiceThread. You can also easily see, at a glance, who in your class did or did not complete a VoiceThread assignment. Any grading you do in VoiceThread will automatically be synched back into the Canvas Gradebook.

Canvas Integration: Create A Connection To All VoiceThreads For Your Class

It is a good idea to create a link to your course’s VoiceThread folder, where students can find all of the VoiceThreads for your class in one place. This is only possible in a Canvas Module.

  1. Navigate to the “Modules” area of your course
  2. Find (or create) the Module to which you’d like to add VoiceThread, and then click the Add Item button. It is fine to have a module for the sole purpose of linking to VoiceThread.
  3. In the “Add Item…” Dialogue Box, choose (a.) External Tool from the Drop-Down menu. A scrollable area will appear from which you need to select the tool (b.)VoiceThread. (c.) Then select Add Item.
    Screenshot of Canvas interface
  4. A new box will pop up and present you with four choices; this may take a few seconds, because you are actually getting connected and logged into VoiceThread. Choose the Course View option, and click Save and Save and Continue when prompted.
    Screenshot of Canvas interface
  5. You will return to the Canvas “Add Item” Dialogue Box. Scroll down further, and make sure to check the box next to (a.) Load in a new tab. It’s easy to forget this last step - if you do, you can edit the item you just created, and check the Load in a new tab option then. (b.) Then, click the Add Item button (Or Update if you've gone back to edit).
    Screenshot of Canvas interface
  6. You have now created a link which will take your students seamlessly to your course’s home folder in VoiceThread

Canvas Integration: Creating VoiceThread Assignments

You can create three types of VoiceThread Assignments:

  • A Watch assignment: to ask students to watch a VoiceThread
  • A Comment assignment: to ask students to comment on a VoiceThread
  • A Create assignment: to ask students to create a VoiceThread

The creation process for all three assignment types is very similar, and is detailed in VoiceThread's How-to Guide to Assignments. The main advantages to using VoiceThread Canvas assignments are:

  • intuitive grading interface which syncs with Canvas' gradebook
  • ​​​​​​​ability to grade in percentages or on a pass/fail basis
  • ability to grade work in progress
  • ability to "reset" an assignment to a student can resubmit
  • granular settings for assignment availability
  • granular settings for assignment criteria (e.g. number of comments, length, etc.)
  • very intuitive interface for students, including a checklist for all assignment components

VoiceThread Resources

VoiceThread maintains excellent documentation on its website. The following three landing pages are the most useful:

Contacting VoiceThread Support

You can contact VoiceThread support here. This will take you to a web form you need to fill out. Be sure to use your Dartmouth email address, so that VoiceThread knows that your question is connected to Dartmouth’s VoiceThread instance.