If you don't find the answers to your questions or you have further questions, please contact instruct@umass.edu.

If students are having trouble accessing VoiceThread, what should I suggest?

Please share these tips for Troubleshooting Student Technical Issues.

The most common issue is a student reporting that they cannot log into VoiceThread when they click on a link in a course. This can be fixed by enabling cookies or by using a different browser (Note: VoiceThread is not compatible with Internet Explorer).

Can I embed VoiceThread directly into the rich content editor in Canvas?

While you are able to embed a VoiceThread directly into any rich content editor in Canvas, we strongly recommend using an LTI-enabled link or Assignment instead if you would like students to be able to comment.

Embedded VoiceThreads will not log students into VoiceThread automatically, so they will only be able to view the VoiceThread and cannot add comments or interact with the VoiceThread. Students cannot log in without using a link from Canvas, so they will often try to log in manually on an embedded VoiceThread and get confused by the process.

Can I use student groups in VoiceThread?

While VoiceThread does offer options for using Groups, these groups are separate from Canvas groups and need to be set up manually each semester.

For Group Projects, we recommend having students create a single VoiceThread, and then share editing access to their group members so that the entire group can edit and comment on the VoiceThread.

How long do machine captions take to generate?

There is a 4-day turnaround time, and you will receive an email notification as soon as the caption is ready to be viewed. This option will be guaranteed free through December 31, 2023, and VoiceThread will be evaluating whether it can continue to keep it free at that time.

Why do my uploaded slides have formatting and resolution issues?

To fix any formatting and resolution issues for uploaded slides, we suggest that you save your Google Slides, KeyNote, or PowerPoint slides as a .PDF file.

Uploading the .pdf file to VoiceThread instead of the .ppt file will usually solve any formatting and resolution issues.