A Review of VoiceThread as a Tool for Advertising Education

IntroductionThis review highlights how a relatively novel online platform - VoiceThread - can serve several roles in the advertising classroom for not only content delivery, but for submitting work, receiving feedback in a variety of formats, and engaging in dynamic discussions. While primarily a tool for asynchronous discussions, VoiceThread can be used to achieve a range of student learning outcomes. The following emphasizes the unique opportunities the platform holds for advertising education specifically by allowing for submission of visual, textual and audio content, as well as visual, textual and audio feedback from both peers and instructors. While there are some technological and student considerations which must be weighed by instructors, VoiceThread is generally flexible enough to accommodate a range of learning activities and student needs.VoiceThread OverviewThe VoiceThread platform is a cloud application for conducting asynchronous, media-rich online communication and discussions. A VoiceThread is an interactive, multimedia slideshow in which the creator (instructor or student) posts a slideshow (of one or more slides, or files) and shares it with a group for review or discussion. When creating a VoiceThread post a variety of media can be uploaded as the primary content: video files, documents, PowerPoint presentations, webcam videos and links to online media provided by VoiceThread partners such as the New York Public Library. A single VoiceThread may contain a mix of these media to communicate information with others. Documents and PowerPoint slides conveniently upload with each page or slide displaying as a single VoiceThread slide. The creator can then use the VoiceThread Comment features to narrate the slides or provide instructions for discussion or collaboration.Once the VoiceThread is created, the owner can then share the VoiceThread with others by making it publicly available or privately sharing with specific VoiceThread users (generally students). Members of this group can then create comments on the VoiceThread via typed text, video or audio responses.The real power of VoiceThread is in the ability to construct an interactive activity focused around the central media that allow for peerto-peer interaction and collaboration without requiring the instructor and students to be active at the same time. It offers flexibility in format to users - if they do not have a webcam, they can still contribute via audio-only or text comments. The video comment option in VoiceThread provides an opportunity for nonverbal cues to enhance users' spoken responses and foster greater social presence. In addition VoiceThread now offers threaded comments, so users can reply directly to another person's comment. The opportunity for rich and varied feedback is particularly valuable, as it has been linked to greater student learning (see Yuan & Kim, 2015).VoiceThread offers both free and paid accounts. The free account is very limited in functionality, especially storage and sharing, but enables instructors to use the platform to determine how VoiceThread can enhance the social presence in a course and engage students in more focused, meaningful discussions. The paid instructor accounts are affordable and students do not have to pay to comment on VoiceThreads that are shared with them. VoiceThread also offers a site license option, which integrates in many learning management sites (LMS) to increase capabilities further and provide single sign-on and automated class group creation and management. Users can visit voicethread.com to register for a free account and browse publicly available VoiceThreads for a wide range of working examples, or click the Products tab to purchase a particular license. While large group pricing requires contacting a representative, Table 1 below reflects costs described on voicethread.com.Applications of VoiceThread in the Advertising ClassroomWhile at its core VoiceThread is a simple tool that allows for asynchronous conversations about a media text (e. …