Text discussion boards ask students to post once and reply twice. Most of what comes back is compliance. Live seminars produce real exchange but do not scale to online sections, working students, or 200-seat courses.
Vivipod sits between those two. Instructors post a prompt; students answer in a short video where they can talk, sketch, and show their screen; classmates and the instructor reply in comments tied to a moment in the recording. The conversation runs asynchronously, and it stays attached to the course.
This page is for instructors trying one activity, and for teaching centers and academic technology teams deciding whether it belongs in the toolkit.
Table of Contents
Where Instructors Use It
| Activity | How it runs in Vivipod |
|---|---|
| Seminar question and response | One Topic per week. Students answer in under two minutes, then reply to one peer with a question or counterexample. |
| Oral defense of written work | Students explain one decision from their paper or project. Pairs with any writing assignment. See oral assessment. |
| Peer feedback on drafts and presentations | Students post a draft walkthrough; peers leave timestamped comments on the exact slide or paragraph. |
| Case and evidence critique | Students compare two cases or evaluate a source on camera; the instructor pushes back in a comment. |
| Cohort introductions and community | A standing Space for the program where students see faces and hear voices before they meet. |
| Language and clinical practice | Speaking practice, patient-explanation rehearsals, and teaching demonstrations with instructor feedback. |
For activity design with prompts and rubrics, start with discussion board alternatives for higher education and make an asynchronous course feel human.
How a Course Discussion Runs
- Space — one per course or section. Choose Open (anyone with the link can browse; sign-in to contribute) or Private (approval before viewing).
- Topic — one per prompt. Set the recording limit to match the task and choose whether posts are visible immediately or visible after review.
- Post — the student's response. The recorder runs in the browser with pause and resume, drawing, screen-plus-camera, and mid-recording switching. Drafts auto-save; students can retake before they upload.
- Comment — turn comments on for the Topic (the switch is off by
default), and members can leave written replies on the video post, with
@mentionsand feedback anchored to a timestamp. Email notifications bring people back when someone responds, on a cadence each person controls.
Instructors can stay out of the feed and guide the discussion, or post alongside students; both are the same Space role, not a setting to choose. Students sign in with an email code or Google; there is no separate student account type to provision.
Fits Your LMS
Vivipod does not replace the LMS. It replaces the discussion board.
- Canvas — embed a Space or Topic directly in a module, or add it as a link. See Canvas and web embeds.
- Any LMS — share the Space link in Moodle, Blackboard, Brightspace, or a syllabus. Open Spaces show the prompts before students sign in.
- Grading — review responses by Topic, sample with a rubric, and leave feedback where the student can act on it. Grades are recorded in your LMS.
For Teaching Centers and Academic Technology
The questions that come up in review, answered briefly. The trust pages carry the detail.
- Student privacy — no ads, no selling student data, no targeted advertising. Designed to support FERPA. Students own their videos and can withdraw them. See the privacy policy and DPA coverage.
- Access — works on desktop, mobile, and Chromebooks in any modern browser. No install and no extension. Students can respond over a screen or sketch instead of on camera.
- Moderation and control — per-Topic review, membership approval, member removal, and Space-level access settings.
- Cost — the free plan covers a real course: 3 Spaces, unlimited Topics and participants, comments on video posts, and 90-second recordings. Plus adds 5-minute recordings and up to 10 Spaces, and only the Space owner needs it. Department and institution plans are arranged by email. See pricing.
Why Video Discussion Now
Generative AI has weakened confidence in take-home writing as evidence of understanding. The constructive response is not surveillance. It is assignment design that asks students to explain, defend, and respond—work that is hard to outsource and easy to hear.
Short asynchronous video does that without scheduling a live oral exam for every student. Read the best response to AI is a more human course and asynchronous oral assessments in the age of AI.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this a replacement for Canvas or Moodle discussions?
For discussion, yes. Vivipod runs the conversation; your LMS keeps the roster, modules, and gradebook. Embed or link the Space where the discussion board used to be.
Do students need to appear on camera?
No. The recorder can capture the screen, a sketch, or slides with voice. Many instructors let students choose.
How much time does grading take?
Set a recording limit that fits the rubric, grade the Topic as a set, and sample replies rather than reading every thread. The oral assessment guide has a workload section with numbers.
Can a teaching center pilot this across several instructors?
Yes. Each instructor starts on the free plan with their own Space. When a department wants longer recordings or shared administration, contact support@vivipod.com.
Start With One Activity
Pick one prompt from next week's discussion board, turn it into a Topic, and require one reply. Compare the second turn with what the text board produced.