Answers · Assignments

Audio and video submissions

Students can submit a recording. Viva transcribes it, interviews on the transcript, and shows you the original with a clickable transcript.

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When a student uploads a recording (.mp3, .mp4, .m4a, .mov, .webm or .wav, up to 500 MB), Viva transcribes the audio track automatically, with timestamps. The transcript becomes the submission text: interview questions are generated from it, and grading reads it, exactly as they would an essay.

On the report, the recording plays on the left side with its transcript underneath. Clicking a line of the transcript jumps the player to that moment, and clicking an evidence quote in the report seeks the recording to where the student said it.

The recording plays here, with its transcript underneath. Click a line to jump the player; evidence quotes seek to the moment they were said.

The transcript is marked as speech, so the interview and grading treat wording and fillers as talking, not writing.
If a second voice appears in a solo recording, the transcript labels the speakers — you will see it.
Transcription takes a moment after submission (about a minute for a long recording), before interview questions are ready.
For video files, a handful of snapshots of the screen are included automatically, so the interview can ask about what was shown, not only what was said. On the report they appear as a clickable filmstrip that seeks the video.

A recording is the artifact, not the evidence

A pre-recorded video can be rehearsed or read from a script, so Viva does not treat it as proof of understanding on its own. It is the work the student then defends in the live interview — the same reasoning as every other submission type.