Welcome! These tutorial videos will show you two simple methods you can use to add subtitles to your instructional video, as well as a few more advanced techniques.

We encourage you to add subtitles to your videos to increase engagement and learning, and to support your Emergent Bilingual students/English Language Learners by including translations of your subtitles as well.

*Note: the subtitles in these videos were transcribed by Descript, as shown in Method 2 of this tutorial, then translated and embedded into the videos using the techniques shown in the Advanced Techniques section of this tutorial.

This video outlines the importance of including captions in our instructional videos as a way of increasing the accessibility of our content. Here's the research we cite:

• Dello Stritter, Mary Ellen, and Katie Linder. “A Rising Tide: How Closed Captions Can Benefit All Students.” Educause Review, 28 Aug. 2017, https://er.educause.edu/articles/2017/8/a-rising-tide-how-closed-captions-can-benefit-all-students. Accessed 11 Apr. 2022.

• Means, Barbara, et al. “The Effectiveness of Online and Blended Learning: A Meta-Analysis of the Empirical Literature.” Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education, vol. 115, no. 3, 2013, pp. 1–47., https://doi.org/10.1177/016146811311500307.

• Gernsbacher, Morton Ann. “Video Captions Benefit Everyone.” Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences, vol. 2, no. 1, 2015, pp. 195–202., https://doi.org/10.1177/2372732215602130.

This video explains the differences between open (burned-in) and closed (embedded) captions. The two primary methods in this tutorial will provide open (burned-in) captions; if you'd like to learn more about closed captions, be sure to watch the Advanced Techniques section.

You'll need:

• Screencast software (see recommended tools), AND

  • • Google Slides, OR

    • Microsoft Powerpoint (Office 365 subscription or one-time purchase), OR

    • Zoom

You'll need:

• Descript installed on your computer, AND

• A Descript Account

This section presents three advanced techniques that allow you to generate and edit a VTT file, leverage the VTT file to use Descript for free, and embed multiple caption tracks into a single instructional video using Google Drive

You'll need:

• Zoom (for transcription)

• Descript

• VTT File Cleaner

• Google Translate and Google Drive

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