Auto-Transcriptions & Closed Captions

Before you begin creating a bunch of videos to caption, let's go over some best practices for making instructional videos that must also be captioned (see our 3 recommendations for auto-transcription services below)

KEEP IT SHORT!

Our attention span usually runs out around the 10-minute mark. Therefore, it's a good idea to keep your videos short and sweet. Don't record an hour-long lecture, but break it up into 3 ten minute segments about the muddiest concepts. Shorter videos are easier to update, edit, and watch.

MAKE RE-USABLE VIDEOS

It more cost and time effective to make videos that you can reuse. Rather than make off the cuff video announcements where you reference last night's football game, use your time to make a video intro to your weekly module that could be used again next term - don't reference specific due dates or events, but you can add those below the video in text.

GIVE YOUR VIDEO AN OPEN LICENSE

By giving your video an open license, you're giving others permission to use your video. To make videos (and good videos at that) takes time. But imagine if you found the perfect video - only you just need the first ten minutes and last twenty minutes. If the video is openly licensed then you have permission to download and edit the video to your liking! Help us create a community of sharing by giving your video an open license so that your impact as an instructor isn't limited to just your students.

DESCRIBE YOUR ACTIONS WHEN RECORDING

One thing we don't talk about much is how a blind person watches videos. If a video is well made and the actions on screen are adequate described, then the audio of the video might provide an equally effective experience. This can be simple to do - have people introduce themselves rather than rely on displaying the name on screen alone. Use clear and accurate descriptions rather than "here" (Ex: "Click the home tab from the course navigation menu" vs "click here to for this page to open"). A script is really helpful in this regard (and then you can use the script to caption your video, rather than pay a third party!).

CREATE VIDEOS THAT HIT WIDER AUDIENCES

As we've covered, making videos takes time, and captioning often takes resources (money). Therefore, to make the most of your time and resources, dedicate them to pursuits that hit the widest audience possible. This supports the tip that videos be reused, but we also offer a deeper discount to videos made for courses listed in the WA45 (Links to an external site.) - the 45 recommended first-year college courses.

Federal law requires that we provide closed captioning for all instructional videos. To do this, faculty are utilizing the auto-generated transcription services built into Panopto, Zoom and YouTube.

To attain the most accurate auto-transcriptions your voice must be clear, well-paced for these auto-transcription services to understand. NOTE: These free services are a great but we still want to make sure our words heard on our audio recordings are transcribed accurately and make corrections, as needed.