Captioning – a multiple-step process

More than anything else, the intention is to maintain high quality captions. Because of that we are looking for solutions that provide captioning for faculty and staff – rather than asking them to do it themselves. However, if you wish to be involved in the process, we welcome your help with transcription.

Understanding the process

Recording / digitizing – creating your video Transcribing – obtaining a verbatim transcript of the video’s words and sounds Synchronizing – matching the sound and the captions Quality review – double-checking transcript accuracy and timing against DMCP

standards Producing and placing – creating the appropriate format for your desired placement

YouTube automatic captions

YouTube automatic captions are not acceptable. If you turn on captions and see “English (Automatic Captions)” as in the image below, you should not use them.

How you can be involved

The most time intensive part of captioning is the transcription. This is where you can be the involved. You can:

Share your original script with the captioners even if it doesn’t have some of the spur of the moment changes.

Create a transcript to send with the video for captioning.

Using YouTube for transcribing

Even if YouTube automatic captions aren’t acceptable, you can use YouTube to create a transcript. Login and select “My Channel” as shown below. Select the video you wish to transcribe. Select “English” as the video language when a dialogue window opens that contains that question.

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Select “Add new subtitles or CC” and “English.” This is different than English (Automatic).

As shown below, you can then select a method – we recommend using “Transcribe and set Timings” to create the transcript only. We recommend against setting time codes with either the

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“Transcribe and Timings” approach or the “Create new subtitles or CC” because it is easier to set the timing correctly, according to standards, if the transcript sent to the captionists doesn’t contain time codes.

Start the video and type what you hear in the transcription window. (Using the Transcription mode saves you from pressing Enter to move to new captioning “bubbles” – windows.)

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Save and download

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Video Placement Recommendations

Although it doesn't provide complete protection, we recommend that all of the links mentioned below used in courses be offered through Moodle.

Videos produced on campus: YouTube or Vimeo. (We are assessing Box and its video presentation abilities during Spring Semester.)

Videos on the web that aren’t owned by UM: Amara.org (although this doesn’t allow full screen and is not a great platform to use for creating and synchronizing the transcript) or captions provided through the DSS screencast account.

Videos from DVDs and VHS tapes: o a UM screencast account supported by DSS and store our work with the libraryo the library’s streaming service for videos

Confidential videos, we recommend Amazon Cloud (UMTV) or UM’s iTunesU options

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