Faculty Handbook Captioning

Overview

Recorded Content Policy And Procedures

Overview
Best Practices

In spring 2013 San José State University School of Information adopted a policy on the regular use of recorded content in each course in order to increase an instructor’s Teaching Presence. A pilot project was implemented in the fall 2013 term with 18 faculty members participating, and a survey was administered to students enrolled in courses taught by those faculty members involved in the pilot project. The student responses were summarized, and “Best Practices for Increasing Teaching Presence in Online Courses through Regular (Weekly/- or Module-based) Recorded Content” were developed by members of the Pilot Group. The following recommendations from the Pilot Project participants have been added to the Recorded Content policy with the expectation that all instructors are required to implement.

The iSchool faculty employ many innovative and effective teaching styles to reach the objectives outlined in the Community of Inquiry model. To increase teaching presence in our online classes and to champion university directives which also focus on teaching presence in online classes, each iSchool faculty member must include one or more of the following types of recorded (video or audio) content for each week or module:

  • Introductions to weekly/unit content and activities
  • Announcements
  • Regular (Weekly/unit) updates
  • Responses to assignments or discussions
  • Short lectures

* The following instructions will enable you to request captions/transcripts for any recorded session.

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Policies and Procedures to Request Captions/Transcripts for Recorded Materials

Policies

All audio materials used in any iSchool course must be captioned or transcripts provided as per our policy for regular (weekly/unit) recorded content and Standard on Evaluation and Assessment. Instructions are noted below for obtaining captions/transcripts for all materials.

  • Captions, transcripts, or alternative readings can be provided to our deaf/HOH students if students are given a choice of which to select.
  • Captions (or at least transcripts) must be obtained for any required videos
    • Videos that are on a list with similar print materials do not need to be captioned or have transcripts if the students are given a choice of which to select.

Procedures

Link to request captions/transcripts.

iSchool instructors have choices in selecting the type of recordings to use in their regular (weekly/unit) presentations. The iSchool supports three main systems for web and video conferencing and lecture capture. Each system enables presentations to be recorded and captions/transcripts are available for each one:

  1. Zoom
  2. Panopto
  3. VoiceThread
  4. Canvas Studio

Each system has unique features that are suited for different teaching styles and personal preferences. The following documentation will help you to decide which system best suits your needs.

 

  • Zoom is recommended for live video classroom conferencing and instruction while
  • Panopto, Canvas Studio and VoiceThread are recommended for asynchronous activities. Information and tutorials about each system are listed below.

Zoom Web Conferencing: Communication tool with a variety of capabilities including web, video, audio, and chat conferencing. Most often used for synchronous class sessions or to record lectures that students can access asynchronously. Please see this tutorial for closed captioning instructions. For technical support questions, contact Alfredo Alcantar.

Panopto: Lecture-capture system that allows faculty to record a lecture that is automatically uploaded to the iSchool Panopto server. Faculty can then provide their students with a URL for viewing the lecture. Contact Abigail Laufer to request an account.

Panopto. Automated captions are provided within 36-48 hours of the request. All instructors are required to request captions for each Panopto recording. Please see this tutorial for closed captioning instructions.

Mandatory: Learn how to submit your recording for transcription and captioning.

VoiceThread: Interactive collaboration and sharing tool that enables users to add images, documents, and videos, and to which other users can add voice, text, audio file, or video comments. Please see this tutorial for closed captioning instructions.

Canvas Studio: A communication tool that allows instructors and students to actively collaborate through video and audio media. Available within Canvas. See the Canvas Guides about Studio.

Other recordings: Instructors with multimedia formats not mentioned above can contact Dale David for help with the appropriate accessibility options

Best Practices for Increasing Teaching Presence in Online Courses through Regular (Weekly- or Module-based) Recorded Content

Instructors must be engaged in the course through weekly/modular recorded content. Students want faculty to respond to discussion points, point out how assignments can relate to competencies, grade assignments quickly, and send messages. To accomplish this faculty must:

  1. Prepare a brief (~ 5 minutes) recorded presentation each week or unit/module that includes video or audio.
    1. Introductions to weekly/module content and activities
    2. Announcements
    3. Weekly/module updates
    4. Responses to assignments or discussions
    5. Short presentations
  2. Provide each of these items to accompany the recorded content:
    1. Link to recording
      1. Instructions on ways to access the recording
    2. Text of recording or transcript of content*
      1. Captions for recordings –Instructions on how to automatically request captions are listed below.
      2. PowerPoint or Screen Shots of content in recording (if appropriate)
  3. Content can be recorded using any of the following methods:
    1. Panopto or Zoom* video with PPT (Recommended) as captions can be easily generated.
    2. Zoom
    3. VoiceThread
    4. Screencast with audio
    5. Audio only (Audacity)

Creating Transcript Using Zoom:

To enable Captions:

Update Zoom to the most recent version.  Review the instructions on this site and pay particular attention to #5 (Enable Save Captions in your personal Zoom Setting) and #6 (The Live Transcript icon has been changed to a Captions icon).  In the Zoom meeting, click the Captions icon at the bottom of the screen to turn-on Voice-to-Text captions in the Zoom meeting.

Generating a Zoom Transcript:

  1. Start a meeting or webinar.
  2. Click the Record button and choose Record to the Cloud.
  3. After the meeting ends, you will receive an email that lets you know that your cloud recording is available. A short time later, you also receive a separate email letting you know that the audio transcript for the recording is available. These emails include links to view your recordings and transcript.

Viewing and Editing the Transcript

  1. Click the link in the email OR navigate to the My Recordings page on the Zoom web portal and click the name of the recorded meeting.
  • This opens the Recording Details page, which includes at least two files:
    • Audio Only (m4a)
    • Transcript Recording (vtt)
  • If you selected other files for the cloud recording, these will also be included:
    • Recording (mp4)
    • Gallery view (mp4)
    • Chat text (txt)
  1. Click the Audio Only m4a file, or the Recording or Gallery View mp4 file, if available. The text of the transcript displays on the right-hand side of the file.

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