Overview

Videos are becoming more and more common as we move material and lectures/presentations online. On this page, you'll learn about the different ways in which to caption videos as well as some best practices for making instructional videos.

You have a choice as to how to engage with the material in this lesson. Remember, the key concepts are always addressed in the text. If you need more info or learn by watching, the videos and resources are great supplements.

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Read: Making Effective & Accessible Videos

Before You Start Filming

When making videos for your course, chunk the material into short segments rather than one long video. Most people tune out around the 5 - 10 minute mark.

Depending on the type of video you are creating, if possible work from a script. Using a script will make you talk clearer, slower, and keep you to the point at hand. If you take the time to write a script, not only will your video sound better, but you can load the script into YouTube, where it will automatically be synced to the audio. Win. Win.

If you're doing a screencast or narrating a PowerPoint, keep in mind that captions display at the bottom of the screen. Try to keep the bottom of your screen/slides clear so that you're not covering important info with the captions.

When making a video or hosting a webinar, try your best to use descriptive language and don't rely on your viewers to read the screen (read it to them). If a viewer has impaired vision then descriptive language will add more value to the video. Avoid statements like "when I click here this happens" and instead describe what is happening (e.g. "when I click on the page refresh icon from the navigation bar, the webpage refreshes and displays the updated information").

If filming yourself, make sure you're in a quiet and clean/simple environment.

Adding Captions in YouTube

Once you've made your video, it's time to add captions. You can do this a variety of ways - most depend on the type of video and whether or not you used a script. The easiest way to make captions requires either money or YouTube - you pick your approach. (If you don't want to use YouTube, but don't have money, create a private YouTube channel and make sure your videos are unlisted - this will keep your videos from being made public.)

NOTE: Many people will simply rely on YouTube's machine generated captions. These are not reliable and do not protect you from an OCR violation. While they do improve when you speak clearly and slowly, they never contain punctuation, which makes it a confusing reading experience for the viewer.

If you used a script:

If you used a script and have published your video to YouTube, creating captions will be a piece of cake.

Go to the Video manager, and in the edit dropdown menu next to your video, select "Subtitles and CC".
Select video language.
Select "Add new subtitles or CC" (and select the video language again).
Select "Transcribe and auto sync".
Paste your script into the box, then click "set timings".

Wait a few minutes while YouTube runs it's magic!

If you did NOT use a script:

One option is to follow the steps above, but for step #6, you will listen to your video and transcribe it yourself before hitting "set timings" (anticipate transcription to take 3 - 5 times the length of the video).

The other option is to use YouTube's machine generated captions, then to go through and edit them (there's no evidence that this takes less time than transcribing... so, again, start with a script if you want to do this the quickest way).

Upload your video to YouTube.
Eventually, when you select "Subtitles & CC" from the edit menu, you will see "English (automatic)" next to your video -- this sometimes takes a while and may not happen at all if there is a lot of silence at the start of the video.
Click on "English (Automatic)" to review the machine generated captions.
To edit the captions, click "Edit" in the top right corner.
Click in the caption boxes to add punctuation (a must) and correct errors. While you type in your changes, the video will pause.
Once you are done, click "Publish edits" in the top right corner.
You will now see two sets of captions. Click on "English (Automatic)" again. In the "Actions" dropdown menu, select "Unpublish".

You can also use this approach to create a caption file - which can then be downloaded and uploaded into Panopto, if that is your preferred video hosting site.

Adding Captions in Panopto

First, make or upload your video to Panopto.

Open your video in Edit mode.
Select Captions from the menu.
Click the "Import Captions" dropdown menu.
Select "Import automatic captions" (NOTE: this is only available for videos created after 12/17/16 - for videos created before that date, contact your eLearning administrator).
Once the captions have processed, you can click in the individual boxes to edit the text.
Publish your video to save the changes.
When viewing the video, you can change the location, color, and size of the captions.

If you have money to spend:

If your school has money to put towards captioning, there is another very simple option: use a captioning vendor. There are many captioning vendors on the market that will deliver you a caption file that can be uploaded to YouTube, Vimeo, Panopto, Canvas, etc. However, these services usually run over $2.00 per minute.

Check with your eLearning office to find out if you have a captioning budget, or speak with your dean to see if your division or department might have money to go towards captions. Explain to them that captions are simply for people that are deaf or hard of hearing. They help people whose native language is not English. They may help people if the presenter speaks with an accent. They may help people who need to view the video in public or noisy spaces. Video transcripts can also be helpful for people who have poor internet connections and may prefer to read the transcript over attempting to stream a video.

SBCTC Caption Hub:

The State Board has recently contracted with 3Play Media to provide captioning services at a reduced cost. Find out from your eLearning office if they have enabled the State Board's Caption Hub. If so, you may be able to submit videos for free or affordable captioning, depending on the characteristics of the video.

Videos Made in Canvas

If you made a video in Canvas, you can still add captions using a free program called Amara. I will warn you, this is not the easiest approach. It involves transcribing and manually setting timings (which chunks the text so that a readable amount displays at just the right time - Panopto's caption editor works similarly). To learn how to use Amara to caption videos within Canvas, check out this Canvas Guide on using Amara.

Caption Quality

When checking your captions for quality and accuracy, there are a few basic guidelines that may help:

Captions should be no longer than two lines, when possible.
Captions should stay on the screen for a minimum of four seconds, and a maximum of six seconds.
Captions should be aligned with the audio they represent.
Error-free captions are the goal.

Generally, these issues are taken care of by auto-syncing and captioning services, but mistakes do happen. It's worth checking your captions for timing and errors. Quality recommendations are frequently very detailed, but these are the basics. If you'd like to see an example of a captioning key, the Described and Captioned Media Program's Captioning Key is a good one.

Watch: How (and Why) to Caption a Video

Creating Subtitles and Closed Captions on Your Youtube Videos (8 mins)

A demonstration of YouTube's Transcribe and Autosync function.

Using Transcribe and Autosync in YouTube

Document-based version of the same walkthrough.

How to Edit Auto-Captions in YouTube (6 mins)

A helpful video showing how to edit the machine-generated captions in YouTube.

How to Edit Auto-Captions

Does closed captioning still serve deaf people? Gary Robson at TEDxBozeman (10 mins)

This is a really great TEDx Talk addressing the importance of accurate and high quality closed captions. If you want to make a case for your institution setting aside a budget for captions, watch this video and begin crafting your case.

Does closed captioning still serve deaf people?

Explore: Captioning Instructions & Resources