Generate & embed captions for Collaborate recordings in May

Mon, 02 May 2022 08:22:22 -0400
accessibility, captioning, collaborate, online-learning, sp2022, ultra-update

Creating captioning for recordings from scratch can be very time consuming for instructors or accessibility staff. Beginning in May 2022, instructors can leverage the help of artificial intelligence to improve the accessibility of their Collaborate recordings with captioning.

With this feature, piloted last summer by UMBC, Collaborate creates recording captions based on speech to text recognition technology. After a live session concludes, an instructor can generate the captions for a recording, which can be reviewed, downloaded, and edited if necessary. Captions immediately appear in the Collaborate player for anyone who has access to the recording.

Captions are a valuable instructional resource, improving the accessibility of content for individuals who are deaf or hearing impaired. Moreover, students gain new opportunities to access information in ways they need or want it, thanks to captions. For example:

Anyone working in a noisy environment can read captions.

Non-native speakers can read captions to reinforce their understanding.

Students learning to read can follow along with the speaker.

Students can see the spelling of terms that will be on a test.

In Collaborate, the recording transcription feature is enabled by the instructor through the recording settings page for the session. Please review this FAQ for step by step instructions.