Captioning Lecture Capture Videos: A Promising Teaching Practice

>> Jaime Diaz: It's about accessibility.
I mean, you use,

people have asked me what do you use
to teach? What technology?

And I answer sometimes,
with just "Yes." Anything.

>> Narrator: One of the newest teaching tools
is video capture services such as Panopto.

They allow faculty to easily record their
lectures and post them on a Web page

where students can
view them after class.

>> Jaime Diaz in class: And look at how he
says this. So– it wasn't unpleasant.

It was an intoxication
but it wasn't unpleasant.

And... stream of fantastic
pictures, extraordinary shapes

>> Narrator: Panopto allows captions to be
added to the recorded lectures.

Those captions are a necessity for students
with hearing impairments.

>> Jaime Diaz in class:
kaleidoscopic display of colors,

this kaleidoscopic thing comes up
often and often, right?

So this is like, wow, this is tremendous,
but he didn't know what was going on.

>> Erika: Me, as a deaf person, I'm missing
out probably three-fourths of the information

that's out there.

So captioning is a big thing for me because
that's where I get all the information.

>> Jaime Diaz: I was surprised when I canvassed
my students,

and over 30% said they were using the captioning

and I know that there's not 30% of hearing
impaired or need for it.

And I asked a couple of students,

and they said they wanted to see the words
as well as hear the words.

>> Erica: Other reasons why students like
me use Panopto

is because he talks really fast in the lecture
because we have so much material to cover,

so when I miss something
I write down the time on my notebook

and I go back to the Panopto recording so
that I can listen to it again.

And I'm like, "Oh, so that's what he was saying,"
and I understand the whole material better.

>> Steven: I do use the Panopto videos,
particularly when I'm reviewing material.

I like to, as I'm reading through the lecture
slides, I like to replay the lecture videos

to just reinforce and make sure I'm picking
up any supplemental information

that he says while he's reading through it.

>> Sheryl Burgstahler: Other key people can
benefit from the combination

of the visual text along with the audio.

This includes people who are
English language learners

that would like to hear the word
as well as see the word.

>> Aditya: I don't think most of the,
all the students do understand all the time

what the professor is talking.

It is sometimes necessary to have captions

so that we can actually jot down things
by having a visual.

>> Sheryl Burgstahler: Also benefiting from that

are students who have some types of
learning disabilities

that can benefit from this
multimodal presentation

and students that want to learn the
spelling of a particular word.

>> Steven: One is, it reinforces
what I'm hearing

so I'm seeing it both visually
and getting it auditorily,

so we're hitting multiple systems
at the same time,

creating stronger associations.

Second is, a lot of times
I can have difficulty understanding

exactly what some people are saying because
when you get into technical terms and jargon

they're talking so quickly it can be very
hard to keep track of.

So being able to read it as I'm hearing it

further reinforces it and also helps me with
grammar and spelling.

>> Narration: Captions can be useful to any
student trying to watch the video

in a loud room or
in a room that's very quiet.

>> Eelane: I use captions
when I'm in a quiet library

and I don't want to turn up the volume too
loud so I turn on captions

and I can see the words
instead of hearing them.

>> Narration: Panopto also enables students
to do a keyword search

to find every instance when
a word appears in the lecture

and to fast-forward to that moment.

>> Sheryl Burgstahler: For instance you might
want to look through those captions,

search through the captions,

to find a particular part in the video where
your instructor presented something

that you want to listen to again
without listening to the whole video.

>> Richard Ladner: If you have the captions
now you have a way of searching.

You can search the video
to find the word you're looking for

and then play that little
piece of video back.

So everybody benefits from captions
because they allow for search of video.

>> Jaime Diaz: You just have to
try different things,

and so as tools come up
you should try them

to see if in fact that might
maybe replace a tool

or might hit a population
that you weren't hitting before.

As a teacher, I have the obligation
of reaching those students.