Educators of learners with special needs - how to use a transcript?
December 1, 2015 4:15 PM   Subscribe

I make educational software. We want our software to be compliant (and helpful!) to people who need transcripts. But we're not sure how transcripts are even used.

So how do learners (and instructional leaders for learners) use transcripts?
And what software products already do a good job with transcripts?
posted by jander03 to Education (14 answers total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
What platform(s) do you build products for, and for what age range?
posted by Hermione Granger at 4:16 PM on December 1, 2015


Response by poster: desktops and tablets. Mostly ages 18-50.
posted by jander03 at 4:26 PM on December 1, 2015


I use them to make notes and reinforce learning; cross reference to slides.
posted by tilde at 4:47 PM on December 1, 2015


I'm not hard of hearing, but I do find it difficult to take in information from a person speaking. For an audio segment with no accompanying video I always choose to read the transcript instead of listening, if it is available.

For video courses, I will use the transcript for courses
a) instead of watching, where the visuals don't add to the content - e.g. they show a persons head talking for an hour, or slides repeating the content being spoken (basically treat this as an audio course)
b) before/instead of watching, where I think I already know the content and want to skim through it to check
c) after watching, where I have already seen the video and want to check back on something I couldn't hear or look up a particular fact quote mentioned.

For (b) and (c), being able to tie the transcript to specific moments in the video is useful. If there are graphs/pictures/etc being referred to, sometimes I will look at the transcript alongside a pdf of the slides where that is available instead of referring back to the video. I have never seen this, but ideally I could get one document that had both the slides and the transcript on the same page.
posted by the agents of KAOS at 5:16 PM on December 1, 2015 [1 favorite]


Addition: I don't habitually try using a transcript alongside the video, but if there are subtitles I might turn them on. Are you considering subtitles as part of this transcript project, or do you already have them?
posted by the agents of KAOS at 5:17 PM on December 1, 2015 [1 favorite]


Maybe not exactly the type of answer you're looking for but it strikes me that if you post the transcripts along with the option to buy (on your/whomever's website) you'll improve your SEO thereby making it easier for instructional leaders/purchasers to find your product. As someone who is not instinctively a good searcher (but who is a good information organizer, it's weird) I appreciate when people/companies/whatever help make their information findable.
posted by hapax_legomenon at 6:17 PM on December 1, 2015


Response by poster: New question:
If there are captions, do you need a Transcript?
posted by jander03 at 7:21 PM on December 1, 2015


I would use transcripts if they could be downloaded, and/or available when the software doesn't have access to a network. Like an iPad in Airplane Mode, for example.
posted by spinifex23 at 8:18 PM on December 1, 2015


Also, I found that some educational videos on lynda.com have transcripts; I find them much easier to read through first, and then I can watch the video of the transcript to increase understanding.
posted by spinifex23 at 8:19 PM on December 1, 2015


I am slightly hard of hearing, and I use transcripts. It's easier to understand, and faster than waiting for the closed captioning to catch up with what is actually being said. Much CC is also very inaccurate, particularly if it's auto-generated. I also like to view the presentation, and then go back over the transcript to fill in gaps. Plus, I can CTRL+F a transcript for the one piece I need later. It's also easier to skim a transcript than it is to skim a video, if I'm short on time.

I usually don't use the sound on my computer, either because I'm doing work in a place with background noise that would prevent me from hearing the words anyway, or because I'm at a computer that doesn't have sound output, or because I'm at work and can't have sound or headphones. So if you don't have CC and you don't have a transcript, your video is a major, major hassle.
posted by blnkfrnk at 8:23 PM on December 1, 2015 [1 favorite]


Yes, you still need a transcript. Subtitles are terrible for all the scenarios I listed, I don't want to sit through a video in order to read the content, that's like taking a screenshot of a jpg and inserting it into a word doc to upload to Facebook as a picture.
posted by the agents of KAOS at 8:32 PM on December 1, 2015 [4 favorites]


I have dyslexia and ADHD and I find it incredibly helpful to have transcripts to refer back to and take notes from when I am writing papers that include videos that were assigned as part of my undergraduate classes. Most of the videos assigned through my university's library have transcripts. Some professors use Youtube Videos, and most are badly transcribed (if at all). Access to transcripts have a direct impact on my grades, so much so that if something does not have a transcript I try my hardest not to include it in my papers.
posted by momochan at 9:27 PM on December 1, 2015 [1 favorite]


One thing that I often get frustrated by when using transcripts is non-skippable audio content. I can read much faster than you'd want your narrator talking, and it'd be much more productive for me to move on rather than contemplating your lighting/design choices (at best; there's always wandering off to read something else) while waiting for the talky bit to finish up.
posted by teremala at 6:31 AM on December 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: Super helpful, thank you!
posted by jander03 at 12:30 PM on December 4, 2015


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