Enhance Your Recorded Lectures with Captions
Following last week’s edition on recorded lectures, we’d like to share more about how video captioning can boost the power of recorded lectures. With only a few extra button clicks, you can begin to reap the many benefits of captions.

Dig Deeper:

Why Use Video Captions?

Enhance Accessibility and Clarity – As briefly mentioned last week, captions play a pivotal role in ensuring students who are D/deaf or hard of hearing can fully engage with your content. The caption texts provide an alternative learning interface for students to work with, reducing any potential language barriers between the lecturer and the students.

Improve Learning for Everyone (paper) –  According to over 100 empirical studies, video captions improve student attention, memory, and comprehension of video content. We emphasize that captions aren’t only accessibility tools. Evidence shows that the existence of captions in a given video is correlated with better academic performance, including test scores. Additionally, just like last week’s recorded lectures, video captions is another highly valued course feature according to student responses.

Follow the Law –If you weren’t already convinced on the value of captions, the law also compels you to utilize video captions for publicly accessible recorded lectures.

How to Add Captions:

1. Automatic Captioning: By utilizing MediaSpace or YouTube to host your recorded lectures, you can very quickly enable automatic captions for your students to read. For complete guides on working with automatic captions, click for instructions for MediaSpace and here for instructions for YouTube.
2. Captioning Services: If you’d like alternatives to automatic captioning, such as DRES captioning, please refer to this resource page by CITL for further information and a list of captioning services.
3. Caption Editing: If possible, taking the time to glance over the automatic captions for small errors and fixing them goes a long way for ensuring the accessibility of your recorded lectures!

Especially for instructors already trying out recorded lectures, captioning is a highly efficient and effective tool for successful learning outcomes. If you have any questions or need assistance, don’t hesitate to reach out.

If you ever have questions about how to make this change, want to report problems in your effort to implement this change, or want to get more information, please email the SIIP UDL and Accessibility Group.

Thank you for your interest. If you found this tip helpful, please share it with your colleagues and encourage them to subscribe using the link at the bottom of this email.
See you again next week!

-UDL and Accessibility Group
https://publish.illinois.edu/udl-accessibility-group/
gcoe-udlgroup@illinois.edu

Start Recording Your Lectures – Recorded lectures make for more accessible and inclusive learning, allowing for captions, various viewing speeds, reviews, and the ability to use accessibility tools like screen readers and magnification with the recorded material. 

Each week, we’ll send you a quick change you can implement in a few minutes to increase the accessibility of your learning materials, teaching methods, or assessment processes. 

We know change is difficult, so we will keep these tips simple. If you ever want to know more about the research and impact of these changes, you can check out the “Dig Deeper” link to learn more.

Dig Deeper: 

Why Record Lectures?

Enhancing Accessibility for All: A Crucial Step: To foster an inclusive learning environment, we want to highlight the paramount importance of recorded lectures for students with disabilities. Captions, which can be automatically generated on video uploads to Mediaspace, play a pivotal role in ensuring students who are deaf or hard of hearing can fully engage with your content. Furthermore, students with low vision greatly benefit from the use of screen readers and magnification tools on your recorded lectures, making your course content equally accessible to everyone. By implementing recorded lectures, we are actively leveling the playing field and ensuring that no student is left behind in their pursuit of knowledge. Recording lectures grants them the flexibility to engage with your course content at their own pace, from anywhere, and review the material again when working on assignments or preparing for exams.

Universal Benefits for All Students!: The beauty of recorded lectures is that all students benefit from the flexibility they offer. Studies have shown that students consider recorded lectures the most valuable course feature. They appreciate the ability to review previously covered material and gain a deeper understanding of concepts, enhancing their learning experience.

How to Record Your Lectures:

1. Room Facilities: Some campus rooms automatically record and upload your lectures to Mediaspace. Check if your room is equipped with this feature and learn more about it here.
2. Request Access: If your room offers in-built recording capabilities, you can request access to the recorded videos here.
3. DIY with Zoom: If your lecture hall doesn’t have this service, you can set up automatic recording using Zoom on the PC in your lecture hall. Find resources on how to configure Zoom for recording here.

Tips for Success:

• When delivering lectures, focus on your teaching as you always would and don’t overthink things. Having a lecture recording is better than having none! 

Additional Resources: 

• [Website] Engineering Instructor Lecture Capture Checklist
• [Paper] Opportunities and Barriers to UDL-Based Course Designs for InclusiveLearning in Undergraduate Engineering and other STEM Courses

Recorded lectures are a win-win for both faculty and students! Enhance accessibility, convenience, and the overall learning experience by incorporating them into your teaching strategy. If you have any questions or need assistance, don’t hesitate to reach out.

If you ever have questions about how to make this change, want to report problems in your effort to implement this change, or want to get more information, please email the SIIP UDL and Accessibility Group.

Thank you for your interest. If you found this tip helpful, please share it with your colleagues and encourage them to subscribe using the link at the bottom of this email.

See you again next week!

-UDL and Accessibility Group
https://publish.illinois.edu/udl-accessibility-group/
gcoe-udlgroup@illinois.edu