How to put subtitles & closed-captions on Blackboard video courses ?

As remote class is becoming commonplace, teachers need to adapt the classroom setting into the virtual world. With web call (Collaborate) and video hosting (Learn) features, Blackboard is one of the best solution to keep a quality teaching experience.

Blackboard also provides a platform to record and upload video content that add to your teaching. But you need to meet specific accessibility standards for all of your students.

Subtitles are an essential tool to achieve this. Here's how you can adapt your organization to this task.

Why add subtitles to your Blackboard video?

Blackboard is one of the most popular e-learning platforms among universities and educational institutions. The reliability and quality of its video transmission makes it possible to manage a teaching experience almost similar to face-to-face teaching.

However, remote teaching implies adapting to new issues, particularly those related to digital accessibility standards. Some students have hearing or visual impairments that make it difficult for them to take video courses at a distance. For that, Blackboard has already set up devices that help these students navigate and browse the available content.

But subtitles provide an even better experience through reliable and readable visual support. In addition to that, there are other essential benefits to be expected from subtitling:

• Making your courses accessible to deaf and hard of hearing people
• Open your teaching to the many languages and nationalities of your international students.
• Increase the engagement and teaching impact of your content (better understanding and memorization of the message)
• Allow your students to easily quote and bounce back on what you have said

If you are convinced of their importance, here are the different ways to do the job.

Blackboard subtitles: the different solutions

As far as Blackboard Collaborate is concerned, there is only one way to proceed: add an SRT or VTT file in your video settings.
But to get these VTT or SRT files, there are several ways to do it :

• By trying to create it yourself
• Using an automatic subtitle generator
• By calling on a subtitling professional

For the first option, we warn you, it's complicated. Transcription requires a lot of time and very specific skills, which are those of professional transcribers. To create quality subtitles, you need tocomply to specific rules and standards.

For the second option, automatic subtitling solutions can greatly facilitate the work, but still require human intervention.

For the third option, subtitling experts can handle your video projects with guaranteed quality results.

Here we present our professional subtitling solution, Checksub. It will save you time by combining the benefits of a subtitle generator with the collaboration of experts.

Blackboard Subtitle Generator: the step-by-step method

As speech-to-text technologies have become widespread, you can find a growing number of captioning solutions on the Web. However, professional solutions are the most reliable for high-volume, high-demand projects.

We present here our professional subtitling platform (in collaboration with agencies and freelancers). It integrates useful features:

• An advanced speech recognition API
• A collaborative interface with subtitlers and translators to manage your video project
• An automatic translation engine to translate your video, with 128 different languages available.
• A powerful and easy-to-use online subtitle editor

This is the fastest and easiest way to proceed with our subtitling solution.

1# Upload your course on the interface

To get started, login to the Checksub platform. By logging in, you will have direct access to the platform to upload your video. Select your content and indicate its original language. You can also choose between several languages to make a translation if necessary.

To try the platform, you have one hour free. If this is not enough, you can buy credits at a low price.

The API will then perform the speech recognition and provide you with the result in a few minutes.

2# Check and optimize the transcription

When the result is ready, you can click on the language of your video and access the dedicated subtitle editor to check and optimize the synchronization.

3# Import the VTT or SRT file on Blackboard Collaborate

Now that you are satisfied with the result, you can upload your .srt or .vtt file from the "export" button. Simply upload it to the video interface of your educational platform.

Use a professional subtitling service : Checksub

As you can see, with such a solution, you can get subtitles and make them available in no time. But it's also true that it can still take a lot of effort, especially if you have a large volume of content.

We are well aware of this, which is why you can contact our professional subtitling services directly from the interface. These experts will take care of your video projects and deliver them on time.

You won't have to worry about that anymore and you'll get a flawless result. Don't hesitate to call on these services!

What are the educational benefits of transcription?

Another interesting pedagogical tool, textual transcripts give additional teaching support to your students. It can also convert your content into notes and documents!

Here are how you can benefit from it:

• You provide a visual support that your learners can easily pick up and memorize.
• You can turn your impromptu classes or video meetings directly into notes and learning materials.
• You allow an audience that has comprehension problems or wants to save time to read a summary of your communication.

Again, it is quite difficult to do this alone. There are many online transcription software packages on the market that will allow you to do it just as well. Checksub is one of them.

We'll let you try it out. If not, we hope we've helped you make your students' eyes shine!