This session will cover the basics of video captioning, including accessibility laws, emerging web standards, best practices, and workflows for lecture capture and video platforms. It will also cover the results of two national studies on closed captioning in higher education, conducted by Oregon State University + 3Play Media.
This session will cover the basics of captioning for accessible online video, including captioning basics, applicable accessibility laws, as well as best practices for creating captions, the use of different captions formats, video player compatibility, impact of HTML5 and mobile devices, and workflow options for lecture capture and video platforms. We will look at the numerous benefits of captioning that enhance the learning experience for all viewers.
This session will also demonstrate how to leverage captions to create a searchable video library that allows users to search across an entire archive of videos and jump to any point they want in a video. This is an invaluable tool for e-learning, as it allows students to quickly search for pieces of lectures that they want to review for exams or papers without having to blindly search through videos using nothing but a play bar.
Finally, we’ll look at the results from two national research studies on closed captioning, conducted by Oregon State University's Ecampus Research Unit in collaboration with 3Play Media. These studies are the first of their kind in higher education, and the results provide valuable insight into the state of closed captioning at the institutional level. The first study looks at how students across sub-groups (in addition to those with accommodations requests) are using closed captions and transcripts to improve their learning experience, as well as common hindrances reported by the students surveyed. The second study covers institutional solutions for complying with closed captioning regulations.
Both studies were approved by the IRB at Oregon State University. Over 2,000 students from 15 colleges and universities participated in the student study; over 50 staff members responded to the institutional study. The schools and students responding represent a mixture of large, small, public, and private colleges and universities across all regions of the US.
Further, we will look at:
- whether institutions are prioritizing captioning
- how they are budgeting for captioning
- whether efforts have been centralized
- which people and departments are involved in captioning decisions
- whether colleges & universities are meeting legal requirements for captioning
- how much captioning is currently being done, and
- how awareness for captioning is being spread across campus
Together, these surveys provide a clearer picture of the benefits, solutions, complications, and direction of closed captioning in higher education.