Lecturecast automatically apply closed captions to ALL NEW recordings where associated ASR files have a confidence score greater than 90%

Course administrators and tutors will not need to take any additional steps in Lecturecast to enable closed captions to their media. 

The confidence score of a transcript can be checked by clicking the 'Edit Transcript' button in the transcript editor, as shown on the image on the right. 

Closed captions will NOT be automatically applied to:

• New recordings with a confidence score lower than 90%
• New Zoom videos automatically transferred to Lecturecast
• Older recordings made prior to the 20th September 2022. 

Closed captions can still be manually applied using the 'apply to CC' button in the transcript editor after review/corrections are made.

You simply need to make a small edit to the transcript (this can be as short as adding a comma) and this action will force a reprocessing of file. 

How to manually apply closed captions to your recordings:

1. Open the transcript editor.
2. Click Edit Transcript to open edit mode.
3. Make any changes necessary and save the changes to the transcript.
4. Click the Apply to CC button. This applies the current version of the transcript to the closed captioning file for the video.
5. Review the confirmation message that appears, and click Apply to apply the transcript as closed captions for the media.

More information about closed captions and confidence scores are available on the Echo360 guides. 

Note

Changing the confidence score of an older recording does NOT back-apply closed captions to media with existing transcripts.

In addition, if the recording already has a closed captions track, regardless of how it got there, it will NOT be replaced by transcripts via this feature.

Those media must have closed captions tracks replaced manually if desired, until then the CC button in the player will be inactive as shown on the image on the right.

When a recording is placed in Lecturecast (as a scheduled recording, manually via ALP or by upload) a transcript is automatically generated.

This will take longer to process than the video, but usually no more than two hours and often sooner. 

Course administrators and tutors will not need to take any additional steps in Lecturecast to create a transcript for their media.

How to navigate the transcript editor:

Once the transcript file has been generated, you'll see the Transcript Icon (1) along the top ribbon (see image on the right). 

This allows viewers to have the transcript 'visible' or 'hidden'. 

The full transcript is shown in the right window, with the current speech highlighted. 

The Download Icon (2) allows the viewer to save a copy of the transcript as a .vvt file. 

The Search function (3) will look for matches, with < and > to move back and forward through the results. 

Depending on the accuracy of ASR for a particular recording, the additional work required in providing an accurate transcript can vary greatly.

The most significant factors affecting ASR accuracy are the technical quality of recording (which is largely due to the quality of mic or headset) and the amount of subject-specific vocabulary used.

How to edit a transcript:

• Open the transcript editor.
• Click 'edit transcript' to open edit mode.
• Select the text cue (A) to be updated by clicking on it.
• Move your cursor within the cue to make changes, or select a portion of text to type and replace it, as shown in the image on the right.
• After changing the text, click outside of the cue (B), or click into a different cue to edit.
• If necessary, use the 'undo' or 'redo' buttons (C) to revert/restore your edits.
• When finished, click 'Save As New Version' (D).This creates a new version of the transcript complete with your edits and will be the version users see in the transcript panel in a classroom.

Please refer to the Echo360 guides on accessing and using the transcript editor, for step by step guidance and further information.

Staff not wishing to have a transcript associated with their recording(s) can opt out by deleting a recording's transcript file(s).

To delete a transcript file from a recording:

1. Click on the tile of a recording in your Library to open the media details page.
2. In the bottom section, click the Details tab as shown below.
3. Find the Transcripts entry identified in the below figure. 
4. Click the chevron to the right of Update and select Delete from the drop-down list.