1. Adding Meaning To Media
Pat Brogan, Ph.D.
Automatic Sync Technologies
June 2009

2. Adding Meaning To Media
Why caption and transcribe
Benefits and Penalties
Research
Selecting Media
Captioning options and process
Creative ways to fund captioning

3. Pat Brogan Bias- Passion for leveraging technology for learning
30+ years professional engagement
Hardware, software companies: IBM, Apple, Macromedia, Academic Systems, Echo360
Dissertation and Research on rich-media & distance learning
Worked with standards on elearning (SCORM, LOM, Accessibility)
Adjunct marketing professor SCU
Highly influenced by motherhood, non-profit work with at-risk youth

4. About AST
Founded in 1998 post-US Dept of Education grant (SBIR program)
Provides transcripts, and automated, web-based, offline captioning for variety of media formats (40)
Used by customers
Outstanding price, service and quality

5. Adding Meaning to Media through Captioning
Improve learning outcomes by delivering a richer variety of learning materials
Primary source of input for deaf and hard of hearing
Support different learning styles and skills
Reinforce language and literacy skills, ESL
Fit more learning environments
Mobility, privacy, devices, bandwidth
Make content discoverable, navigable, reusable
Accessibility compliance with legislation and policy mandates: Federal, State & Local, system, institution

6. Close your eyes and think about the image the word “caption” evokes
Challenge:
Close your eyes and think about the image the word “caption” evokes

7. TV Subtitles?

8. Foreign Language Subtitles?

11. It’s Not Just About The Deaf
Majority of caption users are not hearing impaired
It’s more than just TV

12. Supporting Disabled Students

13. Changing The Model As The Models Change
Move from accommodation to Universal Design
Provide learners with control, options
Transcripts instead of note-takers
Recorded lectures for those immobile?
Re-think “transmissive pedagogical” models --Park egos about attendance
Andragogy vs. Pedagogy
Just in time vs. just in case learning
Appreciate preemptive multitasking, social networking modality of digital natives

14. Appreciate Research
“Augmenting an auditory experience with captions more than doubles the retention and comprehension levels.” Gary Robson, The Closed Captioning Handbook
“People retain about 20% of what they hear, 30% of what they see, and 50% of what they hear and see.” Dales Learning Cone of Experience (
Confucius :"Tell me and I'll forget. Show me and I'll remember. Involve me and I'll understand”

15. More Research
Adult students that used captioned video presentations progressed significantly better than those using traditional literacy techniques. Benjamin Michael Rogner, Adult Literacy: Captioned Videotapes and Word Recognition
Dual Coding Theory postulates that both visual and verbal information are processed differently and along distinct channels with the human mind creating separate representations for information processed in each channel. Allan Paivio, University of Western Ontario

16. Multi-Modal Learning
Use 2 or more senses to avoid sensory overload (Granström, House, & Karlsson 2002, Clark & Mayer 2003)
Read it: transcripts of the instructor‘s presentation are available
Hear it: audio of the instructor maps to the video of the presentation
See it: presentation materials, screenshots, and diagrams appear on-screen synchronized with the instructor‘s words
Do it!

17. Learning Outcomes: SFSU Study
Instructional video materials delivered randomly to students-50% with captions 50% without
Two trends emerged:
No captions: students were quite passive and silent during class discussions - with the "usual speakers" dominating the conversation and generalizations were pervasive.
With captions: students were more engaged and responsive to the questions asked about the film. In a similar vein, students made interesting analogies to their everyday lives and reference to specific information and events from the video was much more abundant.
GPAs were 1 full point higher with population exposed to captions
Source: And Captions For All? A Case Study of the Relevance of Using Captions in a College Classroom by Robert Keith Collins, Assistant Professor, American Indian Studies

18. Students Speak-SJSU Better Absorption of Material
“It helped me to catch words that I didn't understand, and also helped with spelling.”
“It allows me to ‘pause’ the lecture and take notes from the captions when my note-taking lags behind the spoken lecture.”
“I caught several things the second time around reading captions that I did not listening the first time around.”
Allows Better Interactivity with Course Material
“I much prefer the captioned lectures and being able to look at the links while you are talking. So far this has been the BEST online class I've taken at SJSU, others should learn from your example.”

19. Students Speak Diversifies Delivery of Video Media
“I was able to ‘read’ at my desk without having the audio turned on so that others in my office wouldn't be bothered.”
“Captions also allow you to view videos when you are in a situation where you are not able to use sound.”

20. Captions Improve: Searchability, Discoverability, Navigability
Captions and transcript text can be used as meta-data for SEO (search engine optimization)
Can work with variety of tools: Google video, AST search, Reelsurfer
CNET captioned video drove 30% increase in Google hits

21. The Stick: Accessibility & Legal Compliance
Federal, State and Local, System-wide, campus initiatives
Federal Accessibility legislation: ADA, Section 504, Section 508
NY, TX, MO, NC, VA, IL, OK, CA have accessibility laws for education. Missouri passed captioning law for publishers with treble damage penalties
State law summary at:

22. Section 508 requires Federal electronic and information technology to be accessible to people with disabilities, including employees and members of the public.
§ Web-based intranet and internet information and applications. This section applies to all websites and is not unique to training materials or online courses. The standard requires that web content be constructed and tagged in a manner that enables the effective use of screen readers and other technologies that allow people with disabilities to access internet content. The commercial marketplace includes numerous design tools, checking methods, and training courses to assist website owners to comply with Section 508.
§ Video and multimedia products. This section contains two provisions that apply explicitly to training and informational video and multimedia productions. These provisions require a) captioning of any speech or other audio information that is necessary for the comprehension of the material and b) audio descriptions of any visual information that is necessary for the comprehension of the material.

23. Legal Precedents Non-compliance results in civil rights actions
Lawsuits:
Target
AOL UC

24. Scope of “Captionable” Media
University Communications (Promo and news videos)
Distance Learning materials, Podcasts
Recorded classes and learning objects
VHS/DVD library archives
Broadcast productions
Special Event videos
Student content

25. Content Portals iTunes U YouTube Campus LMS; media servera
250+ universities, 175K educational content items, 58M users
YouTube
160+ Universities, 30K videos
Campus LMS; media servera
Lecture Capture systems
Academic Earth, Facebook, Twitter

26. Why Use Content Portals?
Extensive adoption=distribution
Minimal training/ end user support
Inexpensive
Ubiquitous, cross-platform and devices
Adds value to brand
Creates framework to sell content

27. Making Content Accessible
Consistent with Universal Design Principles
Caption and sync video
Provide transcripts+ of audio
Audio descriptions for video

28. Accesible iTunes U Content
For Audio only/Podcast add a transcript
For VODcast (.m4v) add captions and a transcript
AST can provide transcript and .scc file, additional integration step needed.
How to movie at:
For video: line 21

29. Adding Content to iTunes U

32. QuickTime Captioning Options

34. YouTube Accessibility
Need to do screen shot for this but snagit doesn’t work on mac so I need another tool

37. Accessible Echo360 Recorded Lecture

38. Echo360 Automated Captioning Workflow

39. Creative Uses of Transcripts & Captions
Students retain more if they are able to 'read ahead' and have more of the transcript visible

40. VTE’s Providing a Full Transcript Offers:
The ability to perform deep searches
The ability to print, download, and annotate course materials to improve retention.
VTE allows the student to unlink the transcript and treat it as a standalone asset. Additional time to review materials. In some cases, students may not natively speak the instructor‘s language.
Having a verbatim transcript allows them to pause the audio lecture and look up words they need to clarify without missing any of the material.
Compliance with American with Disabilities Act (ADA) standards.

42. Deciding What to Caption & Transcribe
Type of content
Shelf Life
Volume
Translation and or transcription
Lectures
Short
High
Maybe
Supplemental
learning
Long
Low
Yes
Distance learning
Short or long
Events
Both
Student content No

43. Prioritizing Captioning Projects
Critical Accommodations
Distance Learning classes and materials
Public information
Training materials
Events, communications
Recorded lectures

44. Evaluating Captioning Solutions
Does it meet the need? Accuracy, quality, speed…
Cost?
Reliability?
Scalability?
Ease of use: minimal impact on workflow?

45. Captioning Approaches Considered:
Realtime vs.Offline
Student labor
Speech Recognition solutions
Outsource captioning vendors

46. Initial Findings
Stakeholders did not all fully appreciate the scope of the problem, what is required to create a compliant result, or the cost involved.
Individual campuses did not have adequate resources to leverage bulk discounts.
Search for a “silver bullet” solution sometimes kept people from finding reliable, effective solutions.

47. Initial Findings
Large-scale student-based transcription was difficult to build and scale reliably; more expensive than it first seems.
Speech Rec solutions do not produce a compliant, usable result due to high error rates. The labor cost to repair the results makes them uncompetitive.
Most campuses were already working with or experimenting with Automatic Sync Technologies.

48. Effect of Errors
Predicted Result

49. Effect of Errors
Actual Test

50. Submission Options Web-based user interface Lecture capture uploads
Tools available for batch uploads
Interface for automated upload processes (eg: CNET)
Mail-in service for VHS/DVDs

51. Submitting through the Web UI
Provide your media file and transcript file (if available)
Set up your “Advanced Settings”
Press “Submit”
Do not kill the status bar
Do not make multiple submissions at once
Check the time for the upload on the status page

52. Accessing Existing Jobs
Can sort jobs in a variety of ways to locate jobs.
Can retrieve transcripts
Can retrieve results (for up to one year)
Can issue “redos”

53. Transcription
Notes to Transcriber
Review Transcript
Redo feature

54. Redo Feature Can change the transcript or any advanced settings
Cannot change the “Application Type”
Available for 6 months after submission

55. Account Settings
Change your contact info
Configure what notices you get

56. Helpful info
Help page

57. Other Resources
The CSU Intro video is at:
Take a look at AST’s home page for more information:
Examine our growing series of “how-to” videos (all captioned!) at:
Info for Flash captioning:
Info for Podcast captioning: