Captioning resources for faculty

The University accessibility compliance guidelines require all instructional video content to have captions. The Instructional Design & Educational Technology group of the Office of Digital Learning can provide closed captioning services for academic credit course video content (and advise about options for other content).

Captioning services for instructional videos

Faculty can request captions for their instructional content by emailing captions@unr.edu. Video content should be uploaded to the My Media repository in WebCampus (if not already). Please include the title of the videos as they appear in your My Media with your captioning request and indicate when the video will be used. You do not need to attach the video files to your request. Please allow at least 7 days for captioning requests to be completed.

Please note: Due to limited resources and funding constraints, the Office of Digital Learning can only provide captioning services for instructional content for academic credit courses.

Zoom automatic captions for cloud recordings

Zoom will automatically create machine captions for your Zoom cloud recordings. Generally, these captions are about 90%+ accurate. If you have a student who requires accurate captions due to a hearing impairment, these captions may need to be edited for accuracy. Consult captions@unr.edu with any questions.

Self-service captioning resources for faculty

YouTube

YouTube allows you to use their automatic captioning tool to create rough captions for your video files. These captions require editing before they can be used for course materials because the accuracy is limited. That being said, it is a cost-effective way to create captions for your video content.

Camtasia

Faculty can request Camtasia licensing through OIT. Camtasia offers the ability to edit existing captions or to create new captions. It also provides an easy mechanism for converting your existing script into captions for your video. Additional resources for Camtasia are available on the Office of Digital Learning website.

Aegisub

You can download the Aegisub software from their website. It is free software and allows you to manually create subtitles. There is no automation in this process, so it is the most time consuming and complicated but it is the cheapest option in regards to money spent (but not time spent).

My Media

For content in your My Media area in WebCampus, existing captions can be edited for accuracy if needed. To do so, click on the video, then select the arrow beside Actions and choose Edit. On the next screen select the Captions tab, then choose Edit Captions and save your changes.

The matrix below shows some of the resources available and the trade-offs in terms of cost, time and technical difficulty. If you create captions yourself, please adhere to the DCMP Captioning Key for guidelines.

Matrix of tradeoffs and costs for captioning video content
Video player Time Cost Difficulty
YouTube Medium Low Medium
Aegisub High Low High
Camtasia Medium Medium Medium
My Media Medium Low Low

Showing closed captions when showing a DVD in the classroom

In most of the centrally scheduled classrooms on campus, you will use the computer to play a DVD. The default software for playing DVDs in the classroom is VLC media player.

Library streaming services

The University Libraries provides access to a variety of streaming video collections. For more information about finding and using streaming video from the University Libraries, see the Streaming Video guide.