Caption that!

We all know that video captions can increase accessibility for English learners and students with hearing difficulties or learning disabilities, but were you aware that captions increase comprehension for all students? If you are making and sharing your own YouTube videos, you should consider taking just a few extra minutes to add captions. It's easy and it will enhance learning for your students. Here's how:

1. Log in to YouTube.


2. Click on the icon in the upper right to see the YouTube and Google Account menu links. Click on Video Manager.
   


3. Click the dropdown menu next to the Edit button for the video you would like to caption. Select Captions.
   


4. At this point, you may see that your video already has automatic captions generated by YouTube's speech recognition technology. You can either edit these or upload a completely new caption file. Follow the appropriate steps below.

To edit existing captions (either automatic or captions you have uploaded previously):

1. Click on the caption track. The caption track panel will open.
   


2. Click inside the caption track panel and edit the text.


3. Scroll to the bottom and Save or Save a copy (for automatic captions).
   

If you want to add new captions, you have two options. You can either type them up first and use them as a script while recording your video (usually my preferred method since I like to have a script anyway) or you can record your video, then listen to it and type up what you said.

To add new captions from a file:

1. Make sure you have saved your file as a .txt file. On a Mac, you may wish to create the file in TextEdit. On a PC, you would use Notepad.


2. Click the large blue Add captions button. Select Upload a file.
   


3. 
   

   Set your track language. If you choose to add a track name, it will be displayed when viewers click the cc button below your video; otherwise the track language name (English) will be shown.

   
   


4. Click Upload, browse to the file with your captions, and click Open. The text will be automatically synced with your video.
   

To add new captions by typing up what you said after you have recorded the video:

1. Click the large blue Add captions button. Select Transcribe and sync.
   


2. Set your track language. If you choose to add a track name, it will be displayed when viewers click the cc button below your video; otherwise the track language name (English) will be shown.


3. When you have finished, click Sync.

I strongly encourage you to try adding captions to your videos. It won't take you long and your students will thank you for it (and even they don't say anything, they will still be thankful).

 

If you'd like to read more about the benefits of video captions for students, you may want to take a look at these articles:

• Video captions increase comprehension, Science Daily


• Captioned media: Literacy support for diverse learners, Reading Rockets

Tech note: Screenshots for this post were created using Skitch. I chose this application because it creates text with a background shadow that makes it easier to read when the image is small, as it is here.