Transcription and captioning services for online educators

In the past, online educators used English as the primary language of communication but they quickly came to the realization that not all viewers were English speakers. And this must have contributed to the quick popularity of captions and subtitles. The latter not only favor non-native speakers but also caters to an audience with special needs such as the hard of hearing, people with ADHD, etc.

Video captioning is not just about turning subtitles on. If you ever watched a YouTube video with subtitles, then you are probably familiar with some of the misleading autogenerated captions. As a tutor, incorrect captions can miscommunicate your idea and the content you meant to teach, and a lack of captions can also reduce your audience base by a very big margin. It may seem irrelevant, but investing in the wrong video transcription and captioning service can even kill your tutoring business.

So how do you decide on what tools to work with as an online educator? Simply take time to review some of the most recommended captioning services; their strengths, weaknesses, and compatibility with your services.

In this guide, we are going to look at the factors to consider while selecting a good captioning service, and the top 5 transcription and captioning services that meet this criteria.

Factors to Consider in Choosing the Best Transcription and Captioning Services

• Accuracy of captions: This is especially critical for the translated text. Ensure that your chosen captioning service can accurately translate your speech to the target language.
• Multiple Language Support: Educational content can be consumed by anyone from all over the world, but only if it is comprehensible. Choosing a captioning service that guarantees multiple language selections eliminates the need to hire more native speakers to translate your content to a global audience.
• Compatibility with Learning Management Systems (LMS): Most online tutors use video storage and conferencing tools alongside LMS for their courses. A good captioning service should be able to provide an SRT or SCC caption file required by online video platforms for captioning.
• Pricing: Most captioning services charge between $1-$5 per audio minute. Anything above this may not be cost-effective.
• Turnaround Time: A fast turnaround time is anything below 72 hours. However, most captioning services are way faster and can guarantee an accurately captioned video within 24 hours.
• User-friendliness– A captioning service is considered user-friendly under two circumstances. The first is ease of use, where even a beginner can navigate. The second and most critical one is compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Standards which requires all captioning services to be accessible to people with disabilities.

Comparison of the Best Transcription and Captioning Services for Online Educators

1. Auris AI

Auris AI is a leading online transcription & translation software. The platform allows educators and other business owners to automatically generate transcripts and captions for free. These captions can be translated into different languages so your online classes can be understood by more students. Auris AI also has a team of professional translators that help users in generating curated, error-free captions for videos.

Key Features

• The platform is intuitive and easy to use; supporting over 16 different global languages.
• It provides all users 30 free monthly minutes, which resets every month.
• Meets ADA standards
• It guarantees 85-95% caption accuracy

2. 3Play Media

3Play Media is one of the best video captioning, transcription, and audio description softwares in the market.

Key Features

• Captions are highly accurate; curated by people from different localities.
• It complies with ADA, FCC, and CVAA.Standards
• Compatible with other video platforms such as Kaltura, and Panopto.
• Costs $2.95 per minute for closed captioning and transcription.
• Supports over 50 different file formats

3. Rev

Rev is a speech-to-text transcription software that helps businesses to add transcripts, captions, and subtitles to their videos.

Key Features

• Complies with ADA
• Compatible with other video platforms such as Kaltura, Brightcove, and Panopto.
• Provides 99% accuracy for closed captions. Custom glossaries for course-specific jargon are also available.
• Costs $1.50 per audio minute
• It has a turnaround time of 24 hours
• Rev is user-friendly; signing up and uploading coursework takes a few minutes.

4. Verbit

Provides accurate captions & transcription of live and recorded videos.

Key Features

• The captions are 99% accurate.
• Meets ADA and FCC standards
• Costs $1.83 per audio minute
• Has a standard turnaround time of 3 days

5. Captioning Star

This is a closed captioning service designed to help businesses upload transcripts and embed captions in videos.

Key features

• Captions are 99% accurate
• Costs $2.75 for both captions and transcription
• Automatic captions have a faster turnaround time but manual captioning guarantees higher accuracy with a longer turnaround time.

Create Accurate Captions for Your Video Tutorials

Auris AI allows you to add accurately translated subtitles to your recorded lessons; covering over 17 Asian languages. We have linguists and translation experts to help transform your captions into error-free, easy-to-read texts for non-English-speaking students. You can also easily generate automatic SRT files without going through the video footage.