3 Reasons for Students to Start Using Video Captions

As we get further into the remote semester, students are likely getting used to online lectures and classes. However, one thing that may still be unprecedented to online learners is presenting over zoom.

While this may not seem like a tough change, technology can often create barriers in online learning where it's not currently filling in the gaps. This is where you might want to consider ways to make presenting over zoom a little less daunting between classes, and a great way to do this is to add captions to your presentations for projects or other assignments.

Below are three key benefits students can expect when using captions on their videos.

Better Comprehension

When you're presenting a project for a grade, it's important that you get your point across quickly and concisely. Project presentations often have a time limit and we all know what it's like to be under the pressure of a deadline. Take the pressure off by adding captions to your presentation videos. This decreases any misunderstandings that may occur with the information you're putting forth, as well as reiterating in text what you've said to avoid too many questions when you've finished. Ensuring that other students, and especially your professor, can clearly understand what you submit to them is a huge benefit to adding captions to your online presentations.

Flexible Viewing

A lot of students may currently find themselves learning from home for the first time, and home isn't always a calm, collected, or peaceful place. Whether you live with a large family, have a particularly noisy roommate, or are prone to loud noises outside your window (like construction or traffic sounds) captioning your presentations can help eliminate any issues that sound pollution causes. By adding text at the bottom of the screen that outlines what you're saying, you avoid any mishaps caused by noise on your end, and allow other students who might be facing the same issues to pay close attention even if there's some disruptive sound in their at-home learning environment.

Transferability

Utilizing closed captioning allows you to re-use the information you've presented long after the initial delivery. If you're planning on using what you've covered in your calls or videos for other purposes, automated captions based on your audio are a great way for your content to transfer over to other areas. This allows you to simply copy and paste everything you've said into other documents, creating an easy way to produce presentation notes, share your information between students, or even to study with at a later time. No matter what, if you're presenting information over zoom and it isn't a one-and-done situation, using automatically transcribed captions for your video will allow you to take the information you've presented with you after your zoom call has ended.

Captions are easy to add to your videos or presentations with the help of automated transcription software. Using machine transcribed audio to create captions allows you to take advantage of all the benefits we've listed above without the added manual labour. With no extra work and all these reasons to do so, why not use automated transcription software to add captions to your next presentation for class?