Video and Audio: Captions and Transcripts

Overview

When you use video and/or audio content (such as video lectures and podcasts) in your Bruin Learn site, this content must include text-based alternatives so that all users can access the content. Not only is this a legal requirement, it also benefits all learners by providing multiple means of engagement. You have likely enabled captions or subtitles yourself when viewing media, or found it helpful to review a transcript accompanying an interesting podcast episode. 

At UCLA common media tools including Zoom and Kaltura (where videos are uploaded/stored in Bruin Learn) will provide captions for you.  However, you should still review these for errors and to catch if the media was not captioned correctly. 

How to Create (or Enable) Captions and Transcripts

Zoom Captioning and Transcripts

Ensure that Zoom meetings for your course, discussion section, and/or office hours are accessible by enabling automated captioning. Zoom supports captioning in multiple languages. Learn how to enable captions here: Enabling automated captions.

You can also record and share Zoom meetings to your Bruin Learn course site with captions and transcripts. See How to record and share a Zoom Lecture/Meeting (w/ captions and transcripts) for information on how to do this.

Automated Captioning in Kaltura

Kaltura, Bruin Learn’s video hosting and streaming service, automatically generates captions and an interactive transcript for uploaded media.

Here is a guide to adding media to your course site with Kaltura: As an instructor, how do I add videos in Bruin Learn using Kaltura?

Here is an example of a video uploaded with Kaltura. Click on it to see both the captions and transcripts available. To enable captions click on the “CC” at the bottom of the video. To enable transcripts click on the icon in the upper right corner that looks like a document.

 Edit Kaltura Captions

To edit auto-generated captions in Kaltura media, follow these steps:

1. Login to Bruin Learn.
2. Navigate to My Media, which you can find in the Account menu. 
3. Locate the media that has captions you want to modify, and click the Edit (pencil) icon to the right of the title to open the editing page.
4. Click Captions.
5. Click Edit Captions.
6. The left pane displays the captions and timestamps, the right pane shows the video preview. Simply scroll through the captions or play the video and watch the captions to find inaccuracies. Pause the playback and click on the caption to make corrections.
7. You can also use “search and replace” for common mistakes and add speakers using the Add Speaker option.
8. Once you have finished editing captions, be sure to click Save and Yes to save your changes.
   
   Learn more about caption editing in this help article from Kaltura: Edit captions.

Additional guidance

This UCLA Brand web page, Accessibility: Audio and Video, provides information on Captions, How to Caption, Live Captions, Transcripts and Audio Descriptions.