There are several reasons to caption videos:
What are some of the software options?
What are the advantages of using software for captioning (as opposed to having people do it)?
The advantage of using software would be the cost savings. It costs roughly $160 per hour of video to have a transcription company create captions for your video. Although it takes a lot of time to do it via software (about 8-10 hours per hour of video), you would save much of that transcription fee even if you paid a student to do it for you.
What are the disadvantages?
The biggest disadvantage is the time spent creating the captions (it's quite tedious), and the expense if you paid someone to do it using software. Sometimes it is much quicker to send a video out to a transcription company rather than do it in-house if it is needed quickly. Many of them can turn the project around in a few days or even faster for a premium fee.
What's the best way for a faculty member to caption a video they are using in a course?
That will depend on how long the video is, how soon they need it, whether or not they want to do it themselves or send it out, and what resources (money and time) they can throw at the project. Longer videos and/or those that need to be turned around quickly might be better done by a transcription company, such as 3PlayMedia or AutomaticSync Technologies if you have the financial resources, but shorter videos and those that do not need to be done quite so quickly could be done in house using the software. We hope to someday create some type of service for Penn State where faculty can send a video and have it captioned, where the decision to do it in house or outsourced would be made by the service.
]]>"For students, it is not always clear that the return on their investment will be positive, as a degree no longer guarantees a job. If education is both expensive and has a low ROI, the demand for traditional education is likely to fall."
]]>"There is something about composing your posts with a text editor, and generating a static site from the collection of files that is just wonderful to me. I know it has no business for the mass of people, and the web had become so rich due to ease of posting. But for someone like me, I am so intrigued by cutting out all the complications of databases, scaling, using web-based editors. At the same time, I also like some dynamic components on my site – like comments."
Next, we have yet another must-read post about design, art, and technology from Dave Stong, TLT graphic designer. Dave shares with us a layout experiment that combines his artistic skills with software.
"I'm looking for the right format and layout for a Plato dialog I've been wanting to illustrate. I wrote about it once before when I was first fishing about for a delivery method. Web based now seems fine. I have three pages roughed, but the standard strips on standard pages just don't seem too interesting."
Next we have Ken Layng, TLT training specialist, who offers steps for captioning Adobe Connect meetings and recordings. This is a good read for those concerned with accessibility issues.
Keeping with the accessibility theme, Elizabeth Pyatt, TLT instructional designer, has a helpful tip on how to determine if a piece of verbage is text or an image of text.
"Within a PDF or even stylized text on a Web page, an important accessibility question is whether a piece of verbage is really text or is an image of text. For accessibility, this is important for determining whether you need to worry about the ALT tag or not."
Finally, we have a blog post about a change you may have noticed on the Penn State home page - the psu.edu site is being redesigned (in steps). Robin Smail, TLT disruptive technologist, gives us an insider's look at what exactly is going on with this mammoth undertaking.
"Actually, today's change is a relatively small one, and only the first of several changes that will be made over the next several months. This effort, which started last September, is an amazing process, and unlike anything I've seen here at Penn State on this scope. We're talking about taking web design to an entirely new level, and doing things the right way. Research. Usability studies. Focus groups. Iterative design."
That's all for this week's BuzzLion. Thanks for reading.
]]>Please click on the link to hear the podcast.
To read the podcast transcript, please click here.
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Assistant professor of biology Lauraine Hawkins shares her experience with using a variety of word games to help students master technical vocabulary. Activities she will discuss include Hangman, available from the Educational Gaming Commons (EGC) website, ANGEL crosswords, and word search. Participants can discuss activities that can be quickly set to help students master course terminology and will be introduced to EGC gaming systems such as Hangman.
The event is one in a series of spring brown bags to take place the third Wednesday of each month, hosted by Information Technology Services.
To register, visit http://its.psu.edu/training/ and select "Register for Training."
]]>"I’m about to start Day 2 of a meeting to examine the 10-year history of the Horizon Report. Last night was scheduled as a reception, but that launched right into a couple of presentations and a large discussion about what the Horizon Report has done so far, what it has predicted accurately, and how we use it for inspiration as we look to implement new projects of our own. This is a panographic view of the visual summary created by David Sibbet that represents out discussion. Seeing that method of visual facilitation has already made this trip worthwhile."
Next we have Brad Kozlek, TLT programming manager, who comments on a recent Daily Buzz article about a Penn State student who used an iPad to save him from having to pay big printing fees.
"Student’s classes were requiring so much printing, it costs a single student 15 dollars a week. That would 450 dollars after two semesters. The iPad doesn’t seem too expensive compared to that."
Dave Stong, TLT graphic designer, shares with us one of his iStudy for Success! comics. He makes a note about one of the characters, a returning adult student who is being bossy in a group project.
"Deena was especially grating to me in this dialog. As a returning adult student, she has a few experiences and insights beyond those of her younger colleagues, and it's easy for someone in that position to come across to the rest of a team as bossy rather than helpful."
Heidi Watson, TLT instructional designer, often offers great tips Technology Training Community Blog. This week she shares with us a fantastic screen capture application.
"This screen capture app does a great job with the normal screen capture. It also allows you to enhance your images with arrows, text and effects. SnagIt also works to “snag” websites, text and even video. With SnagIt you can record your screen actions as AVI. SnagIt stores images for later use even if you don’t save them. This program offers some simle editing tools that help to manipulate images. Snag it allows you to share your creation via email and social media."
Carol McQuiggan, instructional designer with Penn State Harrisburg, attended a workshop titled "Teaching Millennial Students" and shares what she learned about this group via the Penn State Harrisburg Faculty Center for Teaching and Instructional Technology blog.
"They organized the discussion around four topics: Environment: Classroom climate, Students: Mindset about learning, Instructor: Scaffold student learning, and Tasks: Student work. We began by collectively taking a quiz from the Pew Research Center - How Millennial Are You? (Also see http://pewresearch.org/millennials/.) This quiz is helpful to become familiar with characteristics of the millennial generation, and also to discover which characteristics you might share with them."
Finally, we would be remiss if we didn't acknowledge the passing of Joe Paterno, a huge loss for the Penn State community and beyond. Chris Long, associate dean of Undergraduate Studies at the College of Liberal Arts, offers a farewell that looks at Paterno's impact within his College.
"Joe Paterno said that he wanted to be remembered as an educator who made Penn State a better place. However impressive his record as a football coach, his most lasting and meaningful legacy remains the contributions he has made to enrich the educational lives of our students. Nowhere has this legacy been more palpably felt or more deeply appreciated than in the College of the Liberal Arts."
That's all for this week's BuzzLion. Thanks for reading.
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The following issues have been fixed:
In addition, Firefox version 7 is now a supported browser for use with ANGEL, following testing against this service pack update by Blackboard.
ANGEL users can now reference a list of identified ANGEL issues that have not yet been fixed by selecting the Known ANGEL Issues link at the bottom of the ANGEL logon page (http://cms.psu.edu/), in the upper left of the ANGEL Help and Information Guide (http://kb.its.psu.edu/cms/), or on the ANGEL support contact form (https://cms.psu.edu/psad/psad20/support.asp).
]]>"Working, as I do, on a college campus, I learn in some very public places. Only two minutes ago, I overheard a group conversation in the ladies room. It went something like this: 'I got an 85 on mine. What did you get on yours? Did he write anything on your paper? No, he didn't write anything on mine either. He just gave me a number. I don't get it. I do the assignment and he takes points off. I don't even know why. It's stupid! Why can't he write something so we know why he gave us this grade?'"
Next, we have some art from Dave Stong, Teaching and Learning with Technology (TLT) graphic designer. Dave has a great post that gets inside an artist's mind (his own) on how he combines technology and traditional art methods to create a few outstanding scenes of State College's newly renovated Fraser Street.
"I've drawn Fraser Street a few times before. The affect the view has intrigues me. Now, with the sweep of the new street layout and the fancy lights and sidewalk, it's more remarkable."
Giant bologna and RSS feeds are the subjects of a recent blog post by Brad Kozlek, TLT programming manager. He looks at an RSS feed tool for the iPhone and iPad, reeder, and how it has revolutionized how he reads blogs. You'll have to see for yourself what bologna has to do with all this.
"I still use google reader and RSS as my main avenue for keeping up with blogs and news. Maybe I am old fashioned. I don’t use the google reader web interface anymore. I mainly use reeder on my iPhone and iPad. I use the mac version when I am checking on my laptop."
Rachael Green, an undergraduate English student, posted this week about the exciting new Knowledge Commons space in the Pattee/Paterno Library. Writing in the College of Liberal Arts LAUS @ PSU blog, Rachael offers us a sneak peak at this incredible facility.
"The Knowledge Commons is a multi-million dollar, privately funded enterprise focused on making the library more user-friendly for all. The renovations take up the first floor of Pattee Library, and there is a new head librarian specifically in charge of this area: Joe Fennewald, a librarian from the Worthington Scranton campus. There will be a larger, more updated computer lab, which houses easily the coolest feature of the new library: the librarians who will always be around to help out with any questions students have. These librarians will be able to take their extensive knowledge of books, the CAT, new technologies, and other library resources to help you with anything you may need, be it advice on projects, papers, or just a refresher on some of the new tech available for you to use in and outside of class. Though the library has so much for us already, the Knowledge Commons will make it that much easier for everyone to have immediate access to the best resource our library has to offer: the expertise of those who work there."
Elizabeth Pyatt, TLT instructional designer, has a fairly radical proposal. She suggests "Ditching the Final Paper for a Blog."
"To break the mold for both the students and myself, I decided that the final assignment would be for students to use the Blogs at Penn State to create a mini-informational site. The topics would be similar to a final paper, but the product would be different."
Finally, it's getting closer than you think to TLT Symposium time - March 24 will be here before you know it. Get a quick update from Robin Smail, TLT disruptive technologist, on what's going on with planning for this always outstanding event.
"Now that we're back from break and diving into a brand new year, preparations kick into high gear on the TLT Symposium. I can't believe that there's only 72 days until this year's event. There's still a lot to do, but I enjoy watching the event take shape as pieces begin to fall into place. Symposium is incredibly well organized, and I'm always amazed at how smooth operations and logistics are every year. It's really a pleasure to work on this event."
That's all for this week's BuzzLion - thanks for reading!