Higher Education Speech-to-Text: How, Why and When To Get Started With Rev

Modern educators have modern communication needs. Speech-to-text is the perfect solution. From transcription to subtitles, you can easily adhere to ADA requirements and improve student engagement and retention. 

Not sure where to start?

Here are the most common ways teachers and administrators use Rev to be up and running in minutes.

Educational Transcription

There are many ways to use transcription in your educational career. Teachers commonly transcribe conference calls to help ensure essential document points are covered. It reduces the need to take notes, freeing you to focus on the speakers and content.

Other perks include more effective communication since details are written down and can’t be remembered incorrectly later.

Whether you transcribe meetings with parents or peers, there’s value in getting things written down. From a liability standpoint, it’s pretty useful, too. No one can dispute what you’ve covered in a school board meeting, performance review, or parent-teacher conference.

Transcription comes in handy for turning video lessons into learning materials, as well.

Consider what you can do with a video lesson after recording it. Use transcription to turn it into handouts, worksheets, quizzes, or notes. Students who miss class or need help studying can turn to these notes.

Ideally, the notes may boost understanding and prep for assessments. One video lecture can turn into a handful of future learning aids.

Video Captions for Teachers

Captions were always valuable for educators, if not always maximized. The growth of remote learning has created a new need for increased accessibility in videos, lectures, and lessons. Students who don’t always learn well by hearing alone can follow along with captioned videos. Text cues assist in processing new information.

Over 100 studies document that captioning a video improves “comprehension of, memory for, and attention to videos, for children, adolescents, college students, and adults.”

No matter who you teach, captions have been shown to help literacy.

Captions are considered “same-language subtitles.” They have notably increased the understanding of those who are early in their literacy journey.

Captioning can also encourage eye-tracking, which is a notable way to improve reading when dealing with dyslexia or other cognitive challenges. They are ideal for ESL students, too.

Captioning your learning videos and lectures increases accessibility and may have lasting impacts on literacy rates for all students.

Live captioning communicates in real time, which can help student engagement for your synchronous coursework. There’s a benefit to captioning past video content, however. Anything stored in your learning library is a good candidate for captioning. Students who go back to the archives to catch up or review will find a welcome additional way to process the information.

How Do I Make Subtitles for Accessibility? 

Not everyone speaks or reads English, however. If you are trying to overcome a language barrier, you may want to offer your coursework in both English and the native language of your students.

This is where subtitles shine.

By creating subtitles, you can help bridge the gap and meet any accessibility compliance requirement of your school.

Your school may have policies regarding closed captioning for the hearing impaired or ADA compliance. By incorporating speech-to-text options into your materials, you’ll be one step ahead when and if these become requirements. If nothing else, you’ll be well-versed in how to meet the changing landscape of inclusive learning.

Tips for Using Rev Successfully

How can you start using Rev today?

One way is to take an existing video lecture you’ve recorded and test it through the Rev system. Depending on the conditions of the video, you may choose to go one of two routes:

• AI-based transcription can automatically transcribe your coursework within minutes. You’ll get up to 80% accuracy, appropriate for most uses.
• Human transcription can be available within 12 hours of submission. Quality improves – up to 99% accuracy! It’s recommended you use this option for noisy classrooms, variable volume in your videos, or with speakers using heavy accents or dialects.

Submitting your video to the system is a breeze. Pick the video you wish to upload, then submit it before checking out. Rev takes all standard video files, but if you have audio, that’s OK, too. Even if you choose the human option, you can get your text any time, day or night.

Do you host your video on a public platform, like YouTube or a shareable Google Drive URL? Just paste the URL. You won’t need to upload it at all.

Rev can get the video from that location and do its work while doing other things.

Whether you choose captioning, subtitles, or transcription, the process is very similar.

Rev is unlike some other text service providers in that it is entirely pay-as-you-go. You’ll get an idea of how much your caption, transcription, or subtitles will cost before you ever check out. This can help you budget or (for those who need approval) expense appropriately.

Bottom line

Are you interested in Rev’s services to increase video accessibility or create better collaboration among your colleagues?

Perhaps you want to boost your presence in search with upgraded video SEO. Whatever your aim when using speech-to-text, your willingness to embrace text services may be critical to your professional development. It may also be the leap your students need for better outcomes. The pandemic placed a new priority on flexible class environments and a teaching tool that not only teaches but encourages students to learn in whatever manner comes most naturally.

With many, this means text. Embrace transcription, captioning, and subtitling now.

Then, watch your students’ learning engagement soar.