How to Transcribe BigBlueButton Recordings

More student and educator engagement will be moving to online environments this year. The need for transcribed class sessions and meetings will grow. BigBlueButton is a preferred tool for teachers that can easily record lectures for later transcription. Here’s how to easily turn your best teaching into text.

How to record a BigBlueButton Meeting

The first step in getting a transcription of your event is to create a video recording. If recording is enabled for a session or online event, the moderator can start and stop recording as they like. Use the Start/Stop button while the session is in progress. It’s not enough to just enable recording at the time the event is created.

The moderator can see that the recording is in progress, as the icon will change to red. A timer will start measuring the length of the recording, as well. Click the red button again to pause or stop the recording.

BigBlueButton processes recordings only after everyone has left the meeting and the moderator has ended it. This is true even if recording has ended well before the meeting finishes. Processing takes the same amount of time as the recorded length. So, a meeting of one hour will take around one hour to finish processing. (Meeting can’t be more than 9 hours in length.)

Once the event has finished processing, BigBlueButton will notify you of the results. You can then access and download the meeting video file to your computer for transcribing. (Just be sure you remember where your BigBlueButton recording downloads are saved. Then, you can go back and find that file later.)

How to transcribe the recording 

Recording in BigBlueButton will create a video file that is recognized by most transcription services. (This includes Rev.) Once you have this video file on your computer, you have what you need to get started.

Here are the steps to take:

• Go to Rev’s website and choose the transcription service for $1.25 a minute.
• At the upload screen, choose the “Upload files from your computer or drag and drop” option.
• Remember where you stored your BigBlueButton file and the file name.
• Select that file from the Rev checkout screen.
• Wait for it to upload.
• Choose your payment type and apply any coupons.

When your file is ready

You’ll be notified when your transcription file is ready. Then, you can choose the format that works best for your needs. Most files are ready within hours.

Rev’s professionals can detect audio from varying volume levels and even accents. If you don’t have a steady audio experience in your recording, this is the way to go. You’ll get 99% accurate results.

With Rev, you can also transcribe meetings in minutes with AI. While this option may result in slightly less accurate files, it’s cheaper and ready in minutes. It may not be ideal for files with background noise or accents, however.

Either way, you’ll have the text files you need to create more in-depth learning opportunities for your students.

Summary

There are many ways to use your BigBlueButton meeting recording as future text files for your classroom. Some educators upload the classroom transcription into their choice of LMS integration, so students with audio or visual challenges are still able to follow along. Still, other teachers encourage students to use the text as note material. They may even ask students to follow along and make additional notations as they watch the original educational videos.

No matter your choice of teaching platform, creating a high-quality, accurate transcription file can come in handy. With Rev, it’s fast and affordable, too.