There are two options for closed captioning on GauchoCast: free Artificial Intelligence (AI) transcriptions provided by Panopto OR paid professional quality transcriptions (99% accuracy) provided by Verbit.ai, a third-party transcription service. If a faculty or student requires high quality transcripts in one pass, with no additional intervention from the faculty, they should request Verbit.ai captioning from Instructional Development. If closed captioning with variable accuracy will be acceptable (or if the faculty/TA has the time to edit any errors in the transcript file), then Panopto AI captioning should be a suitable option. Faculty can apply Panopto AI captions on their own without having to contact ID.
Pricing for Captioning Services:
- Panopto AI Captioning - Free.
- Verbit.ai Professional Captioning - approx. $0.84/minute OR free in conjunction with Disabled Students Services (DSP); see below.
Panopto AI Captioning (Free Service):
The free AI captioning option in Panopto is strictly a machine-based transcription service with a high degree of variability in the accuracy of the captions. Faculty can apply Panopto AI captions on their own. If needed, the generated transcription file can be edited by the faculty user.
- Log in to GauchoCast and navigate to your videos
- Click on “Edit” for the video you want to get captioned
- On the left side of the editing screen, click the “Captions” tab
- Click on the “Import captions” drop down menu
- Select the “Import automatic captions” option. This will import Panopto's AI-generated transcription.
- Click the green “Apply” button to save the captions with the video. You may also edit the transcript in the captions section and then hit Apply to save any changes.
- If “Import automatic captions” is not available and the only option is “Upload or request captions”, that means the AI transcription has not been processed yet. If the video was recently uploaded, exit the editing page and check back in an hour or so.
Verbit.ai Captioning (Paid Service):
Verbit.ai uses a combination of AI and human captioners for high accuracy. This third-party transcription service is only available for free in conjunction with the Disabled Students Program (DSP). If DSP is not involved, Verbit.ai captions can still be requested at a rate of ~$0.84 per minute for each session. Note: the cost of Verbit transcriptions fall onto the faculty's department.
The request process:
- A student requests closed captioning accommodations from DSP.
- DSP notifies the faculty member about the requested transcription services.
- The faculty member records their video lectures and uploads them all to GauchoCast. Note: videos must be uploaded to GauchoCast in order to be sent in for captioning.
- The faculty member contacts Instructional Development (help@id.ucsb.edu) to request Verbit transcription services for individual recordings or all sessions in a course folder.
- ID sends the videos to Verbit for captioning. Turnaround time is approximately two business days. Note: Faculty are unable to send captioning requests to Verbit directly.
Downloading the Transcription File (.srt)
If needed, you may download a video's closed captioning SRT file, which is a simple text file that includes the video's transcript and timestamps. This can be done for both Panopto AI and Verbit.ai captions.
- Log in to GauchoCast and navigate to your videos
- Click on “Settings” for the video you want to download the transcription file
- Navigate to the "Captions" tab on the left hand column
- Under Available Captions, select "Default" and then click on the "Download File" link. The .srt file will begin to download.
For Verbit Captioning arrangements or help with Panopto AI captioning, send an email to: help@id.ucsb.edu