Here at Edge Hill University, Learning Services offer students their own Caption.Ed account. Caption.Ed is a real-time and pre-recorded captioning tool that can be used to caption live taught sessions or recordings they produce and save to their computer.

Automatic captions can offer students a means to engage with academic content, the resulting editable captions can be improved so that recordings are meaningful to users.

It is important to note that automated captions are not entirely accurate and are not a substitute where communication support is required.

Student Volunteers

Five Student Advisors volunteered to try the new Caption.Ed app in ways that helps and supports them through their studies.

This is what our students had to say about Caption.Ed and how they are using it not only to generate captions, but also to create an editable transcript of a recording or live session, they also liked how simple Caption.Ed is to set up and use.

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Callie Horton

Callie is in the 3rd year of her BA (Hons) History with Politics degree.  Callie used Caption.Ed during lectures to capture a transcript of what her tutor was saying.  She described to us how it enabled her to fully listen to the lecture, knowing that Caption.Ed was working in the background capturing the transcript.  “This meant I could fully listen to the content rather than desperately trying to note everything down”. 

Find out how Callie has been using Caption.Ed.

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Alexander Evans

Alex is a third year BSc (Hons) Geography & Geology student.  Alex used Caption.Ed to add captions to YouTube videos where the auto captioning feature may have not been accurate and also for online lectures.   When asked about the benefits of the desktop and browser app his response was: “The desktop app can be used to caption any video, not just something in a specific browser which means its possibilities are endless…..The browser app is very useful due to its pure ease of access, once pinned in the top right hand side of your screen it can be used to caption anything within the browser almost instantly.”  

Find out how Alex has been using Caption.Ed

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Laura Glancy

Laura is studying MA English and Nineteenth-Century Studies.  Laura used Caption.Ed to provide transcripts of meetings. She found this really helpful in preparing her research notes and found the timestamps particularly beneficial.  When asked how Caption.Ed supported her studies Laura commented: “It also saves excessive notetaking, which would be handy in seminars/lectures.” 

 Find out how Laura has been using Caption.Ed

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Maya Gibson

Is a third year BA Hons (Film and Television Production) Student.  Maya used Caption.Ed to generate captions to add to films that she had produced in her course.  Maya loved using the browser version and commented how the software is “Very clear and easy to use with quick results.”  

Find out how Maya has been using Caption.Ed

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Paula Garlic

Paula is studying her third year BSc (Hons) in Psychology.  Paula used Caption.Ed to transcribe interviews which was part of her dissertation.  She described to us how it really cut down her usual process of doing this and asked if she would recommend Caption.Ed to other students her response was: “Definitely, I think it is a really worthwhile tool and I will be using it in the future”. 

Find out how Paula has been using Caption.Ed

How do I get access?

To get your free account, email a request here. Our team will process your request and you will receive an invite with further instructions on how to access the software.

Further Reading: Caption.Ed for Online Learning!.

Edge Hill University provides staff and students with access to the Box of Broadcasts (BoB) on demand TV and Radio broadcast service, and The Television and Radio Index for Learning and Teaching (TRILT).

Here are six things you can do with these services.

One: Access Old Recordings from the BBC’s Digital Archive

The BBC is currently digitising its library and making it available to education institutions. The records of all BBC broadcasts can be searched using TRILT and the recordings requested although not every broadcast will be available.

At Edge Hill we have access to 24 requests per year, so if you want to view or give your students access to very old BBC broadcasts you can try to access them this way.

Some recordings will already be on BoB, so check there first, but otherwise Learning on Screen advises that:

“Members can login to TRILT with their institutional login and make an enquiry about a historical BBC broadcast by emailing the TRILT URL to the services team: [email protected]“

Two: Make Clips from Sections of Broadcasts using BoB

Three: Request Copies of Broadcasts as an MP4, MP3, or on DVD

As an example we’ve had requests for an MP4 version of a sports event so it could be analysed with software.

Four: Create Playlists of Videos Using BoB

Five: Get Notifications of Upcoming Broadcasts

Television and Radio Index for Learning and Teaching (TRILT) allows you to request email alerts for forthcoming programmes up to 10 days in advance of their broadcast. This helps ensure that you don’t miss the chance to record useful programmes.

To set an alert up, go to TRILT, click on ‘Sign in’ at the top right of the screen, and log in as you would to BoB.

Choose ‘Auto Alerts’ from the menu on the left hand side.

On the Auto Alerts page you can use the ‘set up your email address’ to set your preferences for the computing device you are on now. You can then save Auto Alerts which will be emailed to you on a selected day of the week.

If the programme is broadcast on one of the channels that BoB records, you can then make a note to log in to BoB to search for it and request that it is saved.

Six: Access films you were struggling to get hold of

While the TV broadcasts are sometimes edited, it may be your only free (legal) option. I’m tempted to say that it’s one of the few places where you can see a pre-special edition version of Star Wars, but the quality is too poor for you to get your hopes up. I can honestly claim that you’ll be getting the experience I got when watching it for the first time as a kid.

Next Steps

We have a list of playlists and related resources that we’ve created to get you started thinking about how to use these resources, along with links to guides on our Wakelet page.

“my new television set” by brandon king is marked with CC BY-NC 2.0.