Transcription and closed captions for recorded media

LSE is required by law to ensure its websites and associated media are accessible. This means that video, e.g. recordings of lectures and seminars, must include closed captions or subtitles.

• Some services we use at LSE, such as Zoom and Echo360, provide their own automated transcriptions and captions.

• On their own, these automated transcriptions are not of sufficient accuracy to meet accessibility requirements.

• Therefore, students registered with the LSE Disability and Wellbeing service (DWS) can access an enhanced transcription service.

How does enhanced transcription work?

DWS works with students to identify the adjustments LSE needs to make. Students will then be provided with access to a service that provides high quality transcription, as well as assisted notetaking. Students using the DWS service will access lecture recordings via Echo 360 in the usual way in conjunction with provided software to access high quality transcripts.

Since this service uses Echo 360 recordings to generate transcripts, teachers should not opt-out of having their lectures recorded if DWS registered students are enrolled on their course(s).

Information for teachers

On campus recording

Scheduled recordings of timetabled teaching in LSE classrooms and lecture theatres are automatically published to the relevant Echo360 section.

Zoom meetings

If you are using Zoom to host lectures, classes or seminars, you can record them so they are automatically copied to Echo360. You must not link directly to Zoom Cloud Recordings. When Echo360 has processed your recording, you will receive an email. The recording will be in your Echo360 Library.

Echo360 Universal Capture recordings

Universal Capture allows you to record presentations for consumption by your students any time. When you provide capture details, you can choose to publish the recording to a “class” corresponding to the course you are teaching. Once processing is complete, the recording becomes available for captioning.

Other media

You can upload any other video you have created to Echo360. Once it has been processed, you will need to publish it to a course before it can be captioned.

Information for professional services staff

There may be some recordings you wish to publish that are not associated with a course. These can include welcome events, dissertation advice sessions, etc. The Eden Centre can still submit these for captioning. Please email eden.lecturerecording@lse.ac.uk and provide details of the recording.

Information for students

As a student, you will access recordings of lectures, classes and seminars via Moodle. If you cannot find a link to your lecture recordings in your Moodle course, you should contact your lecturer or departmental academic support staff. Ask them to add a link to the recordings in your Moodle course.

When you are viewing a recording in Echo360, click the “CC” button on the toolbar. This will bring up a dialogue box:

Open

Click the CC slider to enable closed captions. You can change the font size, contrast, location and alignment to match the equipment you are using, and the video you are viewing.

If you are expecting captions on a recording and they are not available, please contact eden.lecturerecording@lse.ac.uk and provide details of the recording.