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Digital Accessibility

Panopto & Captions

Panopto makes it easy to edit your video's captions. It's crucial that videos have accurate captions so that they're accessible for students with disabilities.

Panopto at USC

A triangle diagram linking Blackboard Learning Management System to Panopto video content management to Zoom web conferencing platform.

It's common for instructors to host course videos on Panopto at the university, as Panopto can be integrated directly within Blackboard LMS. Now that the university also has an enterprise license for Zoom, online classes that are recorded on Zoom can be saved to the cloud and then accessed through Panopto. 

When a video is uploaded to Panopto (e.g., from Zoom), Panopto will auto-generate captions and a transcript for your video. It's important that you edit these captions for accuracy if you plan on sharing your video recording—consider spelling, grammar, punctuation, speaker identification, and timing of your captions.


Example of Editing Captions in Panopto

In this example, we will walk through how to edit the captions for a video that was recorded on Zoom. 

  1. Once your video has finished processing, open your video in Panopto. 
  2. Select the Edit button in the top toolbar to edit your recording.
    Screenshot of Panopto, where the Edit button in the toolbar is highlighted with a garnet box.
  3. Select Captions from the tab options on the left to reveal the video's captions.
    Screenshot of the Captions tab in Panopto.
    The auto-generated captions when the video is uploaded.
    Caption Text Caption Start Time
    Mary Prouty: Hey, everyone! 0:14
    Mary Prouty: This is a test of the 
    automatic, live captioning and
    transcription that zoom provides by
    default
    0:16
    Mary Prouty: now, due to the 
    inaccuracies of automatic live captioning.
    0:24
    Mary Prouty: It is important
    that instructors, faculty members, or anybody
    using the Zoom client that is, recording
    their meetings
    0:30
    Mary Prouty: and sharing
    those recordings afterward
    0:38
    Mary Prouty: is editing those captions for
    accuracy within the Panopto client.
    0:42
    Mary Prouty: Thanks everyone, and that's
    all, for now.
    0:47
  4. Fix any spelling, grammar, and punctuation mistakes in the captions.
    Screenshot of the captions with corrected grammar in Panopto.
    Notice the updated punctuation and capitalizations.
    Caption Text Caption Start Time
    Mary Prouty: Hey, everyone! 0:14
    Mary Prouty: This is a test of the 
    automatic, live captioning and
    transcription that Zoom provides by
    default.
    0:16
    Mary Prouty: Now, due to the 
    inaccuracies of automatic live captioning,
    0:24
    Mary Prouty: it is important
    that instructors, faculty members, or anybody
    using the Zoom client that is recording
    their meetings
    0:30
    Mary Prouty: and sharing
    those recordings afterward
    0:38
    Mary Prouty: is editing those captions for
    accuracy within the Panopto client.
    0:42
    Mary Prouty: Thanks everyone, and that's
    all for now.
    0:47
  5. Identify the speaker only when the speaker changes.
    Screenshot of the captions with the speaker Mary Prouty highlighted.
    Only one speaker identification is needed in this instance.
    Caption Text Caption Start Time
    Mary Prouty: Hey, everyone! 0:14
    This is a test of the 
    automatic, live captioning and
    transcription that Zoom provides by
    default.
    0:16
    Now, due to the 
    inaccuracies of automatic live captioning,
    0:24
    it is important
    that instructors, faculty members, or anybody
    using the Zoom client that is recording
    their meetings
    0:30
    and sharing
    those recordings afterward
    0:38
    is editing those captions for
    accuracy within the Panopto client.
    0:42
    Thanks everyone, and that's
    all for now.
    0:47
  6. Break your caption text onto one or two lines per caption.
    Use "Shift + Enter" to add a soft line break where appropriate within each caption frame.
    • Try to include no more than 42 characters per line of each caption.
      Screenshot of the updated captions with one to two lines per caption.
      Try to break your lines at logical points in each sentence.
      Caption Text Caption Start Time
      Mary Prouty: Hey, everyone! 0:14
      This is a test
      of the automatic live captioning
      0:16
      and transcription
      that Zoom provides by default.
      0:20
      Now, due to the inaccuracies
      of automatic live captioning,
      0:24
      it is important that
      instructors, faculty members, or anybody
      0:30
      using the Zoom client
      that is recording their meetings
      0:34
      and sharing those recordings afterward 0:38
      is editing those captions for accuracy
      within the Panopto client.
      0:42
      Thanks everyone,
      and that's all for now.
      0:47
    • Edit the timing of your captions to line up with your audio, if they aren't already in sync.
      Screenshot of the Edit Caption dialog in Panopto. The Start time is 0:00:19.56 and End time is 0:00:24.35.
      Ideally, each caption should last no longer than 6 seconds.
  7. Play your video to verify the accuracy and quality of your edited captions.

 

Additional Captioning Tips

Check out Panopto's guide for more ways to edit or delete your captions in Panopto.

For a more general set of captioning guidelines, check out The Captioning Key, developed by Described and Captioned Media Program (DCMP).

 


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