The State of Closed Captioning in Higher Education

The State of Closed Captioning in Higher Education

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Dr. Katie LinderResearch Director

Oregon State University Ecampus

Lily BondDirector of Marketing

3Play [email protected]

2

Presentation Objectives

• Data & results from the study including:• How and why students are using closed captioning• Perceived benefits of captioning beyond accessibility• How colleges and universities are handling closed captioning• Current successes and limitations of captioning in higher ed• Comparison of captioning practices for face-to-face, online,

and institutional marketing content• How colleges & universities perceive and react to legal

requirements for captioning• Q&A

3

How and Why Students are Using Closed Captioning

4

Student Respondents

5

Student Use of Closed Captions

Overall:

34.9% respondents noted that they “always” or “often” use closed captions when they are available

In response to that same question, 26% said they never use them

6

Student Use of Closed Captions

The percentage of respondents who “always” or “often” use closed captions when they are available was higher for:

• Students with other disabilities (41.1%)• ESL students (44.1%)• Students registered with an Office of Disability Services

(44.8%)• Students with academic accommodations (48.2%)• Students who have difficulty with hearing (50.3%)

7

Why do students use closed captions?

frequency

Helps me focus 1001Helps me retain the information 963Helps overcome poor audio quality 958I watch videos in sound sensitive environments (e.g. a library) 650

Helps me with difficult vocabulary 418I have difficulty with hearing 288My professor has an accent 285Other (please describe) 155English is my second language 112

8

Perceived Benefits of Captioning Beyond Accessibility

9

Five main themes emerged:

1) Environmental (quiet environments)

2) Video/audio quality (poor quality, too quiet) and/or instructor difficult to understand (accents, speaks too fast)

3) Convenience (faster, saves time)

4) Accommodation (disability accommodation)

5) Learning aid (accuracy, comprehension, retention, engagement)

Perceived Benefits of Closed Captions

10

Sample Comments of Perceived Benefits of Closed Captions

• Environmental: “I don’t like playing videos with sound when I’m in an environment where doing so would be disruptive.”

• Video/audio quality: “Helps when a video has poor sound quality.”

• Instructor difficult to understand: “My professor has a slight accent that makes her words fast and jumbled.”

11

Sample Comments of Perceived Benefits of Closed Captions

• Convenience: “I find it easier to read along with the videos rather than just sit there and listen to the professor talk.”

• Accommodation: “I’m dyslexic so it helps me to know that the notes I’m writing down are both spelled correctly and in the right syntax.”

12

Sample Comments of Perceived Learning Benefits of Closed Captions

• Accuracy: “If I need to write down notes, I know exactly how to quote a video.”

• Comprehension: “It can help me deeply understand the lecture.”

• Retention: “By simultaneously reading and listening to the content, I am able to retain the information better.”

• Engagement: “They help me to focus on the video instead of just tuning out the noise.”

13

Helpfulness of Closed Captions

Respondents were asked about whether they perceived closed captions and transcripts as being helpful to their learning.

As a percentage of the whole, closed captions were perceived as more helpful with 59.1% of respondents noting that closed captions where either “very” or “extremely” helpful to them.

Overall, 98.6% of student respondents find closed captions to be helpful.

14


The percentage of respondents who stated that closed captions where either “very” or “extremely” helpful to them was higher for: • Students with learning disabilities (60.6%)• Adult learners (62%)• Students who have difficulty with vision (64%)• Students who “always” or “often” have trouble maintaining

focus (64.7%)• First generation students (64.8%)• Students who have difficulty with visual representations

(65.4%)

15


The percentage of respondents who stated that closed captions where either “very” or “extremely” helpful to them was higher for: • Pell-eligible students (65.4%)• Students with other disabilities (65.4%)• Students registered with an Office of Disability Services

(65.8%)• ESL students (66%)• Students receiving academic accommodation (66.3%)• Students who have difficulty with hearing (71.4%)

16

How Colleges and Universities are Handling Closed Captioning

17

Video Creation Guidelines

Do any institutional guidelines exist to inform the creation of videos that will be used at your institution?

Yes No Unsure0

5

10

15

20

25

13

17

12

18

1411

8

15

20

Face-to-Face Online Institutional

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Video InventoryDoes your institution track or inventory in some way the videos that are created at your institution?

Yes No Unsure02468

101214161820

11

19

1113

16

13

7

16

19


19

Who can post videos?

Frequency

Designated offices only 18

Any faculty members 13

Designated individuals only 12

Any staff members 12

Any administration members 11

Other 9

Any students 0

20

At your institution, is closed captioning ever created for any videos?

Yes

87%

No2%

I don't know11%

How much captioning is being done?

21

How much captioning is being done?

All Most Some None I don't know0

5

10

15

20

25

20

21

2

13

4

8

15

0

11

3 4

13

2

16

For how many videos is closed captioning created?


22

Is the approach (including process, staff, criteria) that is used to create closed captioning for a video the same regardless of whether the video is produced for face-to-face traditional classroom course purposes, online course purposes, or institutional purposes?

Percentage

Yes 37.5%

No 40%

Unsure 17.5%Not applicable 5%

23

Are closed captioning efforts centralized or decentralized?

Frequency PercentageNo aspects of captioning are centralized 20 42.55%A centralized policy exists for captioning 13 27.66%A centralized operations team exists for captioning 11 23.40%A centralized budget exists for captioning 9 19.15%I don't know about centralization of captioning at my institution 3 6.38%

24

Are closed caption efforts systematic?

When you think about implementation of closed captioning across your entire institution, to what extent is it systematic?

Frequency Percentage

Not at all systematic 22 55%Somewhat systematic 12 30%

Systematic 4 10%

Very systematic 1 2.5%

I don't know 1 2.5%

25

How are videos prioritized for captions?

Frequency PercentageBy request 25 53.19%Based on whether there exists a need to create equivalent access 22 46.81%

Based on the purpose for which the video will be used (i.e., traditional classroom course vs. online course vs. institutional purposes)

15 31.91%

Based on whether videos are public or only visible to certain students 15 31.91%

Based on as much as the budget will permit 7 14.89%Based on course enrollment 6 12.77%Other 6 12.77%Based on video popularity 5 10.64%All videos are captioned 5 10.64%By course content/subject matter (i.e. certain courses get priority) 3 6.38%

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Have criteria been articulated for what constitutes effective closed captioning?

Yes; 48.90%

No; 36.20%

I don't know;

14.90%

27

Current Successes and Limitations of Captioning in Higher Ed

28

Why are institutions captioning?

Is the creation of closed captions for videos at your institution part of a campus-wide initiative?

No; 60.50%Yes; 23.70%

Unsure; 15.80%

29

Why are institutions captioning?Frequency Percentage

To be in compliance with the law 37 78.72%To avoid potential litigation 35 74.47%In response to accommodation requests 33 70.21%To support the needs of all learners 29 61.70%To create a learning environment that is aligned with the mission of the institution 20 42.55%To be in compliance with institutional policies 14 29.79%Because research supports a connection between caption use and positive learning outcomes

13 27.66%

To address a significant need at our institution 11 23.40%In response to faculty demand 11 23.40%In response to student demand that is not accommodation-related 4 8.51%I don't know 1 2.13%Other 0 0.00%

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Why are institutions NOT captioning?Frequency Percentage

Lack of general awareness 26 55.32%A budget doesn't exist 23 48.94%Staffing is inadequate 22 46.81%Unclear whose responsibility it is 22 46.81%Don’t have buy-in of administration to caption videos 20 42.55%

It’s too time consuming 19 40.43%It’s too expensive 18 38.30%Faculty won’t do it 18 38.30%Currently not an institutional priority 15 31.91%We weren’t aware it was something that should be done 8 17.02%

We don’t know how to do it 7 14.89%Lack technical capability 6 12.77%Concerned about copyright infringement 6 12.77%Other 3 6.38%I don't know 1 2.13%This is not a genuine need at our institution 0 0.00%

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Are institutions monitoring closed caption compliance?

No; 52.60%

Yes; 26.30%

Unsure; 21.10%

32

Who ensures the quality of captions?

Frequency PercentageOffice of Disability Services 22 46.81%The creator of the video 21 44.68%Staff who are dedicated to closed captioning 18 38.30%A third party outside of this institution 18 38.30%Office of Information Technology 8 17.02%No one is designated to do this 7 14.89%

I don't know 5 10.64%Other 5 10.64%Automated software 3 6.38%

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Comparison of Captioning Practices for Face-to-face, Online,

and Institutional Marketing Content

34

Do formal guidelines exist to inform the closed captioning of videos?

Yes No Unsure0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

1514

10

1415

9

14

8

16


35

Are closed caption guidelines systematically communicated to potential video creators?

Yes No Unsure0

2

4

6

8

10

12

67

0

3

10

23

4

1


36

Who decides whether to create captions?

ODSOIT

Prov

ost

VP of S

A CIO

CDO

Deans

or C

hairs

Facult

y

Stude

nts

I don

't kno

wOth

er0

5

10

15

20

25

30 28

6

2 3 2 1

8

17

9

46

20

10

5

1 1 0

9

19

5 4

15

79

36 7

1

53

0

12

18


37

Who decides which caption solution to use?

ODSOIT

Prov

ost

VP of S

A CIO

CDO

Deans

or C

hairs

Facult

y

Stude

nts

I don

't kno

wOth

er02468

101214161820

18

9

21 1

0

4

10

3

0

4

17

12

4

1 10

5

14

31

16

4

9

1

43

0

43

13

9


38

Who creates the captions?

The cr

eator

of th

e vide

o

Staff w

ho ar

e ded

icated

to ca

ption

ing

Office of

Infor

mation

Techn

ology

Office of

Disa

bility

Servic

es

A third

party

, exte

rnal

to the

insti

tution

Automate

d soft

ware

I don

't kno

wOthe

r048

121620

14

8

3

1317

30

3

18

8

3

11

19

51

6

13

73 4

14

2 26


39

How Colleges & Universities Perceive and React to Legal

Requirements for Captioning

40

Are colleges and universities meeting legal requirements for captioning?

Federal disability law Section 508 requires that online videos comply with a set of accessibility standards that requires closed captions for all pre-recorded videos.

Closed captions are blocks of text usually shown at the bottom of a video that mirror the spoken audio. They capture not just speech but also essential sounds, like, for example, [doorbell], [laughter], or [applause]. They allow the viewer to read the text and absorb visuals at the same time. Closed captions can be turned on or off.

41


How confident are you that you understand what it means for your institution to be in compliance with federal and state accessibility laws regarding closed captioning?

Frequency PercentageVery unconfident 1 2.1%Unconfident 3 6.4%Neither unconfident not confident

5 10.6%

Confident 18 38.3%Very confident 20 42.6%


42

Which best describes your understanding of what it means for your institution to be in compliance with federal and state accessibility laws regarding closed captioning?

Frequency

Percentage

We are required to proactively caption all of our videos 24 51.1%

We are required to proactively caption most of our videos 9 19.1%

We are required to provide closed captions only in the case of a deaf student or if a student makes an accommodation request

9 19.1%

We are required to proactively caption some of our videos 4 8.5%

I don't know 1 2.1%We are not legally required to provide any closed captions 0 0%


43

To what extent do you believe your institution is meeting closed captioning requirements?

not at all; 2.10%

partially meeting

re-quire-ments; 78.70%

meeting re-

quire-ments; 14.90%

exceeding re-quirements;

2.10%unsure; 2.10%

44

Are caption efforts centralized or decentralized?

In general, which of the following best characterizes your institution's underlying approach to closed captioning?

Frequency Percentage

More reactive than proactive 16 40%Primarily reactive (designing for accessibility is done only after accommodations are requested)

9 22.5%

Primarily proactive (designing for accessibility is prioritized even if it is not requested) 5 12.5%

More proactive than reactive 5 12.5%Approximately equally proactive and reactive 5 12.5%

“The State of Captioning” Survey

45

45

Recruitment & Participation

• Reached out by email to 18,000 institutional representatives in higher ed

• Representatives were asked to complete a 53-question online survey

• 10 $50 Amazon gift cards and 50 $5 Starbucks gift cards from 3Play Media as raffle

• 832 respondents from higher ed

46

46

Who Responded?Enrollment:

Public vs. Private:

47

47

Who Responded (2)?

Region

Mid-Atlantic (131)Midwest (198)New England (65)South (141)Southwest (74)West (181)

48

48

How much video is being produced or published?

0-10 hours 11-100 hours 101-250 hours 251-500 hours 501-1000 hours 1000+ hours Not sure Don't produce video in-house

0

50

100

150

200

250

Hours of video produced or published annually

49

Video Breakdown

What type of video are you publishing?

No response

Not sure

We purchase video

Recorded video

Live video

0 100 200 300 400 500 600

No

Not sure

Rarely

Sometimes

Yes, always

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140

Do you caption any of these videos? Do the videos you purchase have captions?

50

Yes No Not sure0

100

200

300

400

500

600

RecordedLive

Only 35% say captioning is centralized

NoNo, but it's on our roadmapNo, but we're establishing oneNot sureYesOther

Is there a centralized process for captioning?51

Captioning needs are on the rise

Decreasin

g

Stayin

g the sa

me

Incr

easing m

oderate

ly

Incr

easing si

gnifica

ntly0

50100150200250300350400

How do you foresee your captioning needs changing in the next year?

52

12% of respondents who caption have $0 budget

$0$1-$10,000$10k-$50k$50k-100k$100k+Not sure

What is your annual budget for captioning?53

CAPTION QUALITY

54

86% of respondents who have received feedback about caption quality say captions are “generally” or

“consistently” high quality

No Not sure Yes

What was the feedback?

Consistently low quality 1

Quality varies widely 18

Generally high quality, but sometimes inaccurate

82

Captions are high quality 74

Other 5

Have you received feedback about the quality of your captions?

55

Most respondents would rate their caption quality an 8 out of 10

On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your caption quality?

56

40% always review their captions;15% always or often edit them

Not sure

Never

Only for certain files

Sometimes

Always

0 50 100 150 200 250

Do you review your captions?

All the time

Most of the time

Some of the time

Never

Not sure

Rarely

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200

How often do you edit your captions?

57

21% use automatic captions for all or some of their captioning needs

NoNot sureWe start with them & editYes, for all captioningYes, for some of our captioning

Do you use automatic captions?

58

Do respondents who rate captions a 9 or 10 review or edit their captions?

Review captions Edit captions

Always (104)Sometimes (93)Only for certain videos (19)Never (11)Not sure (6)

Always (9)Most of the time (13)Some of the time (72)Never (22)Not sure (17)Rarely (101)

59

How did people who said their captions were generally high quality or consistently high quality

rate their caption quality?

Rating # of respondents %

10 2 2%

9 43 43%

8 40 40%

7 11 11%

6 2 2%

5 2 2%

TOTAL: 100

Rating # of respondents %

10 28 38%

9 34 46%

8 10 14%

7 2 3%

TOTAL: 74

Generally high quality Consistently high quality

45% say 9 or 10

84% say 9 or 10

60

17% of respondents who rated captions a 9 or 10 use automatic captions for all or some videos.

No (142)

Not sure (8)

We start with automatic captions & edit them (61)

Yes, for all videos (5)

Yes, for some of our videos (38)

How many who rated captions a 9 or 10 use automatic captions?

61

LEGAL OBLIGATIONS

62

70% are confident they know which accessibility laws apply to them.

If yes, which laws apply?

ADA Title II 390

ADA Title III 308

Section 504 341

Section 508 371

CVAA 144

FCC 77

Not sure 43No Not sure Yes

Do you know which accessibility laws apply to you?

43 who responded yes were “not sure” when asked to select the laws

63

65% are “pretty” or “very” confident they know what it means to be in compliance

with captioning requirements

How confident are you that you understand what it means to be in compliance with the closed captioning requirements laid out by accessibility laws?

Not confident at all

Not very confident Not sure Pretty confident Very confident0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

64

Only 19% of respondents have a clear policy for captioning compliance

Do you have a clear policy for captioning compliance?

NoNo, but it's on our roadmapNo, but we're estab-lishing oneNot sureYes

65

26% who are confident they understand caption compliance have a clear policy

Of people who said they were “pretty” or “very” confident they understand captioning compliance, how many have a clear policy?

No policyNo, but it's on our roadmapNo, but we're establish-ing one nowNot sureYes

66

50% who are confident they understand caption compliance rate their caption quality

at a 9 or 10

How did respondents who said they were “pretty” or “very” confident they understood caption compliance rate their caption quality?

67

66% who said they had a clear policy for caption compliance rated their caption quality

a 9 or 10

How did respondents who stated they had a clear policy for caption compliance rate their caption quality?

68

DOES INSTITUTION SIZE AFFECT BUDGET OR POLICY?

69

How does size correlate to budget?

1,000 or less

1,001-5,000

5,001-10,000

10,001-20,000

20,001-30,000

30,001-40,000

40,001-50,000

50,000+0%

2%

4%

6%

8%

10%

12%

14%

16%

18%

20%

$0$1-$10,000$1,001-$50,000$50,001-$100,000$100,000+

Student enrollment70

How does size correlate to the existence of a clear captioning policy?

1,000 or less

1,001-5,000

5,001-10,000

10,001-20,000

20,001-30,000

30,001-40,000

40,001-50,000

50,000+0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

60.00%

70.00%

80.00%

90.00%

100.00%

Clear policy existsNo policy exists

Student enrollment71

Takeaways

• Most schools do not have a centralized procedure for captioning

• Almost universally, institutions see captioning needs increasing by next year

• Disconnect between how people rate their caption quality and their understanding of compliance or what “high quality” means.

• Disconnect between respondents’ confidence in their understanding of accessibility laws and their corresponding caption quality and policies

• Slight correlation between institution size and captioning budget

• Clear correlation between institution size and existence of a clear captioning policy

72

Q&A

Upcoming Webinars: Feb 16: Accessibility at Blackboard

Feb 23: Best Practices for Accessible Videos

Mar 9: Campus-Wide Response to Captioning

Mar 16: Getting Faculty Involved with Accessibility

Mar 30: Quick Start to Captioning

You can register for our free webinars at: www.3playmedia.com/webinars/

Panelist Contact Info

Dr. Katie LinderResearch DirectorOregon State University [email protected]

Lily Bond3Play [email protected]

Student Study Download:www.3playmedia.com/student-research-study/

Institutional Study:www.3playmedia.com/institutional-research-study

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