Audio and Video Captioning
Audio/Video Captioning at NSU
Under the Department of Justice's federal guidelines, all public-facing digital media must meet strict WCAG 2.1 Level AA accessibility standards, with a firm compliance deadline of April 26, 2027. Northeastern State University and NSU Online are dedicated to providing the best learning experience for all of our students. This includes making sure that all learning materials are accessible to learners of all types and abilities. NSU Online has implemented a process to ensure that all Audio/Video (AV) files shared by faculty within their courses have proper closed captioning.
If you are still unsure about the reasons for captioning or the process we will be using, please check out the Frequently Asked Questions below. If you have any further questions about the captioning procedures at NSU, please contact NSU Online (nsuonline@nsuok.edu, 918-444-5855).
How to get your Audio/Videos Captioned:
Uploading videos & sharing with NSU Online via Echo360 Video (Google Doc)
Content created in or uploaded to Echo360 Video are automatically entered into a caption queue, no action is required by the user. If your video is not stored in Echo360, please be sure to fill out an AV File Caption Request Form for each individual video you need captioned. There is no need to re-submit videos if they have already been captioned or if you plan on using the same video for multiple courses. Once we have captioned the video, you are free to use it as you wish and the captions will remain the same as long as the video has not changed.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Closed captioning is not just for the hearing impaired! It helps many learners acquire the knowledge imparted by the AV file.
- Captions help second language learners better understand the speaker.
- Captions help viewers understand speakers with accents or speech impediments.
- Captions help viewers understand what they are hearing, especially if there is a lot of technical jargon. They can also see the proper spelling of a term.
- Captions provide a second way for the brain to process the material.
Just like wheel chair ramps are not only used by those in a wheel chair, closed captioning serves more than just the hearing impaired.
You should have any and all audio and video files captioned that you use within any and all of your courses.
Only when you make the files public. If you embed the file into your Blackboard course, then it may only be viewed by students within the course. It is up to you with whom you share the link to the file. Only you are able to view and edit your files in your Library on Echo360 Video.
We chose Echo360 as our captioning service because it provides a streamlined, efficient, and user-friendly solution for making course content accessible to all learners. Echo360 automatically captures and imports Zoom recordings, eliminating the need for instructors to manually upload videos or submit them for captioning through the NSU Online account. Once recordings are available in Echo360, captions are automatically generated in the background. While automated captions may not be perfect initially, they can be reviewed and refined by our team to ensure a high level of accuracy and support compliance with federal accessibility requirements. Additionally, Echo360's server-based storage eliminates file size concerns and allows instructors to easily embed videos and incorporate interactive multimedia into their courses, creating a more engaging, accessible, and seamless online learning experience.
Captions automatically adjust to reflect any edits made to your video. For example, if you remove a section from the middle of a recording, the corresponding captions will be removed as well, and the remaining captions will automatically adjust to maintain accurate timing and synchronization with the video.