Over the past few years, there has been numerous changes in the way we learn. Nowadays, it’s not a must to attend classes in a physical classroom and have a person lecture you.
People prefer learning remotely from anywhere, with schools and online training institutions adopting the virtual classrooms done through live video streaming. With this change, one thing that has become extremely popular is transcription. At first, transcripts were used in e-learning to help those who had difficulty hearing to learn. But from its popularity and research, it is now evident that transcripts improve the e-learning process.
What is a Transcript in E-learning?
A transcript is a written record of what is said in audio or what happens in a video. It is very useful in enhancing e-learning as it enables people to capture something you may have missed when listening to e-learning audio or video. Below are some of the reasons why e-learning videos should include transcripts.
Transcripts Help in Solving the Problem of Language Barrier
English is a common language worldwide, but that does not mean all people or students grasp spoken English the same way. Since non-native English speakers may not understand some words and phrases, they use the internet and the transcripts to understand, which is not helpful for English alone. Even for those learning foreign languages, transcripts come in handy if they can’t grasp spoken words but can understand transcript texts. This can also apply to tutors and lecturers teaching international students. Also, in situations where a person has an accent that is not understandable, a transcript can help others keep up.
It Improves Leaning
According to research, people understand and remember information best when they hear and see information simultaneously. This means the information is comprehended well when there is a transcript. Therefore, using a transcript in e-learning can improve learners’ understanding.
Makes it Easier to Grasp the Most Relevant Information
Providing learners with a fully interactive transcript makes it easy for them to go through the material again if they need clarification on something or need a specific topic without watching the e-learning material again. This is very helpful if a learner wants to research a specific topic of importance in a material. Having an interactive transcript helps save time when looking for something specific you want to learn without going through the whole learning video or audio.
Transcripts are the Best Options for Places with Bad or Slow Internet Connections
Small bandwidth and slow internet are some of the problems that most students and teachers worldwide go through daily. Since e-learning involves live streams, audio and video materials, poor internet services can affect e-learning greatly, with video buffering being the most common problem. But with transcripts in place, students can read and learn even with the bad connections as they will not need fast internet to download video and audio files. For such cases, learning institutions are encouraged to produce shorter videos with transcripts as they can load faster.
You Give your Audience Options
Providing transcripts for e-learning audios and videos gives the learners the option of choosing the best way to understand and learn. Learning is also better when they see and read at the same time, according to research. Also, if you have students In varying locations and learning environments, giving them an option to select a method that suits them best is a good thing for e-learning. For example, if a student does not have good listening earphones or is in a noisy place, the best option is to use the transcript to get what the tutor is teaching.
It Helps All Students
Even though the initial reason for the introduction of transcripts was to aid people with hearing impairment access the available e-learning materials in a form they can understand, researchers have found out that transcripts can also benefit other learners significantly. For those with hearing disabilities, transcripts level the learning field, as they can use them to learn what the others do and even acquire new skills. Like the other learners, transcripts will guide all students, whether with hearing disabilities or not, to meet their goals and enable them to go further in their careers and achieve more. With transcripts, nobody is left behind or feels different when learning as they can all access the required learning materials.
Since transcripts have become very popular in e-learning due to the many benefits that come with it for both tutors and learners, it is important to get your captioning services from some of the best transcribers around. Captioning services can be very sensitive and require top-notch accuracy to ensure information is passed the best way it can and relate accurately to the videos and audios.
