Presentation at 2019 D2L Connection at Normandale CC on April 5,, 2019 Sustainable Campus-Wide Captioning Practices to Support Course Videos – Is this Really Possible? Lesley Blicker, Minnesota State Educational Innovations and Kathleen Coate, Normandale Community College

1. D2L Connection: Minnesota Edition Conference
April 5, 2019
Sustainable Campus-Wide
Captioning Practices to Support Course Videos
Is this Really Possible?

2. • 4-5 years ago bubble-up chatter across the system based on court
cases and “Dear Colleague” letter sent by General Counsel
• ASA Tech Counsel addressed via creating an Ad Hoc Committee;
Official appointments comprised of all roles and bargaining units
• Researched national best practices for creating sustainable
captioning programs at institutions of higher education
• Conducted a system-wide Course Video Captioning Practices Survey
(3 campuses had something going on)
History, Context, and Planning

3. • Only 3 MS institutions had
processes in place to
caption course videos in
advance of accommodation
requests
Snapshot – Spring 2016

4. • Whose role is it to caption?
• Aren’t we in ADA compliance if we provide an accommodation?
• Is it sufficient for an institution to have an accessibility policy?
What about a video transcript?
• What does management/leadership require us to do?
• What happens if we don’t do anything? Or worse what if the
DOJ comes knocking at our door? Who gets sued, who is liable?
How much time do we have to rectify things?
• Who’s going to pay for captioning? It’s an insurmountable
mountain
Questions Heard Routinely

5. • Misunderstanding about what constitutes meeting
ADA requirements, hence, no common
understanding as to when captions were needed
• No established guidelines or procedures at
campus
• Cost and budget issues, need top-down support to
make a priority
Recurring Themes, Especially from
Survey Results

6. • Backlog of videos to be captioned is daunting
• Can’t keep up with faculty who post videos on the fly
• Universal design benefits many
• Outsourcing has been beneficial for those using 3rd
party vendors; turn-around is quick
• No well-communicated process or understanding about
whose role it is to caption; lots of finger-pointing
Recurring Themes, Especially from
Survey Results - 2

7. • Captioning services
• 3Play Media
• AutoSyncTechnologies (CaptionSync)
• Rev.com
• Captioning software/tools (Machine
captioning)
• Camtasia
• YouTube
• Machine captioning function within
Kaltura (Cielo 24)
Commonly Used Captioning Services
and Products

8. • Question to committee: how to best make use of funds that
were available through Educational Innovations to create
sustainable captioning practices at our campuses?
• Led to committee recommending to the Council that a
Campus Seed Funding Program be launched based on the
committee developing a toolkit for them to use, based on the
best practices researched
Let the Planning Begin

9. The Captioning Seed Funding
Allocation List

10. Link to Toolkit on Pressbooks
The Toolkit

11. 1. Obtain Sponsorship for a Campus-Wide Captioning Project
2. Form Your Cross-Functional Team
3. Define Campus Roles and Responsibilities for Captioning Course Videos
(Staffing model)
4. Define the Processes and Products to Use in Captioning Course Videos
5. Create a Captioning Prioritization Schedule
6. Decide on What Amount of Funding is Needed
7. Develop Your Faculty Development and Support Plan
8. Create a Multi-Year Sustainable Plan, including the budget and where the
funds will come from
Selected Best Practices from the Toolkit

12. • Chapter 1: Captioning is a Best
Practice for Universal Design (and is
also Required by Law)
• Chapter 2: Creating a Sustainable
Captioning Model at Your Campus
• Chapter 3: Getting Started -
Captioning Course Videos
• Chapter 4: Technical Workflows
using the Minnesota State Media
Management Solution
The Toolkit Chapters

13. • Assess products and possible processes for captioning
• Decide on your institution’s captioning processes and workflows, at least to
try out initially
• Create a three year plan for captioning course videos that would include the
budget, a team charter, and a faculty training and support plan
• Complete and submit the Toolkit checklists and worksheets as
documentation of captioning readiness
Seed Funding Program Requirements

14. Anoka Ramsey Community
College
Minneapolis College Rochester Community and
Technical College
Anoka Technical College Minnesota State University,
Mankato
South Central College
Bemidji State University Minnesota State University
Moorhead
St. Cloud State University
Hennepin Technical College Minnesota West St. Cloud Technical and
Community College
Inver Hills Community
College
Normandale Community
College
Southwest Minnesota State
University
Lake Superior College Ridgewater College Winona State University
Metropolitan State
University
Rochester Community and
Technical College
Nothing in this cell
The 20 Minnesota State Institutions Who Have Completed a
Cross- Institutional Plan for Captioning Course Videos*
* Expecting 2 additional campuses to complete their plans by end of spring term

15. Based on change from 3 institutions in 2016 to 20 institutions presently; could
be up to 633% with 2 additional campuses expected to submit plan soon
567%!
Percentage Increase in Institutions Who
Have Course Captioning Programs

16. Represents about 50% of the funds being spent; rest to be spent FY 2019-2020
4,850
Number of Course Videos Expected to Be
Captioned by June 30, 2019

17. Can’t tell yet, but should
expect another 4850
from Seed Funds, plus
additional numbers from
campuses contributing
their own amounts in
Years 2 and 3, per the 3
year plan submitted
Estimated Number of Course Videos to be
Captioned in Next Two Years

18. • A Media Specialist has assigned the task of ordering captions
on behalf of staff and faculty
• Before each semester, captioning assigned person sent list of
all students identified as having a need for all media to be
accessible and we prioritize that before the semester begins
• Some faculty using their own Kaltura MediaSpace account and
I send them instructions on how to download their video file
to a drive folder. From there I grab it and submit to our
caption vendor
How’s It Being Done? In their own
words…

19. • The Captioning Coordinator manages the captioning creation,
outsourcing, file upload, etc. If faculty express an interest in
captioning on their own, the Coordinator trains them in how
to use the automated captioning in MediaSpace.
• Faculty access their VidGrid account, uploads or creates their
videos there and then uses the captioning desktop to request
manual or human captioning.
• When faculty request captioning, staff at the IT Solutions
Center create a service ticket for our Senior Accessible
Technologies Analyst to complete.
How’s It Being Done? In their own
words…2

20. Element Being
Evaluated
Mean
Effectiveness 7.44
Efficiency 7.38
Timeliness 7.44
How the Seed Funded Campuses Have
Rated their Processes (Likert Scale of
0-10)

21. Element Being
Evaluated
Mean
Empathy for the user 58.13
Understanding of the
need or urgency to
caption for ADA
compliance
58.13
How the Seed Funded Campuses Have
Rated Cultural Shift (Likert Scale of 0-
100)

22. Normandale Community
College
“VIDEOS FOR ALL” CAPTIONING PROJECT

23. Cross-functional team
Department Person Responsibilities Current Position
Theatre/Academic
Services
Kathleen Coate Facilitator, training,
process
coordination
Faculty/D2L Trainer
IT Sue Tischendorf Consultant,
training, process
coordination
Staff
Office for Students
with Disabilities
(OSD)
Geri Wilson Training,
technology,
process
coordinating
Staff
Marketing/Web
Services
Megan Eischen Technology,
process
coordinating
Staff
Sponso Julie Guelich (outgoing)/Kristina Keller
– VP of Academic Affairs

24. Additional guidance/support
 Steve Winckelman – CIO
 Erin Daly – Dean of Academic Services
 Debbie Tillman – Director of Office for
Students with Disabilities
 Pavel Ignatenkov – Media Developer
 Carol Puissegur – SharePoint Administrator

25. Phase 1: Develop an online and f2f
tutorial called “Videos for All”
Discuss the pedagogy of using of videos in the
classroom
Define the various types of classroom videos
Discuss various ways of finding pre-made videos
Discuss various tools for making videos
Teach how to use “MediaSpace” to store &
create videos
Teach how to order & edit captions within
MediaSpace

26. Phase 1 continued…
Discuss the laws, guidelines, and overall importance
of captions
Address the question: "Whose job is it?"
Ultimately the college, but faculty can be held
responsible in terms of the law
Goal is for the college to remove ALL barriers
for faculty to use captioned videos
Promote our upcoming “caption request form”

27. Phase 2: Conduct a “Survey of Need” and
launch the tutorial/workshop
Created a survey as a learning tool as well
as information gathering
Link to Survey results
Approx. 85 faculty have attended 4 “Videos
for All” workshops since summer of 2018
Several more have viewed the online
tutorial in D2L

28. Phase 3: Create a process for faculty to
make caption requests
 Differentiate between IT-created videos and faculty-
hosted videos
 Create a priority flowchart: Link to “priority” flowchart
 Create a form for video caption requests
 Develop workflow for in-house requests
OSD staff and 1 hired contractor
 Develop workflow for outsourced requests
3-Play media through our IT account

30. If more than 1 video:

31. Drop-down menus:

32. Statistics
Totals
Since Nov. 2018 78 Videos
1136.25 Minutes (approx. 19
hours)
44 Completed in-house
5 Outsourced (3-Play
Media)
29 Not indicated or in
process
$2,670 Estimated total cost
(@2.35/minute)

33. Thank you!
Lesley Blicker
Director of Learning and Next Generation
Technologies, Educational Innovations
SARA/State Authorization Contact
Minnesota State
Wells Fargo Place
30 East 7th Street, Suite 350
Direct: 651-201-1413| Mobile: 651-269-
0107
Lesley.blicker@minnstate.edu
Kathleen Coate
Theatre Faculty/D2L Trainer
Normandale Community College
9700 France Ave S
Bloomington MN 55431
952-358-8617
Kathleen.coate@normandale.edu