The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) system has conducted a comprehensive project to assess captioning practices across its institutions, identifying challenges and best practices related to video captioning for educational purposes. Key findings indicate a lack of established guidelines, budgetary constraints, and a significant backlog of videos waiting to be captioned, highlighting the need for better resources and support. The report outlines next steps for continued collaboration and improvement in captioning processes across MnSCU institutions.

1. The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system is an Equal Opportunity employer and educator.
Minnesota State Colleges and Universities
Highlights from the MnSCU
Captioning Assessment Project
Lesley Blicker Maran Wolston
Mary Pietruszewski Rita Resendiz-Abfalter

2. MnSCU Captioning Assessment Project
Project undertaken by Captioning Assessment Work Group
under the auspices of the MnSCU ASA Technology Council
 Maran Wolston, Project Manager; Lesley Blicker and Kim
Lynch, System Office, Project Sponsors
 Work completed to date:
 Captioning practices survey
 Identified captioning vendors and products, conducted vendor
meetings/informal interviews
 Researched legal elements of captioning, created legal FAQ document
 Campus “deep dive” to assess and document best practices for captioning
 Conducted Captioning Symposium April 8, 2016
 Created Accessible-Ed listserv

3.  To explore options used by MnSCU institutions for the
provision of transcription and captioning services for
teaching and instructional purposes (products and
processes)
 To locate all places within an institution where there
are efforts being taken to caption course videos
 To help identify best practices or campuses with
whom the work group could follow up
 To serve as a baseline assessment (state of the state)
about course/instructional video captioning in MnSCU
MnSCU Course Video
Captioning Practices Survey

5. Individual Responses Responding as a Group
114 32
78% of responses 22% of responses
 Enthusiasm to participate
 Responses received from 35 of 37 institutions
 146 responses (some as campuses, some as individuals)
Responses in General

6.  MnSCU institutions are making accommodation requests
 When describing practices and processes for captioning,
the majority of the answers were referring to
accommodation requests, not advance captioning
 No established guidelines or procedures at campus
 No well-communicated process or understanding about
whose role it is to caption
 Cost and budget issues, need top-down support to make a
priority
 Web accessibility is slightly ahead of course accessibility
 Faculty feel they’re responsible yet lack the tools,
resources, time, and support needed
Recurring Themes 1

7.  Many, many “I don’t knows” to questions yet these are the
people most interested in and/or doing some form of
captioning at their institution
 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 it’; turn-
around is quick
 Misunderstanding about what constitutes meeting ADA
requirements
Recurring Themes 2

8. Captioning is
provided for all
instructional and
non-instructional
videos
Accessibility
training
provided for
employees
All course
materials are
accessible
Web
accessibility
(web
pages/sites)
Fully accomplished Partially accomplished Not yet begunBeginning to work on
Extent to which your campus has started
working on or accomplished these:

9.  About 7 MnSCU institutions have or
are beginning to put processes in place
to caption course videos in advance of
accommodation requests (19% of the
37 institutions)
 Some of these institutions are
presenting and sharing these practices
towards universal design with others
and at conferences, such as today
Snapshot – Spring 2016

10.  Campus financial commitment with dedicated budget
item for captioning
 Use of cross-functional teams with senior level
leadership endorsement; prioritizing videos to be
captioned
 Presence of tools, software, or services for captioning
(outsource, insource, or some combination)
 Training and technical support
 Clear processes in place
How Are They Doing It?

11. Commonly Used Captioning Services
and Products
 Captioning services
 3Play Media
 AutoSyncTechnologies (CaptionSync)
 Rev.com
 Captioning software/tools
 Camtasia
 YouTube
Note: See paper handout for details

12. Campus Processes: Four Examples
 North Hennepin Community College
 Central Lakes College
 MSU Mankato
 Anoka-Ramsey Community College
Common to all:
 Administrator support (acknowledgement of need; dedicated
funding)
 Cross-role workgroup to determine needs, processes,
advocate, and educate

13. 13

22. Next Steps for Captioning Group
 Continuation of group in 2016-17
 Possible work for next year:
 Develop plan or program to increase quantity of captioned
video content across MnSCU
 Develop campus engagement plan to encourage cross-
institution communication and collaboration
 Explore the possibility of hosting an “Accessible Technology”
conference

23. A Few Resources…
 Captioning Symposium (4/8/16) video recordings and slide
presentations
 Accessible-Ed Listserv
Note: See paper handout for more details on how to access the
above items

24. Audience Q&A
If you’d like to get in touch with the session presenters
after today’s event, please find our contact information
on the paper handout. Thanks!