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*SPAM* Re: Podcasting and Accessibility

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From: Sarah Horton
Date: Feb 1, 2006 2:45PM

--- Joseph Karr O'Connor wrote:
Unless all of our
students have access to new course materials, then no students will have
access to new course materials.
--- end of quote ---

Hi, Joseph. We're also looking into lecture recording, too, and have encountered all the obstacles you mention in trying to capture a decent recording. We are looking for a "self-service" solution that doesn't require much in the way of additional resources. Funnily enough, the best bet at this time seems to be the iPod with a iTalk attachment and iTunes as the "authoring tool" to move the file from the iPod to our course management system. Unfortunately, there is no voice recorder attachment for the G5 iPods. I just don't get how they could build so much audio fidelity into the iPod and not provide some way to record to the darn thing. Anyway, enough about my iPod woes.

I wanted to chime in on the topic of recorded lectures because they are great example of universal design. So far we've had great feedback from students about the availability of recorded lectures, and no, not because it allows them to skip class! Lectures are a tough way to consume information, particularly when paired with content-heavy "powerpoints." Providing a recording allows students to overcome the constraints of time and space by providing the ability to return to the lecture, catch what they missed, and review points they didn't completely understand. So I'm all in favor of recorded lectures.

What's missing is a text transcript that provides the equivalent information for people who can't listen to the audio. I don't think the text needs to be synchronized, unless I'm missing something. If the presentation is audio only, there's nothing to synchronize it to, so the "s" in SMIL doesn't apply. A text transcript ought to do the trick, and might even be more useful in some contexts than the audio (it's quicker to read than to listen, easier to skip to that one segment you didn't get, and you can scribble in the margins).

So, how to get a transcript? When I google "podcast transcription service" I see a bunch of companies that will take my podcast feed or URL and create a transcript for a fee that seems reasonable. I haven't tried this, but I plan to. I also wonder whether it makes sense for people who are regularly creating podcasts or recording lectures to spend the time setting up Naturally Speaking or some other speech-to-text program and use that to create transcripts.

Has anyone had experience with either online transcription services or speech recognition for this purpose?

TIA,
Sarah

Sarah Horton
Dartmouth College
<EMAIL REMOVED>