Echo360 provides integration with Amazon's automatic speech recognition or ASR service for automated transcriptions to video/audio media. Once transcribed, the video can be viewed with the transcription panel open, allowing users to both read and hear the text of the speech in the video.
Currently there are two triggers for automatic media transcription:
- When the item is added to or edited in Echo360
- When the item is published to an Echo360 course
This article discusses the ASR Course Media feature toggle, which sends the media for transcription at the time it is published to any Echo360 section/course. Meaning the capture can be created or video can be uploaded, but it will not have transcriptions generated or added until the item is published. See the ASR overview article for more details and limitations surrounding transcriptions.
Administrators can set this feature default at the institution, organization, or department level. Instructors can also set this at the Section level (if overrides are allowed). As with all multi-level feature toggles, as long as the Allow override checkbox is enabled, ASR for Course Media can be turned on or off at lower levels as appropriate. This functionality is in line with other institution toggles that allow independent configuration at the organization, department, and/or section levels.
IMPORTANT: If your institution plans to implement a manual transcription process, do not enable either ASR Toggles. Echo360 provides the ability to manually upload then edit transcription files (in WebVTT format) for video/audio media. The ASR toggles ONLY determine whether videos and captures are sent to Amazon for automatic, machine-generated transcriptions. See Automatic Transcriptioning Service or ASR for additional details on how ASR works.
It is also important to note that currently, embedded videos (such as in an LMS/VLE) and videos posted using public URL links will not show transcriptions even if the media has them. You CAN use the transcript as a closed captioning file if providing the spoken text is desired. See Applying Transcripts as Closed Captions for more information on using the Echo360 transcript editor to edit then apply transcription files as closed caption files.
To enable the ASR course media transcription for the institution
- Log into Echo360 as an Institution-level administrator.
- Click the Settings icon and select Institution Settings.
- If you are an Institution-level Administrator, select the Institution at the top of the list on the left, then select Features from the options in the right panel, as shown in the below figure.
- If you are a Delegated Administrator and/or you want to set ASR Course Media for an Organization or Department, select that Org/Dept from the list on the left, then select Section Features from the right panel, as shown in the below figure.
- If necessary, scroll down to the Content Creation and Management section of the page.
- Click the toggle to turn the ASR feature on or off. It is OFF by default. Review the warning message that appears.
- Check or uncheck the Allow override checkbox to determine whether this toggle setting can be changed at any of the lower levels.
NOTE: The ASR toggle does NOT have to be enabled at the institution level unless you want all published videos/captures for the institution to be transcribed. As long as the Allow override checkbox is checked, the toggle can be configured independently at the lower levels as needed.
Once enabled, captures or uploaded videos published from this point forward will be sent for transcriptions. After completion, the transcriptions are automatically returned and applied to the video, and are visible in the classroom. See Automatic Transcriptioning Service or ASR for additional details surrounding transcriptioning.