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ZOOM Streams Captions in Live Zoom Sessions

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So, uh, you may remember Hugo’s post from a couple weeks ago, Otter Streams Captions in Live Zoom Sessions. Nope, you’re not stuck in the movie Groundhog Day. Yup, you read the title of today’s post correctly. ZOOM NOW HAS INTEGRATED CAPTIONS! Sorry, I don’t mean to yell at you, but I’m just so excited for this added accessibility option that is much easier to enable than Otter’s new captions in Zoom. Are you excited too?!

How to Enable

From now on when you host a TechConnect Zoom meeting, you will see a “cc” icon in your Zoom controls that will allow you to “Enable Auto-Transcription” during a meeting. Doing so will display the auto-generated captions at the bottom of your Zoom screen. 

how to "Enable Auto-Transcription"

At any point during your meeting, you have the option to “Hide Subtitle,” “View Full Transcript,” or even adjust the adjust the size of the captions in “Subtitle Settings” by clicking on the small up-arrow to the right of the cc button. The “View Full Transcript” option will open up a live running transcript sidebar that will appear on the right of the Zoom screen where the Chat sidebar appears. 

host-view options after enabling auto-transcription

Attendee-View

Once you “Enable Auto-Transcription” during a meeting, your students will be able “Show Subtitle,” “View Full Transcript,” or adjust the adjust the size of the captions in “Subtitle Settings” by clicking on the small up-arrow to the right of the cc button. 

attendee-view options after host enables auto-transcription

Features & Limitations

Here’s what you should know about what this Zoom captions option can and can’t do:

ANY DEVICE: It works for you and your students every way that you can join a meeting: from the desktop app, from the web, or from a mobile device.

WORKS WITH OTTER: Zoom captions and live transcripts do not interfere with Otter. However, since the new Zoom captions eliminate the need for Otter, Mt. SAC will only keep Otter through June 30, 2021.
SAVING TRANSCRIPTS: By default, attendees cannot save transcripts, but that can be enabled in your Zoom account: Settings > Meeting tab > “In Meeting (Advanced) section > toggle on Save Captions.

SIDEBAR: The Full Transcript cannot be open at the same time as the Chat or any other sidebar. 
NO BREAKOUT ROOMS: Unfortunately, these auto-generated captions and live transcripts do not work inside of breakout rooms at this time.
NOT PERMANENT: There isn’t a way to “Enable Auto-Transcription” permanently for all meetings. Therefore, you will need to “Enable Auto-Transcription” at each meeting in order for you and your students/attendees to have access to the Zoom auto-captions and the live transcript.
For more details and tips on Zoom captions/live transcripts, see our Zoom page in the Canvas Faculty Center.
Tell us in the COMMENTS what you think about this option for Zoom captions and live transcripts.
Faculty Center for Learning Technology | Mt. San Antonio College

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