Proactive Captioning for Online Courses

The Center for Distributed Learning provides resources in order to create online accessible multimedia (i.e., audio and video). As an initiative, 10,000 minutes of closed captioning will be provided from now until June 30, 2021 for online (W) courses. 

Any unused allocation will be rolled into the following semester. A special announcement for proposals may be called if minutes remain toward the end of the fiscal year (July 1-June 30).

The goal of this process is to provide proactive captioning that benefits all students.

Have Questions?
Please direct any questions about this process to Dr. Beth Nettles, Manager, Learning Content Development, Center for Distributed Learning.

Faculty FAQs

Does this process apply if I have a student who needs an accommodation in my course? 

No, this process is for proactive purposes only. Student Accessibility Services (SAS) will contact you if a student in your course has a captioning accommodation. 

What courses are eligible to receive captioning? 

Proactive captioning is available to academic courses taught in the online (W) modality. 

Will media hosted in Panopto or Zoom be eligible? 

No. Media currently hosted in Panopto or Zoom are not eligible. If the media was recorded with Panopto or Zoom and is hosted (lives) in Webcourses@UCF, it may be eligible.  Class sessions (whether from Panopto or in Zoom) are not eligible for proactive video captioning since they are typically long and not reused from semester to semester. 

My media have captions that were created automatically. Are they eligible? 

Yes. Media with automatically created captions (e.g., YouTube) do not meet accessibility standards set in the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA). 

What if I need live captioning? 

This process is aimed at providing captions for pre-recorded media only. 

What types of media will be captioned? 

All prerecorded media is eligible (e.g. YouTube, instructor-created narrations). Content in Flash will have to be converted to another file format before being captioned. 

Does the media have to exist at the time of submission? 

Yes, the media must exist at the time of submission. Additional media created or used throughout the semester must be submitted in a future semester. 

Does this mean that the university will automatically pay for all of my captioning needs? 

No. Creating accessible course content is still the responsibility of the faculty member. The resources provided in this process are not sufficient to caption all media in online courses. 

What criteria are used in determining who will receive funds for captioning? 

For proactive captioning requests, the following factors will be considered: 
– The number of students who will access the media 
– Whether interaction with the media results in a grade 
– The number of semesters the media will be used 
– The estimated number of captioning minutes requested 
Faculty are encouraged to apply even if they feel they might not be a top candidate for receiving captioning minutes. 

Can I reapply in the future if I do not receive captioning for all my media? 

Yes! 

Who will review my proposal? 

Individuals from the Center for Distributed Learning will review submitted proposals. 

How will I know if my proposal was accepted? 

The committee will respond with a full award, partial award, or no award. Faculty will be notified by the committee of the results of the review.