Uploading Lecture Slides and Recorded Videos to YouTube for Captioning

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 This guide outlines the process of uploading course materials to YouTube, enabling automatic captioning and transcript generation.

As we increasingly use digital tools, all course audio and video must include captions and transcripts to ensure accessibility for all students.
 
  • Start With A Recording
  • Steps To Upload
  • Auto-Captions
  • Steps to Improve the Auto-Captions
 

Whether addressing hearing impairments, technical barriers, or situational needs, these tools are vital for student success.

Using YouTube’s automated captioning is an effective way to improve accessibility for materials such as:

  • Narrated Slides (PowerPoint/Google Slides)

  • Recorded Class Meetings

  • Video Tutorials

  • Podcasts

 

Start With A Recording

Capture the course content using a tool of your choice. The example shown below was recorded using Zoom, but you might consider Google Hangouts Meet, Jing, or Screencast-o-matic, among others.  

 

Steps To Upload

  1. Access YouTube using your Geneseo email account. One easy way to do this is through the Apps button in your email account. Look for the cluster of buttons next to your username at the top right of your email screen. 

  2. Another good way of accessing your YouTube account is to go to https://studio.youtube.com, especially when needing to access videos that you've already created and uploaded. 

  3. If this is your first time accessing YouTube from this account, you will be instructed to set up a channel. 

  4. Click the "Create" icon at the top of the page to "upload video." Note: in order to upload videos longer than 15 minutes, YouTube will ask you to verify your account.  

  5. Follow the steps provided to import your video. Note: select "unlisted" in the visibility options when publishing to limit viewership to only those you provide the link to.  

  6. Once finished, the video will show up on your Studio page. English auto-captions will be automatically added, and a transcript of the video will also be available for viewers. 

Depending on its length, the video may take some time to process and captions can take a while to appear, especially on longer videos.

 

Auto-Captions

YouTube’s auto-captions are roughly 80% accurate—a solid start, but often flawed. Precision drops significantly with STEM jargon, poor audio, or thick accents.

To avoid absurd or inappropriate errors, you should always review and edit them.

Sometimes the auto-captioning may fail. The "Troubleshooting" section of Support: Use Automatic Captioning explains situations that may cause this, including poor sound quality, multiple people talking over one another, or silence at the beginning of the video. 

 

Steps to Improve the Auto-Captions

Editing YouTube’s auto-captions is far more efficient than manual transcription, as it leverages the system's existing automated timestamps.

  1. On your YouTube Studio page, open the desired video (double-click on the name), and then click the "subtitles" button on the far-left menu.

  2. If your default language has been set to English, then you will see the "English (Automatic)" subtitle option. Hover over the Published section and the Edit pencil will appear. Click the Edit Pencil.

      

  3. A new pop-up window will open, and you will then be able to make changes to the auto-generated text. If nothing else, adding punctuation will help your viewers immensely. Be sure to click Publish when finished.

YouTube's workflow updates often. Please refer to YouTube's Support pages for additional guidance.  

 

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