Video/Audio Captioning: Steps for Editing and/or Requesting Help with Editing Captions

Note: if you use Zoom to record yourself, make sure to choose the option to save the recording to the cloud. This will automatically upload the recording to Kaltura/MediaSpace where you can edit the captions yourself or add co-editors to help with the editing by following the instructions below. 

Step 1: Ensure that “Auto Generated” captions have been processed – the captions usually finish processing approximately 30 minutes after the media has been uploaded and processed.  

Note: If it is an older video, or you have replaced the video using “Replace Media,” or you edited the video using “Launch Editor” (before the captions processed), you may need to “Order” the captions. To order Machine captions for your video, select “Reach Caption & Enrich” from the Actions (ellipsis) menu (Figure 1). Scroll down the page and select “Order” (Figure 2). From the Reach captions & enrich window (Figure 3), choose Normandale and the “Machine” service type: 

Figure 1    Figure 2

Figure 3

 

Note: After the machine captions are processed, you can choose to edit them yourself, or add co-editors to your video(s) and request assistance (see step 3).  

 

 

Step 2: Edit captions after requesting the machine captions (there will be errors that need fixing): 

1. From the video, click on the Actions menu (ellipsis) and select “Edit”  

 

See this video for details on the editing process (visuals are slightly different than current version). 

2. Then click on the “Captions” tab and choose “Edit Captions” 

   

    

• For some reason there are times when two auto-captions process, but one is marked as hidden: 

 

• If you do your own editing, first, delete the hidden one, then begin the editing: 

 

3. After the captions are edited, change the caption label to reflect that it’s no longer “English Auto Generated” under the settings:  

 

• To edit the captions label from the Captions tab, click on the pencil icon: 

 

• This menu will then appear: 

 

• Edit the label to be 100% accurate and rename it to something like “CC-English”: 

 

Editing the caption label helps students know the captions have been reviewed, and also helps you and our staff to know this video has been proofread by a human. 

4. Tips for editing your own captions: 

• These symbols >> indicate a change in who is speaking and is very important to understanding dialogue if you can’t hear the voices. Machine captions sometimes insert them where they shouldn’t be. So, if you are the only one talking in the video remove those symbols entirely. 

• Describe sounds within brackets that are relevant to the video’s message such as: [water dripping]. 

• Describe relevant music which does not have relevant lyrics such as [jazz music]. 

• You can also identify who is speaking by using brackets to type their name or a short description such as [woman], [man], [Bob], [teacher].  

 

Step 3: Request Assistance If Needed  

A NEW helpful feature in Kaltura/MediaSpace is the ability to select multiple videos at once and apply co-editors to all of them. Another helpful tool is adding them to a Playlist at the same time, so you can submit one link to a playlist to ask for help with editing the captions of your videos.  

Create a Playlist FIRST if you have many videos: 

1. First use the checkboxes to select your videos; the menu features are hidden prior to selecting the checkboxes. (Do this first so the checkboxes are still checked; adding co-editors first and then trying to make the playlist does NOT retain the checked boxes and that can be the bulk of the work you’ve done.) 

 

 

2. Now select “Add to Playlist” and the next menu you can scroll down to choose “Create New Playlist”: 

  

Adding Co-Editors: 

3.        Return to My Media where you had selected your videos in the previous PlayList step:

   

    

 

4. Select “More actions” >> “Add/Remove collaborators” >> “Add collaborators”: 

 

5. Check the box for “Editor” and then type “normandale” in the search box. Select the checkbox for the “Normandale Caption Editing Team” and click “Add”: 

   

    

6. Or you can add Co-Editors to a single video in Edit mode by going to the “Collaboration” tab: 

 

7. The menu will look different here, but you’ll still search for “Normandale” and select the Caption Editing Team, then check the box for “Co-Editor” and click “Add” 

   

     

Finally: Send email to Share List of Videos or a PlayList 

If you created a playlist it can now to be shared as a single link to request assistance. Select your “user menu” from the upper right-hand corner and select “My Playlists.” Then, under the Playlist, select the vertical ellipsis and choose “Share” to get a URL that you can email to accessibility@normandale.edu.   

 

You can also caption YouTube links within MediaSpace:  

 Click on “Add Media” and then “YouTube” then enter the URL and click “Preview” (Video Tutorial) 

• After you save the youtube video you can go through the same steps above to request machine captions and edit them. 

• Or submit the original link from YouTube as a URL in your email requesting assistance (be sure to add a co-editor to the MediaSpace link you use and mention that you linked through MediaSpace in your request).  

• OR - If you no longer have the original YouTube link:  

• Copy & paste the URL from MediaSpace into your Caption Request and mention it’s a YouTube video:  

  

 

 

Updated 6/29/26