IMPORTANT: This feature is currently in beta. During this time, the user experience is actively in development and subject to change.
As you test this feature, your feedback is welcome. Send your thoughts and suggestions to uxfeedback@higherlogic.com.
This article...
- Details the benefits of the Transcription feature: enhanced searchability and improved accessibility for hearing-impaired users.
- Explains where transcriptions and captions display; how they differ; and the "player" options.
- Describes the limitations of the feature, such as availability, language support, and file-duration exclusions.
- Discusses user permissions for viewing, hiding, and editing transcripts.
- Details transcription editing, including benefits, accessibility considerations, and editing options; it also demonstrates the affects of transcript edits.
Feature overview
The Transcription feature gives Admins the ability to have AI transcribe the words that are spoken in audio and video files, and then display the text that is generated as a transcript and as captions.
Transcribing audio and video files provides two primary benefits to your community users.
- Enhanced user searches - the content of the audio and video files is indexed for the transcription. As a result, the "spoken words" in audio and video files are searchable — just like the text in a community discussion and an uploaded text file. These files being searchable means that they are included in the results when users perform a search.
- Improved accessibility - the transcribed content displays in a dedicated transcriptions panel under audio and video files as they play. This makes the audio component of recordings accessible to people who have hearing impairments. Additionally, video files also have a user-managed captions feature which displays the dialogue "on-screen" right in the video player.
Enable the Transcription feature
You enable the Transcription feature on the AI Features Opt-In page in the Admin interface, and you can then edit the settings to control which users the Transcription panel and the Captions option display for.
See AI Terms and AI Features Page to learn how to enable and configure this feature.
Transcription feature limitations
The Transcription feature is exclusive to Resource Library pages in a community. The functionality is not supported on Library Entries' Details pages or in the previous Library experience. Further, the feature:
- is a "moving forward" enhancement to Resource Libraries and, as such, applies to only those audio and video files that are uploaded after the feature has been enabled.
- is limited to transcribing audio and video files that are uploaded:
- as Library Entries (i.e., the Redesigned Library experience) and
- as attachments to threads and posts (such as messages, discussions, questions, and answers).
- can transcribe only English-language audio in uploaded audio and video files.
- can transcribe the audio of files that are less than 4 hours in length.
NOTE: Audio and video files that exceed 4 hours are bypassed by the process.
Generating transcriptions
When the Transcription feature is enabled and an audio or video file is uploaded to the Resource Library, the system will automatically index the file and generate the transcription.
This process isn't instantaneous, however, so the transcription might not be immediately available. In this case, the Transcription panel (that displays below the video and audio players) indicates:
"Transcription generation is processing. Check back later."
- Return to the Library Entry later and try again.
Transcription in your community
When the Transcription feature is enabled, transcriptions display:
- for those users who are set via the View Permissions dialog on the AI Features Opt-In page, and who have permissions in the host community.
- in an expandable panel below the video and audio players.
Hide transcriptions
Users who have permission to edit transcriptions can hide transcripts.
TIP: Hiding the transcript does not affect the video or audio file. The files remain available and users can play them, but the Transcription panel no longer displays.
Notes
The "hide" action:
- is applied to only the file on which the action was taken, but it
- is site-wide; it is not unique to the user who takes the action.
To hide a transcript:
- Click the ellipsis icon (...) for the Library Entry.
- Click Hide Transcript.
Any user who has permission to edit transcriptions can click the ellipsis icon and click Show Transcript to make the Transcription panel visible again for all users.
The audio and video players
Audio files and video files open in slightly different "players;" the differences being the necessary controls and options. The Transcription panel displays below both players.
- The video player has more features, controls, and options, which are detailed in Video player options, below.
- Audio files display a more basic player that has the play/pause button, a progress bar, a volume control, and an ellipsis icon that you click to set the Playback speed:
NOTE: The Edit Transcript button displays below the Transcription panel for users who have the appropriate "edit" permissions. Refer to Edit a transcription, below, for information on transcription editing.
Video player options
When you hover on the video player, several controls display in the lower right.
Click the:
- speaker icon to raise and lower the volume.
- square icon to view the video full screen.
- vertical ellipsis icon to access additional options (described in the sections below):
Captions
Captions for videos:
- are automatically created by the Transcription feature.
- are unique to video files.
- are not turned on by default; each user who views a video can individually turn them on and off.
When captions are turned on, they display across the bottom of the video player, as shown below.
Playback speed
This option gives you the ability to adjust the rate (i.e., "speed") at which the video plays.
- The default is Normal.
- There are "slower" (0.25, 0.5, 0.75) and "faster" (1.25, 1.5, 1.75, 2) settings.
Picture in picture
This option gives you the ability to "pop out" the player from your browser.
When you do:
- Your browser tab indicates the player.
- The default player goes black but still displays the controls and the captions.
You can click-&-drag the pop-out player to reposition it on your monitor display.
The pop-out player:
- displays over other tabs in your browser;
- continues to play when you select and play a different video file in the Resource Library;
- remains active if you minimize your browser; and
- auto-closes if you navigate away from the Resource Library in the community.
To close the pop-out player, click either the X in the upper right or Back to tab, both of which display when you hover on the player.
Edit a transcription
NOTE: The information in this section is specific to users who have content-editing permissions for the community in which the file has been uploaded, as listed below.
The following users can edit transcripts.
- Super Admins - who can edit any transcript in any community.
- Community Admins - who can edit transcripts for files that have been uploaded within a community in which they are a Community Admin.
- Community users - who can edit only the transcripts of files that they have individually uploaded within a community.
- Other "authorized" users - who have "editing" permissions for a stand-alone Library within the host community and are included in the View Permission setting that is set on the Settings for Transcription dialog.
Transcript-editing caveats
If you plan to edit a transcript, it's important to note that:
- Edits to a transcript apply only to the transcript that displays in the Transcription panel.
- Edits are not applied to:
- the actual recorded audio of audio and videos files or
- the captions that can be turned on for video files.
Why edit a transcript?
The ability to edit a transcript is primarily for Admins and others to manage the content that displays to community users in the Transcription panel. It is not intended as a censorship mechanism.
For example, authorized content editors can edit transcripts to:
- replace visually offensive content (e.g., replace words with *****).
- remove unwanted content (e.g., content that is incorrect or could be deemed offensive).
- correct inaccurate content (e.g., the spelling of peoples' names).
REMINDER: Transcript edits apply only to the on-screen text that displays in the Transcription panel.
Editing caution: Accessibility
Transcripts are wonderful "accessibility" mechanisms through which hearing-impaired users can experience the audio portion (such as a conversation or a voiceover) of a recording. Before editing a transcript, consider:
- In the cases of audio-only files and video files that do not have captions enabled, for users who are hearing impaired, the transcript is the only available record of the content.
If that content is drastically edited, the information that reaches these users (and its context) could be dramatically altered.
Access the transcription editor
User who have editing permissions for audio and video files can click the Edit Transcript button that displays at the bottom of the Transcription panel of audio and video files.
This section uses a conversation between two people to describe the editing options and to demonstrate the affects of editing on a transcript.
Edit a transcription
Before you edit a transcript, it's a good idea to review and understand the following behaviors of the Edit Transcription page.
Text fields
The Edit Transcription page does not have obvious editing options. However, in the text fields that contain the speaker names and the transcript content, you can edit the content by way of:
- the standard right-click options (e.g., Cut, Copy, Paste, Undo) and
- the established keyboard shortcuts (e.g., Ctrl+ and Cmd+).
Cancel
If you make changes that you then want to "undo" (other than in a text field, as described above), you have to click Cancel.
- This discards your edits and returns you to the Library page.
- You have to re-click Edit Transcript and re-edit the transcript on the Edit Transcription page.
Save
The Save button is disabled until a change is made.
- When Save is clicked, the changes you made are permanently saved and the page closes.
- If you don't want/like the changes you've made, you have to click Edit Transcript again and return to the Edit Transcription page to manually edit the content.
TIP: Consider which changes you want to make before accessing the Edit Transcription page. When editing a transcript, save the changes that you're sure of so that you don't lose them if you have to cancel out the page.
Edit Transcript page overview and options
A usable player displays in the upper left of the Edit Transcription page for audio and video files.
- Manage (rename, add, delete) the speakers on the left side of the page.
- Manage speaker assignments (via the dropdowns) and the transcript content on the right side of the page.
There are several aspects of a transcript that you can manage:
-
Content - click into a content box (i.e., text field) to edit what displays in the Transcription panel.
- Click and hold the lower-right corner of the box and "drag" it down to enlarge it.
- Speakers - click into a "speaker" text field to change the default designations of numbered speakers. The "name" that you assign displays in the Transcription panel.
- Add Speaker - click to add a speaker. This is useful if the AI incorrectly assigned the content to the wrong speaker.
-
Delete - click any trashcan icon to (permanently) delete that:
- speaker, in which case, the content is automatically "re-assigned" to a different speaker, or
- block of content from the transcript.
IMPORTANT: Exercise Caution: Deleting any of the transcript content could alter the context of the transcript.
To demonstrate the affects of editing a transcript, we made some changes to the transcript shown above.
In the edited transcript shown below, we:
- edited a speaker (Ms. Green became Ms. Greenly),
- added a speaker (Voiceover),
- consolidated some of the content and added some content, and
- reassigned content to a different speaker.
...and our example edits now display in the Transcription panel:
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