MiVideo: Auto Machine Captioning

Environment

Canvas
MiVideo Mediaspace

Issue

FAQs about auto machine captions for MiVideo.

Resolution

• Why is auto machine captioning being enabled on MiVideo?
  • This new behavior is in line with user expectations and other video streaming platforms.  Before this change, automatic captions were only added when a media owner ordered captions for each media entry after upload. This extra step has been underutilized, leaving media without the benefit of captions for viewers of the content. 
  • Unedited machine captions are not ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant, because the accuracy of automatic captions can vary. However, these captions offer several benefits for our diverse user base, increasing the quality and value of media content for learners and viewers, including:
    • improved comprehension 
    • language learning support
    • accommodating temporary or situational barriers
• If auto captioning is enabled, why aren’t all my videos captioned?
  • Auto captioning was enabled on 4/22/2024 for new media. You still have to manually order captions for media added to your My Media library prior to that date.
• If I import a Media Gallery from a previous Canvas course will my videos be auto captioned?
  • Videos will only contain captions if they were added to your My Media library after 4/22/204 or if you already ordered captions for them.
• I need professional human-created captioning for my videos due to an SSD accommodation, will they be auto ordered?
  • No, only machine captions will be automatically ordered. You still have to manually order SSD professional captions.
  • Once the professional SSD captions are created, they will become the default and the machines captions will be disabled on the video.
• The machine captions are inaccurate, what options do I have?
  • Captions can be manually edited using MiVideo’s Video Editor. 
    • Tip: use the find and replace function to quickly update common mistakes within the Video Editor.
    • Tip: for long transcripts, download the transcript and edit in a text editor then sync back to your video.
  • If the majority of the video is spoken in a language other than English, the auto machine English captions won’t make much sense, reorder captions in another language.
  • Order professional human-created captions for a fee.
    • If your department already subscribes to professional captions, they can be ordered using the same process you used in the past.
    • Professional captions can be ordered for videos that already have machine captions. Once the professional captions are created they will become the default and the machines captions will be disabled on the video.
  • If you don’t want to use machine captions, disable the captions from displaying on the player.
• Can I disable captions on a video?
  • Yes, disable the captions from displaying on the player.
• Can I opt out of auto machine captioning?
  • No.
• The auto English machine captions failed or produced nonsense as the source language of my video is not English, can I order machine captions in another language?
  • Yes, reorder captions in another language.
• How can I make edits to my video?
  • Make the edits in the MiVideo Video Editor, then save as a copy. MiVideo will edit the captions to match any trimming.
• I deleted my captions due to poor quality, how can I reorder them?
  • If you delete the captions file there is no way to recover it and MiVideo does not provide a way to re-order machine captions in the same language.
  • Check if the text transcript file is still attached to the video (Edit page > Attachments tab). If so then use text alignment to re-create a captions file from the transcript file. 
  • Otherwise, you'll need to make a copy of the video using the MiVideo Video Editor. Captions will be automatically created for the copy. To use the captions file in the original video, download the SRT captions file from the copy, then upload the SRT captions file to the original.

Resources and Questions

• Check out the new Academic Technology@Michigan website for course planning resources from across U-M
• Visit the Canvas @ Michigan site for faculty including the U-M Instructor Guide with links to additional support resources from across campus
• Check out the Canvas and MiVideo tutorials

For additional questions, please contact the ITS Service Center