3. Caption - Options

Yes, you can caption your videos on YouTube, and this process has improved tremendously over recent YouTube updates.  There are three ways you can add captions to your video on YouTube. 

Your 3 Captioning Options in YouTube

In the following 4-minute video, Katie Palacios will walk you through the three options. Choose the option that works best for your welcome video and then follow the steps in the related video below.

 

Option 1: Wait for YouTube Automated Captions and then Edit them for Accuracy

We recommend that you start by trying this option – it's a good one! And it's easier than you think. YouTube’s auto-generated captions have seriously greatly improved recently, and you may just have a few edits to make to your captions so that they accurately convey the audio content to your audience.

Here is a 3-minute video tutorial from Katie Palacios showing how to edit auto-generated YouTube captions (this video was updated in October 2020 to show the latest workflow).

Option 2: Use a Script When You Record  

This step requires you to have:

  • This step requires you to have a video uploaded to YouTube and a written transcript (in a Word Doc, Google Doc, or a simple text app) of the words you speak in the video.  

This step is a good choice if:

  • Your video is non-talking-head style (like those created with Adobe Spark). If you are making a talking-head style video, it will be apparent to your students that you are reading from a script as you speak. In a talking-head style video, your presence will be more authentic if you make eye contact with your camera, as opposed to read from a script.

Here is a 4-minute video that walk you through how to use a transcript to generate captions for your video in YouTube.

Option 3: Transcribe and Set Timings in YouTube

Use this option if:

  • You didn’t use a script, and the YouTube auto-generated captions never appear.
  • The auto-generated captions appear but are so inaccurate that editing them would be too cumbersome.

Here is a 7-minute video that walks you through how to transcribe and set timings for captions directly in YouTube.

Give it a Try!

Before moving ahead in this module, choose one of the options above, and add captions to your YouTube video.