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Brightspace Staff Support

Using Videos and Closed Captions

When using video in Brightspace it is best to make sure they are complying with regulatory standards for accessibility such as the 'Web Content Accessibility Guidelines' or WCAG.

Videos which use closed captions allow deaf or people of hard of hearing to be able to see visually what words are being said in the video.

The standards we need to meet are detailed in the WCAG 1.2.2 Closed Captions Specification.

Don't be alarmed however as there are tools out there which do this automatically as long as we are mindful to turning the option on.

In Brightspace the easiest method of recording video to your students is using the 'Video Note' tool. Our guidance below will show you how to do this and how to make sure closed captions are enabled.


Enabling Live Captions in Google Chrome Browser

This guidance is for individual users, settings must be changed on each persons own Google Chrome browser.

When using the Google Chrome browser you can enable live captioning, this will work on most webpages that have audio.  This means you can receive live captions for example on:

  • Live Brightspace virtual classroom sessions
  • Recorded Brightspace virtual classroom sessions
  • Video embedded into Brightspace

 


Uploading videos to Microsoft Stream and embedding these in Brightspace

Sometimes you will have a video file, in either MP4 or other format, or you may need to record a video separately from Brightspace and upload it into your course content. This is not as hard as it sounds, and the guidance here will show you how you can take a video file and;

  • Upload it to Microsoft Stream (included with your Office 365 subscription)
  • Share this video as a URL link in Brightspace
  • Embed the shared HTML code of a video on Stream into a Brightspace file or document. 

 


Embedding videos from YouTube into Brightspace Content

By default, streaming platfrom YouTube enables closed captions. These can either be automatically produced live whilst content is being watched, or can be input by the YouTube content creator. Whatever the option, with trillions of hours of video content available YouTube is bound to be a place where you can find great resources to support your teaching. In this guide we show you how to;

  • Copy a YouTube video into a URL link in your Brightspace content
  • Embed the shared HTML code of a video on YouTube into a Brightspace file or document.