Seven benefits of academic transcription

Seven benefits of academic transcription

Taking notes during lectures is something many of your students are likely to struggle with. Not only can it create a stressful learning environment for them, it also means they can't fully engage in your classes, as their focus is on trying to make a note of all the important things you've said.

That's why recording lectures has become common practice. But watching the recording back takes a lot of time, especially when you factor in stopping and starting to keep up.

That's where academic transcriptions come in.

Providing your students with academic transcriptions has a whole host of benefits. Not only does it help students to stay focused in lectures and help students who've missed class to catch up, it also makes your lecture content more accessible, and saves you time creating extra study material.

In this guide we'll outline the advantages of academic transcriptions, and walk you through the best ways to get them.

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What are the advantages of academic transcriptions?

1. Keeps students focused during lectures

We've touched on this already, but since students won't have to take notes during your lecture, they can stay focused during your class. Knowing they'll receive a transcript afterwards means they can close their laptops, put their pens down, and fully engage with the content.

2. Improves accessibility

Academic transcriptions are an excellent way of making your class content more accessible. Chances are your school or college already has good accessibility practices in place for students who are hard of hearing or who have learning disabilities, but providing academic transcripts goes a step further in making your lectures more accessible.

3. Helps ESL students

Chances are you have a number of students with English as their second language (ESL). Many ESL students find it easier to understand through reading than through listening, so an academic transcription can help boost their understanding of the course content and improve their learning.

4. Help students studying remotely

One of the challenges of online learning is time management, with students who study remotely often finding it hard to pace themselves without the usual structure and support of academic life. Sharing transcriptions of your lectures can help those students who are worried about getting behind, saving them time by providing them with easy-to-use study material.

If you use Zoom to conduct online lectures, then it couldn't be easier to get an academic transcription, since Transcribe integrates with Zoom. All you need to do is set up Zoom integration, then leave the rest to us.

5. Creates instant study material

Whether it's helping students studying remotely or others that have been off sick, getting a transcript that you can share with your students is beneficial. For both them and you. It helps them catch up, fill in any gaps in their notes, and stay on top of their studies, but it also saves you time having to create notes yourself or throw revision sessions.

6. Assists the research process

There are plenty of advantages of academic transcriptions for students, but there are some direct benefits for you as an academic too. If you're conducting interviews or focus groups as part of your academic research, then getting transcripts of these sessions saves you from taking notes while the study is in progress. Record the session, and you can get a full written transcript within minutes of it ending.

7. Generates searchable notes

Audio and video files aren't searchable, which means if you want to jump to a key point in a recording, there's a lot of guesswork and jumping back and forth to find the right moment. By getting a written transcript, you'll be able to search for keywords and find what you're looking for instantly, saving a lot of valuable time. Then you can copy and paste verbatim quotes directly into your reports.

How to get an academic transcription

There are two options when it comes to getting an academic transcription: use a human transcription service or an automatic transcription service.

  • Human transcription services

These services employ humans to manually transcribe your audio or video recording. While they promise the best possible accuracy, these services are typically much slower and more expensive than their automated counterparts. An hour of audio takes approximately four hours for a professional to transcribe, and the average price is 75 cents to $1.50 per minute. That works out as $45-$90 per hour of audio transcription.

  • Automatic transcription services

Automatic transcription services, like Transcribe, offer a cheaper and faster alternative. Since the process is automated, using AI-powered software, you'll get an academic transcription within minutes of uploading the file. Our PRO services costs just $10 a month for 5 hours of transcription time, which works out as just $2 per hour.

Export the academic transcript in your preferred file format and share it with your students. They can then skim-read it, search for key points, condense the information and reformat it into easy-to-read revision notes.

If you'd like to see for yourself how an academic transcription could benefit you and your students, download the Transcribe app or online editor and get your first 15 minutes of transcription time for free.


Written By Katie Garrett

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