Note-taking 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.

Recording lectures has become common practice for this very reason. But watching the recording back takes a lot of time, especially when you factor in stopping and starting to be able to take good notes.

That's where academic transcription comes 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 those 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 generate them.

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• What are the advantages of getting an academic transcription?

  • Keeps students focused during lectures

  • Improves accessibility

  • Helps ESL students

  • Helps students studying remotely

  • Creates instant study material

  • Assists the research process

  • Generates searchable notes

• How to generate an academic transcription

Here are seven key advantages of academic transcriptions - for students and academics alike.

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.

Academic transcripts are an excellent way of making your class content more accessible. Your school or college likely 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.

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. Better yet, many transcription tools offer a transcript translation service, so students can access the transcript in the language of their choice for improved comprehension.

Find out how to translate transcripts using Transcribe.

One of the biggest 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 transcripts 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.

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.

With Transcribe, you can also generate transcript summaries highlighting the key points from the lecture or seminar. These clear and concise automated summaries make it easy for students to grasp the most important information - and they also make great study notes when it comes to exam prep and revision.

Check out our guide on how to summarize transcripts for more information.

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 - and a summary - within minutes of it ending.

Audio and video files aren't searchable, which means if you want to jump to a key point in a lecture 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.

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

• Automated transcription services

Automated transcription services, like Transcribe, offer a cheaper and faster alternative. Since the process is automated, using AI-powered software, you'll get an academic transcript within minutes of uploading the file. Our PRO service costs as little as $8.33/month (as part of an annual subscription) for five hours of transcription time each month - which works out as little as $1.67 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.

Academic transcripts offer a wide range of benefits for both you and your students. Download the Transcribe app or launch the online editor to get started, or check out our guide on how to record and transcribe lectures for step-by-step instructions.