Transcribe an online lecture recording

From Panopto’s help article on downloading a video, for viewers:

1. Open the video. Click the menu button next to Help, then Download Podcast.
2. If the video is embedded in a course page, use the Download button at the bottom right of the player.
3. The file is an MP4, in the format the video’s creator chose. For audio only, Panopto says to ask the creator or your Panopto administrator.

No Download Podcast option means your access does not include downloads. Panopto’s advice is to contact the video’s creator. Before you do, look at the tabs on the left of the player: if your university allows caption downloads, the captions tab has a download icon, and that file is a transcript already.

From Echo360’s article on downloading media from the class list:

1. Open the course (from your Moodle, Canvas or Blackboard course page, click the link to the Echo360 course).
2. Click the content icon for the class, then Download or Download Original.
3. On the Video tab, choose Full or Lower quality (an MP4). On the Audio tab, choose the MP3. For a transcript, the MP3 is all you need, and it is much smaller.

Instructors can turn class downloads off, or allow audio only. If the lecture has polls in it, Echo360 hides the download until you have answered all of them.

From Kaltura’s article on downloading videos:

1. Open the video’s media page.
2. Click the three dots under the player, then Download, and choose a format.

Kaltura says only the video’s owner can turn downloads on, in the formats your university allows. If Download is not there, ask the lecturer.

From the Canvas Studio guide:

1. Hover over the video and click View.
2. Click the More Options icon, then Download Media. If the video has captions, Download Transcript is there too.

Canvas notes that a video with no Download Media link is protected and cannot be downloaded, and that videos added from YouTube or Vimeo cannot be downloaded at all. A lecture on YouTube is not something Slice can take either: it needs the file.

A Zoom lecture recorded to the cloud is shared as a link. Zoom’s sharing settings have a Viewers can download switch, set by whoever recorded it. If it is on, you can download the recording as well as watch it; if not, you can only watch. The same settings have Viewers can see transcript, which shows Zoom’s own transcript if there is one.

For a class you recorded yourself on your computer, or any other meeting file, see transcribing a Zoom, Teams or Meet recording.

These are where your course lives; the video is usually stored somewhere else. A lecture video on a Moodle or Blackboard page is usually playing in one of the players above, built into the page. Look at the player: the logo, or the menu, tells you which one it is, and the steps for that platform apply. If you cannot tell, your university’s IT or digital learning help pages will say which lecture capture system it uses.

Uploads go up to 600MB. Video is the problem: at the bitrates Panopto publishes for 720p, an hour of lecture video comes to roughly 650MB to 1.3GB. The words are all in the sound, so download the audio where you can (Echo360’s Audio tab gives an MP3), choose the lower quality, or ask the lecturer for the audio file.

If your download comes in parts, add them all to the upload box at once: they are joined in order and come back as one transcript.

Check your course’s recording rules and ask the lecturer. A lecture recording is usually the university’s or the lecturer’s, made available for you to study from. Downloading it where the platform lets you, for your own notes, is what the download option is for; sharing the recording or its transcript with people outside the course usually is not.