Transcribing carefully written lectures is nuts

As we move to online teaching for the new semester, lots of effort is going into ensuring that the material is accessible.

This means ensuring, at the very least, that visual material is available in an audio format for hearing impaired students and that audio material is available in text form for hearing impaired students.

But, because of our fixation with multimedia, we have tied ourselves in inefficient knots. Think of the workflow:

  • First, we carefully research, organise and draft (in writing) our lectures.
  • Second, we deliver them, as recordings, in lecture theatres or in online lectures. During our lecture, we draw students into discussion and activities at various points.
  • Third, the recording of our lecture is made available for students to watch (without the benefit of engaging in the activities and discussions).
  • Ideally, we should edit the recording to make remove any dead time and ensure the privacy of students who contributed.
  • Then, to ensure accessibility, a transcript of the recording is produced automatically (but which probably needs to be proof read carefully).

All of that work, results in a poor copy of the written notes we so carefully prepared in order to be able to deliver the lecture.

Which begs the question: Why not simply make the notes (and any visuals) available and use all that effort that went into producing the video for something else (such as small group teaching)?

Updated: