Automatic Transcription Service in Education

Every year, millions of students are getting an education through various methods. Some have to take traditional classes, while others rely on distance learning. Distance education has long been part of the education process, but recent events show that it is increasing in popularity due to many factors (ex. COVID-19). The education industry also uses modern technologies to have better results out of study plans. One of the technologies that are implemented in this field is automatic transcription software programs. This article will discuss how these programs can make traditional and online education easier for both teachers and students.

These programs function with a simple speech-to-text principle. While taking a class, be it traditional or online, you can record the lecture with any audio or video recorder and then save or transfer it to your computer. After you have the file, you can upload it to any automatic transcription software to get the lesson in a text form. This kind of technology benefits both the teachers and the students, but what kind of benefits?

What are the benefits of such software for students?

1. Details – You may have a notebook during the class, but it is almost impossible to write down all the important information. You may need to remember a particular book or author the teacher recommended to read, but it is not there when you look at your notebook. There is nothing to worry about. Automatic transcription software converts the audio to text from start to finish. So, you can find any word/topic you want, which brings us to the next point:
2. Keywords - You can easily navigate through the text using keywords. Additionally, it also lets you play the part of the audio related to the word you search. With the help of this feature, you can catch up on what you might have missed during the lesson.
3. Taking Notes – In most of these software programs, you can take notes right on the online transcript, which can help you categorize your studies. It is especially useful if you are learning a foreign language.
4. Save Your Time – Of course, you may try to transcribe the lesson by yourself or use a human transcriber, but it will cost you too much time and money. With the help of the software, you can transcribe a one-hour lesson in a few minutes and for ten-to-twenty times less money.
5. Identifying Different Speakers – The software is working with speech recognition technology. It can determine the number of people in the class. So, you will not have difficulty assigning quotes to respective owners.

What are the benefits of the software for teachers?

1. Resolves Attention Span Problem – Students usually get frustrated with the long lectures. There is no doubt that they may lose focus on the lecture after some time. Almost all teachers have these kinds of students in the class. If you make your students transcribe the lecture, they can go to any part of the text and find the missed details. Alternatively, you can make the transcription by yourself using the software and distribute it among the students.
2. Transcription to Book – After having the transcription, you can edit it and make it into a pdf file (or book) with all the essential details. You can even have productive dialogues with the students. This way, you will have a book (or e-book) that you can use as part of the study.
3. It Also Saves Teacher’s Time – Sometimes, students stop the teacher and ask questions that were already answered multiple times. Of course, this is not an issue until it repeats several times during the lecture. As a result, teachers can get distracted and miss some of the essential information they wanted to share. Having a transcript can prevent this kind of situation. They can check the question using the transcript. In other words, the lesson can be much more productive without any unnecessary questions.
4. Self-Assessment – Teachers also need to improve their knowledge and teaching methods no matter how much experience they have. Transcription can show you several factors that you need to improve. For instance, by reviewing the transcript, you see that you are repeating yourself too much throughout the lecture, or maybe you are speaking too fast or mispronouncing some words in a particular part.
5. Student Assessment – A fair student assessment is one of the best benefits the software can offer to the teachers. You can check the transcript after the lecture or the oral exam if you hesitate in assessing the student.

As you can see from the examples, transcription services can improve education quality in a way that was not available before. It creates so many opportunities that maybe it will be a compulsory part of the education plan in the future.