Published: Jan. 13, 2017

By Laura Hamrick

January鈥檚 Tech of the Month is YouTube鈥檚 captioning tool. Using this tool increases the quality and usability of your videos, while also helping CU Boulder become more accessible online to all individuals.

After you upload a video to YouTube, you can use YouTube鈥檚 built-in caption editor to make your own captions from scratch or fix the auto-generated captions that are provided. Changing the duration or placement of captions is easy with the editor鈥檚 drag-and-drop timing bar. When you鈥檙e done, you can even export your caption file for use in other programs or websites.

Screenshot of YouTube video caption feature

Learn how to create your own captions with the captioning service鈥檚 DIY YouTube captioning tutorials, or by scheduling a one-on-one training. Make sure to also check out the for tips for creating high quality captions.

Alternatively, if you have multiple people creating captions for the same video, consider using to create captions collaboratively. Using this tool, you can crowd-source a video for captioning to your students, or have your TA鈥檚 easily work together to caption a long documentary.

Check out the tutorials on the CU Boulder Captioning Service website for more details or schedule a free consultation with the captioning service at help@colorado.edu or (303) 725-4357 (5-HELP).