Video tutorial: How to Subtitle or Caption a Video with a VTT File

The Problem:  While developing a video in for my volunteer work with TPLD, I came across a need to add closed captioning or subtitles through an external source.  My free version of Windows Video Editor did not have an option to add captions or subtitles within the platform. After a quick investigation, I realized that Eduflow, the LMS that would host the video, requires a WebVTT file to be uploaded along with the video in order to add captions.

The Solution:  I remembered learning about a few free online tools for creating subtitles and captions, which I'd learned about in a session at a virtual conference hosted by the Global Learning and Development Community (GLDC).  After accessing the session notes, I quickly navigated to Subtitle Edit, an open source subtitle and captioning tool. After uploading my video file, I used Subtitle Edit to create captions and customize timestamps for each caption, then download captions as a VTT file. Paired with the video within the LMS, the captions can be turned on or off while the video plays. I downloaded a free trial of Techsmith Camtasia in order to record a short video tutorial explaining how to use Subtitle Edit to create a VTT file.

My Roles in this eLearning Project:


Authoring Tools used:

Takeaways:  Storyboarding and scriptwriting were quick work for this video tutorial  because I had recently been in the learner's shoes. I was able to use screenshots and video footage from the video I had created for the TPLD project as examples in the video tutorial. Although this was my first time working with the Camtasia software, several aspects of the product were intuitive and function similarly to other video creation products I've used in the past. In a future project, I would like to spend more time playing with the animation features in Camtasia. I was able to make minor adjustments to a template in order to use my portfolio website logo and colors in the intro/outro animations, as well as change the intro/outro music. I would need to spend more time playing with the layers to be able to change shape, size, and rotation of the other animation features.