Zoom Live Captions & Automatic Transcription

SPU Zoom hosts who are licensed can use Zoom's live caption feature to automatically generate captions during a meeting. When enabled, this feature will result in machine-generated captions that can be displayed to meeting attendees during the meeting. Meeting hosts can optionally save these captions by saving their meeting transcript before the conclusion of the meeting. 

A Warning About Accommodations

While Zoom Live Captioning is an added benefit for meetings hosted by licensed SPU users, this feature is not considered an accommodation and does not replace any specific accommodations communicated by Disability Support Services. Students or faculty who have questions about specific accommodations are encouraged to contact Disability Support Services

Using Live Captions

Live captions must be turned on for each meeting where it is needed. Live captions can only be turned on by the meeting host.

  1. From the meeting screen, click on Closed Caption
  2. Under Live Transcript, click Enable Auto-Transcription.

The quality of live captions may be impacted by the clarity of the speaker and/or level of background noise during the meeting. To get the best results, speak clearly, speak at a regular speed, use a dedicated microphone, and/or conduct your meeting in a quiet location. 

Saving Captions & Meeting Transcript

Automatic live captions are saved in the meeting's transcript. By default, participants can also save meeting transcripts unless Save Captions have been manually disabled by the host.

  1. Transcripts must be saved before leaving the meeting.
  2. In the meeting window, click the upward arrow icon next to Closed Caption.
  3. Click View Full Transcript.
  4. The transcript will open in a new window. Click Save Transcript to save the transcript.
  5. The transcript will be saved to the default Zoom folder on your computer.
    1. For most Windows devices, this is in C:\Users\[Username]\Documents\Zoom
    2. For most Mac devices, this is in /Users/[Username]/Documents/Zoom

Automatic Live Captions & Recorded Meetings

If a meeting is recorded, meeting transcripts and any automatically generated captions are saved as part of that meeting's recording. If the meeting is recorded to the cloud and/or transferred to Panopto, the captions and meeting transcript will be transferred alongside the cloud recording. 

Enabling or Disabling Automatic Live Captions

Captions are enabled by default for all SPU Zoom hosts. However, individual users can change this setting to prevent live captions from being used in the meetings they host. To enable or disable captions for your meetings:

  1. Open your Zoom meeting settings using one of the following methods:
    1. From the Zoom client, click on the gear icon on the top-right to open Settings. At bottom of the screen, click More Settings
    2. Go to https://spu.zoom.us and log in with your SPU username and password. In the navigation menu on the left, click Settings
  2. Under Meeting Settings, click In Meeting (Advanced)
  3. Look for Closed Captioning and click the toggle button to enable or disable it.
    1. Make sure "Enable live transcription service to show transcript on the side panel in-meeting" is also checked.
  4. Optional - You can also enable or disable Save Captions. When enabled, this option will allow meeting attendees to save a copy of the meeting's transcript (and captions).