Customer Spotlight

Brigham Young University-Idaho

Brigham Young University-Idaho partnered with Verbit to provide inclusive services for students who are Deaf or hard of hearing.

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In a Nutshell

Brigham Young University-Idaho (BYU-Idaho) was facing major challenges in meeting the needs of students who are Deaf or hard of hearing. Their lack of in-house resources, along with a high demand for services and an ever-growing backlog of inaccessible content drove them to search for a solution. Verbit has become an essential partner in the process toward making the institution more inclusive.

The Challenge

BYU-Idaho was facing a number of issues that prevented them from meeting the needs of students that depended on text-based audio and visual content.

Lack of resources: BYU-Idaho employed 11 transcribers on campus, tasked with covering over 500 hours of transcription per week. High demand for services and too few people to provide them made it impossible to meet students’ needs and recover from a lengthy backlog of requests.

Low efficiency: Most in-house transcribers were students who would eventually graduate, leaving the university to hire and train new staff that were less experienced and unable to keep up with rigorous demands.

Growing backlog: BYU-Idaho had over 1,000 pieces of audio that were never transcribed or captioned. Activities like tutoring sessions or extra content that took place outside of the traditional classroom setting only added to the growing backlog.

The Solution

  • Cutting-edge automatic speech recognition engine
  • Network of highly qualified professional human transcribers
  • Seamless integration to Kaltura and Canvas, BYU-Idaho’s media hosting and LMS platforms

The Results

Accelerated Turnaround

Speedy service was essential for BYU-Idaho to quickly process their massive accumulation of inaccessible content and handle new requests that were coming in.

“With Verbit, we saw a marked improvement in turnaround time! Our previous lead time of weeks, or even months, was trimmed to one week or less, and files were often returned to us in under 24 hours.”

Achieved Greater Accuracy

Recognizing that students’ course grades and GPAs were at stake, compromising on quality was not an option. Verbit produced highly accurate results for student success.

“Verbit blasted through my backlog in a matter of weeks with perfect accuracy. I truly haven’t seen anything less than 100 percent precision.”

Reduced Costs

Keeping costs reasonable without sacrificing speed and accuracy was a top concern for BYU-Idaho. Verbit’s competitive pricing was a distinguishing factor.

“When comparing transcription companies, it just seemed like the services were incredibly expensive with little flexibility. Verbit immediately stood out as the most cost-effective solution.”