Customer story

UC Berkeley School of Public Health

The University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health partnered with Verbit to provide captions and transcripts on course content, making it more accessible and inclusive for its diverse student body.

In a nutshell

The University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health’s partnership with Verbit highlights how accessibility can be seamlessly integrated into the fabric of an institution’s educational offerings. By providing fast, accurate captions and transcripts, Verbit helped Berkeley meet accessibility requirements while improving the overall student experience.

The challenge

UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health is committed to ensuring that every student — regardless of background, learning style or ability — can succeed. Serving both in-person and online students, the school faced the challenge of providing an accessible and inclusive learning experience to a diverse student body of 800 graduate students, with 300 of them enrolled in the online Master of Public Health (MPH) program.

The primary objective was to meet accessibility standards while also providing students with versatile resources that supported various learning needs. This included offering accurate and timely captioning, transcripts and course materials in an easy-to-use format.

The solution

To address these challenges, the school partnered with Verbit to provide fast, accurate captioning and transcription services.

“Verbit has been a great partner in trying to ensure our courses are accessible and to be able to give us accurate and fast transcriptions and captions,” said Michelle Ruiz, Lead Instructional Designer, UC Berkeley Public Health. “Having our content in text form has been well-received, I think, from our students and they often tell us how much they appreciate having that resource.”

The results

Relying on Verbit’s transcription and captioning services, the School of Public Health has been able to create a more inclusive and flexible learning environment, providing students with the resources they need to succeed, whether they are on-campus or remote.

Accessible course content

UC Berkeley was able to take their video lectures, webinars and other instructional materials and quickly generate accurate captions and transcripts. The team also integrated the transcripts and captions into a course reader — a comprehensive document that combines course slides, transcripts and other materials in one easy-to-use package.

“We’re not just meeting the needs of students with accommodations, but also providing a resource that benefits all students,” said Deborah Barnett, Assistant Dean for Education, UC Berkeley Public Health. “The course reader that we create with Verbit’s transcripts and captions allows students to engage with the material in a way that suits their individual needs.”

Quick turnaround times

One of the key advantages of Verbit’s services was the quick turnaround time. UC Berkeley’s faculty could continue teaching their courses and remain responsive to students’ needs without worrying about delays in making content accessible. This allowed them to integrate accessibility into existing workflows, ensuring that all students — regardless of learning preferences or accommodations — had the resources they needed.

“With Verbit, we can have a really quick turnaround time,” said Barnett. “We can employ these principles of universal design, meet accessibility standards and allow our faculty to be versatile in how they respond to students’ needs.”

Benefits beyond compliance

While the primary focus was on ensuring accessibility for students with accommodations, the benefits of transcription and captioning services extended far and wide. Students who were non-native English speakers, for instance, found the captions and transcripts invaluable in following along with lectures and materials.

“As a non-native English speaker, I often follow along with captions or a written form of something that I’m watching,” said Ruiz. “It helps me understand the material more deeply.”

Reliable service

Verbit’s professional transcription services ensured a level of accuracy and reliability that free software tools on the market can’t match. Ruiz pointed out that many free tools simply don’t meet the high standards of accessibility required by higher-education institutions like UC Berkeley, underscoring how essential it is to invest in professional-grade solutions like Verbit’s.

About the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health

The UC Berkeley School of Public Health is a globally recognized leader in public health education, research and practice. The school prepares the next generation of changemakers to tackle today’s most pressing public health challenges through interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation.

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