As part of Udemy’s plan to expand the global reach of instructors, and help make course content more accessible to students around the world, we provide auto-generated subtitles in English, Spanish and Portuguese for video lectures instructed in these respective languages.
Subtitles can make courses easier to comprehend when the course isn't taught in the native language of a student. Further, subtitles reinforce learning and make courses accessible to hearing-impaired students.
This article includes answers to the frequently asked questions we receive regarding the automatically generated subtitles program.
How are the automatic subtitles created?
The automatically generated subtitles are generated using speech recognition technology.
When will auto-generated subtitles be added to new courses?
English, Spanish, and Portuguese auto-generated subtitles will be generated for new courses in these respective languages after the course has been submitted to our review team for approval, but before the course is published and open to enrollments on the marketplace.
Once my course has received auto-generated subtitles, if I publish a new lecture video, will they receive auto-generated subtitles as well?
Yes. New, videos in English, Spanish or Portuguese that are published in your courses will receive auto-generated subtitles.
Will I be notified when my course has received automatically generated subtitles?
Yes. Once auto-generated subtitles have been added to your course you will be notified on the Captions page, and you will also receive a notification in the notifications bell.
How will the auto-generated subtitles be indicated on the course landing page?
If a course has received auto-generated subtitles, then “auto-generated” will appear beside the captions icon on the course landing page. If a significant amount of the auto-generated subtitles are edited by the instructor, however, then “Auto-generated” will be removed from the captions icon.
For steps on how to use the captions editing tool, please click here.
Can I request that auto-generated subtitles in languages other than English, Spanish or Portuguese be added to my course?
Currently, the subtitles program is limited to creating subtitles for English, Spanish or Portuguese content only. For more information on how to do this, please click here.
Can I edit the auto-generated subtitles myself?
Yes. If you would like to improve and edit the auto-generated subtitles that were generated for your course, you can do so by using the captions editing tool. For steps on how to use the editing tool, please click here.
Can I still upload my own captions to my course?
Yes. Instructors can still upload and use captions they’ve created for the course, and these captions will be utilized instead of the auto-generated subtitles. For steps on how to do this, please refer to this article.
Can I disable the subtitles myself?
Yes. If you wish to disable the subtitles for your course, you can do so by clicking on Disable at the top right hand of the Captions page. Please note that disabling the subtitles will also disable transcripts for the course.
It says the automatically generated subtitles were disabled due to “low quality”. How is this determined?
Subtitles can receive a low quality rating for several reasons, some of which include poor audio levels in the video lecture, background noise, or unrecognizable words. In these cases, the automatic subtitles will be disabled. Students that specifically requested the subtitles due to a hearing impairment, however, will still be able to utilize them.
Instructors can re-enable the subtitles by downloading the caption file, editing it in a text editor, and then re-uploading it to the associated lectures. Steps on how to do this are posted above.