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, Udemy provides auto-generated subtitles for thousands of courses.
- Learn more about creating accessible learning content.
This article includes answers to the frequently asked questions we receive from instructors, regarding the automatically generated subtitles program.
- How are the automatic subtitles created?
- Which course languages are the auto-generated subtitles being created for? And when will they be added to my course?
- When will auto-generated subtitles be added to new courses?
- Once my course has received auto-generated subtitles, if I publish a new lecture video, will they receive auto-generated subtitles as well?
- Will I be notified when my course has received automatically generated subtitles?
- How will the auto-generated subtitles be indicated on the course landing page?
- Can I edit the auto-generated subtitles myself?
- Can I still upload my own captions to my course?
- Can I disable the subtitles for my course?
- It says the automatically generated subtitles were disabled due to “low quality”. How is this determined?
How are the automatic subtitles created?
The automatically generated subtitles are generated using speech recognition technology.
Which course languages are the auto-generated subtitles being created for? And when will they be added to my course?
English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, and Portuguese auto-generated subtitles will be generated for non-language learning courses instructed in these respective languages.
- Please note: auto-generated subtitles in French, German, Italian, and Japanese, will be added to eligible courses throughout the remainder of 2022.
The auto-generated subtitles will be created for the course after it receives 20 or more 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 that are published in your eligible 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.
Learn how to use the captions editing tool.
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. Learn how to use the captions editing tool.
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. Learn how to add captions to your videos.
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:
- Disabling the subtitles will also disable transcripts for the course.
- To align with our Udemy Business customers’ accessibility expectations, we will be requiring subtitles or captions for all courses in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Italian courses in the Udemy Business collection. This excludes any language-learning courses.
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.