Echo360 Brings Power of Amazon Transcribe to the Classroom to Create More Accessible, Engaging Learning Experiences

RESTON, Va., Oct. 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Echo360, a leading video platform for education, today announced the launch of an automatic speech recognition (ASR) solution that will enable colleges and universities to offer more accessible and inclusive video-based learning experiences. Leveraging Amazon Transcribe, audio recordings from videos can be automatically converted into viewable, editable and searchable text transcripts and seamlessly integrated into the Echo360 virtual classroom to improve student learning.  

This new ASR capability is available now in the Echo360 video platform to create highly accurate and automated transcripts. Using machine learning technology, Amazon Transcribe continually learns and improves this transcription process as its learning algorithms are used globally. Colleges and universities can then easily edit these transcripts into fully compliant closed captions. This process provides institutions with a more efficient and affordable way to meet important accessibility standards and ensure that all students have access to digital learning.

"Video is transforming learning today--not only does it ensure accessibility, it provides an inclusive multi modal learning experience for all students," said Chris Clow, Academic Systems and Operations Manager for Corporate Information and Computing Services at The University of Sheffield. "These new features utilize the latest consumer technology, making it easier and faster for recordings to be more widely accessible. To enable our academic staff to focus on their teaching delivery, and students on their learning experience, we run our lecture capture service with as much automation between systems as possible. The ASR not only helps improve the service we delivery, but provides an impressively high level of accuracy, speed of access to recordings and ease of carrying out any modifications to transcripts created. We're excited to put Echo360's new technology into practice immediately, by investigating the best way to implement it to support our students learning."

In addition to supporting affordable, scalable captioning, the new solution provides a more engaging learning experience, offering students multiple ways to interact with course content. Research shows that students engaged in multimodal learning that incorporates many mediums, such as print, audio, and video, retain more information than students who learn through a single medium. Among the ways the new features will benefit students:

• Students are now able to view a lecture transcript while watching the recording of the lecture. The transcript enables faculty to better support students with learning conditions or those hard of hearing.
• Automatic transcription also enables course content to be more easily searchable in Echo360, making it easy for students to access important lectures and course activities quickly.  

"Our mission is to provide students with a better learning experience by extending the classroom experience so that all students have access to it," said Fred Singer, CEO at Echo360. "With our new ASR solution, we are excited and proud to provide colleges and universities with tools they can use to provide the type of accessible, engaging learning experience that we know helps students be successful."

With the general availability of the Echo360 ASR solution, customers are provided with a significant volume of automated transcription hours as part of their existing license agreement. Institutions also have the ability to purchase additional transcription at a minimal hourly rate.

About Echo360: Echo360 believes that improved outcomes start with great moments in the classroom. Developed by educators, Echo360 helps instructors record and extend those moments to improve learner engagement through accessible, engaging video-based learning. Through our smarter video platform, learners and instructors have 24/7 access to discussion of course material, presentation materials, and the lecture itself. We generate data that helps instructors, higher education institutions, and continuing education organizations proactively identify and pursue opportunities to improve learning outcomes. Today, Echo360 technologies reach more than two million learners at approximately 1,200 schools and organizations across 30 countries.

SOURCE Echo360