Online Video Sources
While online video sources do not usually have open licenses, using videos from sites that allow for sharing and embedding of their content (YouTube, TED, etc) can help to improve your course materials and OER, and promote higher engagement for your students.
Most of these video sharing sites have video players that can be embedded into web documents or your learning management system. The video players themselves have a reasonable level of accessibility, and provide a familiar platform for users.
As is the case with Pressbooks and H5P, videos found on sites such as YouTube are only as accessible as the content that the creators have used to produce them. You will need to review videos that you select for accessibility concerns.
Questions to ask about Online Video sources
- Does the content added contain any of the issues we reviewed in Top Issues to Check for?
- Have captions been turned automatically generated, or edited for accuracy?
- Is a transcript available?
- Is there a link back to the original website for the video, to improve accessibility?
- Do the captions obscure any important information
- Are there other videos that say the same thing, but are more accessible?
Check for captions and transcripts
Captions
Adding automatic captions to a video is an option for creators on many platforms, but auto-generated captions can be quite inaccurate and potentially problematic. Always check to make sure the video used in an OER (or that you intend to use) has accurate captions that are properly edited. You will likely need to watch the video with captions turned on to properly assess them.
For accessible videos, captions can be always shown on the screen (open captions) or turned on and off by using the CC button (closed captions).
Transcripts
Videos with transcripts available are an added benefit for accessibility purposes. OER content that displays a watch statement before the embedded video provide readers with even more options, including access to YouTube transcripts. If the source video is not openly licensed, you’ll need to refer readers to the original site to access options such as transcripts. Here’s an example of what that might look like.
Watch How to Get Transcript from YouTube Video 2024 (1 min) on YouTube
Video source: Tech Related Tips. (2023, December 13). How to Get Transcript from YouTube Video 2024 [Video]. YouTube.
Though most embedded video players are considered reasonably accessible, users may prefer to watch on the original site to make use of other features.
Some videos, such as TedTalks have a Creative Commons license, you should be able to link directly to, or re-post the transcript alongside the video in your OER, as long as you meet the TED Talks usage policy requirements.
Check for alternatives
In most cases, we can’t edit the videos we find online. If you’re selecting a resource to use yourself, you can review other options to see if another video relays the same content but with less accessibility issues. If you’re reviewing a video that’s embedded in an OER for accessibility and you’re not happy with the results, consider providing an alternate for students within your LMS.
Attribution & References
Except where otherwise noted, YouTube and Other Popular Video sources by Jen Booth is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.
