Transcribing a Video

Transcription within Transana is a manual process. Voice recognition technology is not sophisticated enough in most instances to produce anything useful from the video that researchers collect for analysis.

Activity: You can download the video Demo.mpg (available on the Downloads page on the Transana website (http://www.transana.org) and store it on your hard drive in a location where you will be able to find it such as C:\Program Files\Transana 2\Sample\Demo.mpg if you are using Windows or in HOME/Movies/Sample/Demo.mpg if you are using Macintosh OS/X.

The sample video shows a second-grade class learning geometry through a quilt design and construction activity.

The teacher in this video is discussing the manipulation of the core squares of a quilt with the students. Their current activity is to observe what happens when she flips the core square, and later, she and the students will discuss symmetry in two-by-two designs.

Follow these directions:

  1. In the Transcription window, click the Edit mode icon, which looks like this: editbutton. When you do this, all the icons on the Transcription toolbar are enabled, and the Transcription window is in Edit mode.
  2. Press Ctrl-S to start the Video.
  3. Listen for a few seconds; then press Ctrl-S again to pause the Video. Type what you hear.
  4. Press Ctrl-S again to restart the Video. Transana automatically rewinds the Video two seconds to give you time to get your bearings.
  5. Continue to use Ctrl-S to start and stop the Video as necessary as you transcribe the audio. Insert a blank line in the transcript each time the speaker changes. You will find it much easier to work with your transcript if you add this visual demarcation of speaker change.
  6. Click the "Save" icon periodically. Be sure to save when you have finished transcribing.

Note: