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2. Create & Add Course Transcript (CT) to Course

Markette Pierce Updated by Markette Pierce

Create and Add Course Transcript to Course

Beginning summer 2022, course transcripts are created using the Course Transcript Maker Tool in Canvas.

When addressing course maintenance issues regarding courses whose transcripts were generated using the old method for creating course transcripts, use this new process to create an updated transcript.

Create and Edit the HTML File

  1. Log in to Canvas and access the Course Transcript Maker Tool.
  2. Switch to Student View.
  3. Follow the directions inside the utility for each of the five steps, which are listed below:
    1. Run script to generate HTML transcript. See the troubleshooting tips at the end of this article for additional help resolving errors.
    2. Download HTML file and open in Visual Studio Code.
    3. Review file in Chrome and check for any needed edits. Common edits to the HTML include:
      1. Ensure Ask the Expert bios appear: Bios for experts may not appear on ATE pages. To fix that issue, copy the relevant code for each expert from the Meet the Expert page and insert it into the html where their bio should appear.
      2. Ensure all click-to-reveal items appear: Click-to-reveal items that were built without using accordions will need to be manually edited so that all information appears in the course transcript. Oftentimes, rebuilding the content in the course as accordions is the better fix.
      3. Ensure paragraph breaks: As of Dec 2024, the tool uses AI to insert paragraph breaks.
      4. Ensure titles of pages are not redundant: You may see duplicate "Ask the Expert" or "Discussion" if the course page was not built to standards. If so, remove the duplicate title from the html and also from the course page that generated it.
      5. In courses that are not using the new (October 2024) dynamic home page...
        1. Format the welcome video transcript: Remove the <div class="responsive-col main-col left"> from the Homepage, which is usually at the end of line 32, to format the welcome video transcript correctly.
        2. Format the "What you'll do" bullets: Remove the <div class="responsive-col small-col right" id="CourseInfoWrap"> from the Homepage, which is usually on line 37, to format the "What you'll do" bullets correctly.
      6. Beginning Jan 2025, there is a bug that affects the table of contents (only graded assignments appear). To fix this, edit the html to comment out the entire Table of Contents and all of the "back to table of contents" links.
      7. Note that if the Live Session Information page appears in the course transcript, it indicates that there is an error within the course regarding the naming of that page. The Page Title (in the box at the top of the page) needs to be "Read: Live Session Information" in order for course ops automation to work, and when it's named correctly, it will not appear in the course transcript.

Create the PDF File From the HTML

  1. Save HTML file as PDF by right-clicking in Chrome and selecting Print.
    1. Once the PDF has been created, be sure to remove entirely blank pages and any pages on which only "Return to Table of Contents" appears.
    2. Ensure that the margins are set correctly: They should be 0” bottom and left; 0.25” for top and right.
    3. Correct the title of the document. Command +D will allow you to set the title of the document to the title of the course.
    Accessibility Note: We are aware that our PDF files are not always accessible to students who use assistive technology. Therefore, it is not recommended to try to resolve the items flagged by the internal Adobe Accessibility Checker. When students need an accessible transcript, we provide them with the html file instead of the PDF.
    1. If the PDF file size is larger than 10mb, reduce the size of the document by using Save as Other --> Reduced Size PDF --> Retain Existing

Publishing and Storing the Transcript

When the transcript is complete, both the edited html file and the PDF version of the files will be stored in course files (not in S3). To do this:

  1. Log into the course and access Files from the navigation menu.
  2. Click the Upload button and select both the html and PDF files.
  3. Click Open.
  4. If you are asked, you want to Replace the existing file, keeping the file name the same.
  1. If any old versions of the transcript (ePubs, etc.) appear in the course, please delete them.

Making the Transcript Available to Students

After you have uploaded the transcript files to the course, you will make the PDF version available to students by adding it to the Course Resources module and linking it to the home page (or unit introduction pages, in the case of multiple unit transcripts).

Add the PDF to Course Resources Module
  1. Select Modules from the course navigation menu.
  2. Click the + button to the right of the Course Resources module.
  3. Change the drop-down to say "Add File to Course Resources" and select the PDF version of the transcript from course files.
  4. Click the Add Item button.
  5. Now you need to rename the file. From the Course Resources module, click the three dots to the right of the transcript file and choose Edit.
  6. Change the Title to "Course Transcript" and click Update.
Note that for the PRJ Conversion process occurring in 2024, the course transcript will not be linked to the homepage. See this document for details specific to working with PRJ Course Transcripts. The next section will not apply to your work.
Link the Transcript to the Home Page
  1. From the Course Resources module, click the newly renamed file to open it in course files.
  2. Right click the blue Download <Filename> link and select "Copy Link Address"
  1. Go to the course Home Page.
  2. Click Edit.
  3. From the editing view, click on the course transcript link and select Link Options.
  4. Replace the existing link with the link you copied in Step 2 above.
If your course requires unit transcripts instead of an entire course transcript, complete this same process, but link the PDF files to the appropriate Unit Introduction pages (or other location, as appropriate) instead of the Course Home Page.

Troubleshooting

  1. Very occasionally, the script will fail before completing the transcript. If this occurs, a common error causing failure is the presence of spaces around the videoID tag.
    1. To fix this error, check the code in the Watch pages in Canvas to ensure there are no spaces between the VideoID and any brackets surrounding it. After removing spaces in the course, rerun the CT tool.
  2. Video transcripts must be set as default caption in Kaltura. If your video is missing a transcript in the CT but it exists in the course and on Kaltura, this has not happened.
    1. To remedy this, locate the video ID in Kaltura > Captions > Set as Default Caption > Save.
  3. The course transcript maker only turns published pages into the html that becomes the course transcript. This can be helpful information when troubleshooting which pages are causing the tool to fail.
    1. You may want to try unpublishing likely problemmatic pages — as old ATE builds, pages that use tabbed content, pages with click-to-reveal items, etc. — and running the tool again. If the job completes, the page you unpublished is causing the error. Remedy it in the course, often by rebuilding it to current standards, and then re-reun the tool.
  4. As of February 2023, printing the html file in Chrome sometimes creates errors regarding the footer.
    1. To remedy this, be sure you are using the most up-to-date version of Chrome, or consider using another internet browser. If the footer errors persist, there is an interim workaround. Beginning May 2023, for most transcript files, the footer is working as expected.

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