Written by: Kris Castner, M.A., M.A., A.B.D.
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“Can Dedoose Transcribe Interviews Automatically?”
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Although the short answer to this question may be “no”, we do have several ideas about how to make your pre-coding process easier. When it comes to getting your media into the needed format for import into Dedoose, don’t fret!
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Check out our updated suggestions below that cover a range of transcription solutions for a variety of budget levels. Although some are best for short term solutions like a midterm or final project, some can be used again over time with or without subscription policies.
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Whether you are a student, professor, researcher, or professional, there are transcription workarounds that can help you throughout your project.
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Office 365 / Microsoft Word
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You can use Transcribe in Word to take a record of in-person conversations or virtually attended meetings! Using any videoconferencing platform, you can use this popular tool to generate entire transcripts.
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Keeping everything in one place when it comes to your memos, recordings, and transcripts is key, and this is one option that can help you achieve this. Use the new Microsoft Edge or Chrome to visit www.office.com to create or login to your 365 account.
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Once there, go to Microsoft Word on the Web, and click to open a new document. Using the home tab, select “Dictate” to see additional options. Finally, click “Transcribe” > “Start recording”.
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REMINDER: Be sure to enable browser access to your microphone before starting!
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The Transcription Pane will show the contents of your completed transcript once processed. Keep in mind that your internet speed, connection, and audio file size all dictate how long or short this step can take.
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This free option is ideal for students with a last-minute deadline, or those who do not mind going back to check the accuracy of automatically transcribed media.
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Say “Otter” to an academic. Chances are they won’t only think about the cute animal! Otter.ai is also a very popular transcription option for PhD students, teachers, and researchers alike.
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Otter
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With a desktop app, component for iOS and Android, Otter is a popular choice among academics and students alike. Voted among the best software options for transcribing conversations, this tool allows you to record and transcribe in real time or through integration with virtual communication apps.
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If you’re one to resort to the likes of #academicchatter or #phdchat hashtag conversations on social media, you’ll certainly find that the qualitative (and graduate student) crowd is no stranger to Otter, and there are many solid reasons behind this fact.
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Once the transcription process is complete, you can go back through the document and search for specific keyword references. You can also adjust the tempo of audio and skip silent breaks to get through longer recordings.
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As you use Otter more, the more it adapts to your data! Ambient Voice Intelligence trains the program to identify speakers, as well as incorporate context-based language. Depending upon your needs, you can gain free access to a Basic Plan for up to 600 minutes per month.
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Pricing for Otter starts at around $9 per month, which will enable you to access the program for up to 6,000 minutes per month. Businesses can get a deal for $20 per month, which covers teams and large groups.
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IBM Transcription Through Watson Text to Speech
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If you have a library of audio files, you can also transcribe them (and for free!) using speech to text through Watson. Speech recognition capabilities can help you convert multiple languages to text, including Japanese, Brazilian, French, Spanish and English.
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Using your device’s microphone, you can automatically convert speech to text, or use the upload feature to take care of any pre-recorded files you have. You should note that like other popular options, background noise and crosstalk can cause errors that will need to be manually reviewed and corrected.
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Machine learning is also programmed into Watson to help the algorithm understand speech structure and patterns. You can use this service free for up to 500 minutes per month (which is ideal for midterms or papers) or pay to use Watson for as low as $0.01 per minute. Premium options are also available for large or security sensitive firms.
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Use IBM’s Watson Text-to-Speech resource for up to 500 minutes per month for free. This is ideal for short term use for a project or midterm!
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Zoom Transcription
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Free Zoom account holders rejoice! Live transcription captions are available to you during regular video calls.
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At Dedoose, we are fans of accessibility friendly features as well. That’s why we’re glad to hear that increasing accessibility was a major driver of the development of this feature in Zoom.
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To enable or disable your Zoom account’s auto-generated captions, you must first ensure that you are the account owner or have administrative privileges for the account. Once you are signed in, you can complete the following path:
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Account Management > Account Settings > Meeting > In Meeting (Advanced) > Manual Captions or Automated Captions (live transcription)
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Simply click Enable or Disable to verify your selection, and then you’re ready to go! You can also be proactive to take steps before meetings you know you want to record, to be sure your audience is aware of and conducive to the recording process.
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Use your current free Zoom account to tap into auto-generated transcription features for live meetings.
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Importing Completed Transcription Files Into Dedoose
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Once you have selected your transcription workaround solution and obtained the finalized transcripts in a word document, you’re ready to import to Dedoose.
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Log in to your account, or create a trial one for free, and navigate to the upper hand right corner of the Workspace. Here you will see an ADD MEDIA button. Use this and click IMPORT DATA in the upper left panel of the Home Dashboard.
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This will trigger an import menu to appear. Once this happens, select which file you want to import. You can choose from text, audio, image, video, or PDF. We do recommend that you stick with text/Word Doc type files for transcriptions over PDFs whenever possible, as the latter can sometimes lead to formatting issues.
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Once you open the file in question, you will be taken to DOCUMENT VIEW within Dedoose. If you upload more than one document at a time, you will see a SUCCESS pop up window to show that your documents are in Dedoose.
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You can also import audio files without being fully transcribed into a text-based document, and code excerpts directly within Dedoose. For this process, you will see a progress bar as the file completes uploading. This can take some time depending upon the size of the file.
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We recommend immediately establishing links to your descriptors once your documents have been uploaded. This way you can be sure not to neglect the associations of these relationships, as it’s easy to forget this step once you start coding away on your qualitative data.
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We recommend establishing links between your media and descriptors as a first step once your files are imported. This ensures you capture the key associations of these relationships!
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Pair the Low-Cost Options Above with a Free 30-Day Trial of Dedoose
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As always, we offer the first 30 days of your Dedoose trial completely for free!
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(No kidding, you don’t even need a credit card to sign up.)
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We also take care of our students by offering discounted monthly prices with a school ID.
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What’s better is that every Dedoose experience comes with the best Support team on hand. We believe in users being able to connect and speak with a person when you have a question, concern, or comment.
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We make it easy for you to get in touch with a support specialist when you need us.
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Dedoose was made for researchers, by researchers. That’s why we’re certain we have the best qualitative and mixed methods data analysis app around. Compare us to the other guys’ bill and see how your research life would be different with Dedoose.
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If you are a business, organization, or large research team, we can also accommodate your needs with a Premier or Enterprise subscription plan. This is ideal for accounts that will also require additional services when it comes to billing, accounting, and training support.
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Keep Up to Date with Us on Social This Summer
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School may be out for summer, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t exciting things happening at Dedoose! We also love it when you share the research you are working on with our app or share your pics of the highly coveted Bruce the Moose plush animal on vacation.
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Keep up to date with our events, new releases, tutorials, and other goodies by following us on any of the channels below. We can’t wait to hear from you!
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*Note: we’re updating videos to reflect the latest Version 9, but they are still a great way to get started or advance your skillset in Dedoose. If you ever have questions about a feature, chart, or tool, contact our friendly support at [email protected]
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