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Free vs. Paid Voice Transcription Service for Online Courses

By eLearning Inside
April 20, 2020

Group meetings, lectures, and one-on-one interactions are important parts of online learning. As courses have moved online to maintain instructional continuity, some aspects of the learning process have grown more difficult. But on the other had, some have gotten easier. With more learning occurring online, there is more opportunity to use voice transcription services to save some time with note taking.

The information that is discussed in class is normally important. While note-taking can be productive, if there are a lot of facts and figures, a lot of students and teachers look to transcription services for their meeting recordings. This allows them to have a record of what has happened in that meeting and for the time to be used productively afterward.

Online, there are free and paid voice transcription services. Individuals often don’t know what one they should choose. Let’s break it down.

Free Voice Transcription Service

The obvious advantage of free voice transcription services is that they don’t cost you a penny. If you have a tight budget and you’ve got to watch how much you’re spending, this might be ideal for you. In particular, if you’re only having one-off meetings and you don’t need transcripts that often, a free voice transcription service may suffice.

However, one thing that people should realize is that the technology used for these transcription services may not be the best. In other words, you might find that the transcripts are not as accurate as they could be if you paid for a service. In addition, meetings and lectures might take longer to transcribe due to limited technology. There is the possibility that these services may be transcribed by a person, which takes double the time of artificial and human intelligence combined. If you’re in a hurry to receive your information or you need a lot of conversation transcribed, it might be more beneficial to invest in paid voice transcription services.

Paid Voice Transcription Service

The benefits of choosing a paid voice transcription service are plentiful. For example, these companies offering professional services invest in artificial intelligence. With the best technology, they can offer a better service. In particular, they will be able to cope with large-scale orders and high-volume orders in any industry. Often, companies have a manual review process that ensures accuracy when it comes to meetings. Altogether, this can lead to quicker and more reliable voice transcription services. In particular, if you have a lot of meetings that deal with complicated topics, it’s best to invest in services you can depend on.

Of course, the downside is that paid voice transcription services do require having a suitable budget. There are some companies that can charge a lot for services online. But it’s important to remember that sometimes, you get what you pay for. Free services can seem enticing, but don’t always live up to the standard required. Paid voice transcription services have a higher accuracy and success rate. If you need a lot of class material transcribed, it can be better to invest now than suffer from mistakes later on. This can affect your productivity later down the line.

This article has been submitted by a third party.

Featured Image: Charles Deluvio, Unsplash.