Lecture transcription: From a recorded class to your own notes

Transcribe in class or at home?

Both work:

The real gain of transcribing live is that you can edit while the lecture goes on. Type a heading each time the lecturer moves on, and the skeleton of your notes is ready when the class ends. New text does not disturb what you type. The steps for the microphone are in real-time transcription.

If transcribing live would pull your eyes to the screen, record and transcribe at home instead. Much of the value of taking notes comes from thinking while you listen.

Recording a lecture on your phone

• Sit near the front. Sound fades fast with distance, and at the back air conditioning and whispers drown the lecture.
• Put the phone on the desk, facing the lecturer. A bag or pocket muffles it. The microphone is usually on the bottom edge, so keep that edge clear.
• Keep it away from keyboards. A laptop typing next to it is closer and louder than the lecturer.
• Silence notifications. Turn on Do Not Disturb. On some phones an incoming call stops the recording.
• Note questions from the room. A question from the back row is often unintelligible on the recording. Write down the minute; if the lecturer repeats the question, you will find it in the text.
• Skip the break. If one recording holds two sessions, there is no need to transcribe the break between them.

The recording sets the accuracy more than the model does: no model can rescue a bad recording.

Online and recorded lectures

When teaching is online or hybrid, the lecture is often already recorded. Which way to go depends on where it is:

• If you are allowed to download the recording, choose the file in LiveType. MP4 and other video files go straight to text, with no need to extract the audio first.
• If the lecture is on YouTube, paste the link. The tab’s audio is transcribed while the video plays; nothing is downloaded.
• If the lecture runs live in your browser (the browser version of Zoom, Teams or Meet), it works like a meeting: meeting transcription explains tab audio and its limits.

Do not work around a platform that does not allow downloads. Playing the lecture on your speakers into the microphone is a poor fix too: the audio is recorded twice and accuracy drops.

Long recordings on a slow computer

A lecture can run two or three hours. Transcribe the file in the background and you do not wait for it to play; it runs as fast as the device can keep up. If you only need part of it, pick a start and end time, as described in taking timecodes. Times always count from the start of the file, so a second range added later falls into place.

On a slow computer there are three options: a smaller model, a stronger computer on the same account doing the work, or the cloud. Choosing a model helps you pick. For most students the easiest route is to record on the phone and let the computer at home write the text.

Terms, formulas and the board: Where the text goes wrong

Lecture transcripts fail differently from conversations:

• Technical terms. Rare words such as “heteroscedasticity” or “hypothalamus” can turn into similar-sounding ones. Take the term list from the slides and search the text for each.
• Names. Theorists’ and authors’ names, especially foreign ones, are among the most misspelt words.
• Formulas. “x squared plus two x” stays as words. You turn it into a formula in your notes.
• The board. “This”, “over here”, “this arrow” mean nothing without the board. Type the slide number into the text, or photograph the board and match the photo to the paragraph time.

When something looks wrong, click the paragraph’s time: the recording jumps there and you hear what was said.

From transcript to notes: An example

Here is a passage written to look like part of an introductory economics lecture. First, the machine’s text:

OK everyone, last week we talked about scarcity, remember. Resources are limited, wants are unlimited. Today we look at one consequence of that, opportunity cost. So, the best option you give up when you choose something. Say you go to the cinema tonight instead of studying for the exam, what is your opportunity cost? Not just the ticket, it’s the grade you would have got from those three hours of studying. This will be on the exam, pay attention. And don’t mix this up with sunk cost, that’s something else, we’ll do it next week.

The notes from the same passage:

Opportunity cost (week 3, recording at 14:05)

• Definition: The best option given up when a choice is made.
• Builds on: Scarcity. Resources limited, wants unlimited (week 2).
• Example: Cinema instead of studying. Cost = ticket + the grade those three hours would have earned.
• Exam: Lecturer said it will come up.
• Don’t confuse with: Sunk cost, week 4.
• To ask: How do you measure the cost when the option given up has no price?

What changed:

1. The topic became a heading. Headings you typed during class pay off here.
2. Spoken filler went. “OK everyone”, “remember” and “say” add nothing to notes.
3. Definition and example were separated. Exams ask for them separately.
4. The lecturer’s signals stayed. “This will be on the exam” and “next week” are the most valuable lines in the notes.
5. The time was kept. When you want to hear the topic again, you know where to go in the recording.
6. You added your own question. The question for the next class or office hours is your contribution, not the transcript’s.

Headings, bold and lists can be made inside the transcript, and the notes downloaded as Word, OpenDocument or Markdown. A Markdown file opens directly in note apps such as Obsidian.

If you ask an AI tool to write the notes, check the result against the transcript: language models can present a sentence the lecturer never said as if they had said it. AI transcription accuracy explains the risks.

What lecture transcription leaves to you

• LiveType writes what is said. It does not summarise, write notes for you or translate.
• It does not see the board, the slides or the diagram the lecturer points at.
• A question the microphone did not hear is not in the text.
• The text is kept on the server; when you transcribe on your device, the audio does not leave it. Think of the lecturer’s permission before sharing the text with classmates.

The free plan has 30 minutes in total, enough to try a class. To transcribe a whole term, see pricing.