Ready to upgrade your assessment toolkit? DASA Assessment is here to help! During the 2025-2026 academic year, we’re launching “Power Tools,” a new series designed to highlight effective resources and services that streamline your assessment work. Kicking off the series, we’re excited to introduce a tool that can drastically cut down on a common time sink.

Power Tool:  Descript
Description:  Audio transcription (and video editing software)
Website:  https://www.descript.com
Cost:  $16/month

Focus groups provide faculty and staff an opportunity to gather qualitative data about students’ experiences with programs and services, their perceptions and behaviors and their needs. Focus groups yield rich data with personal stories and quotable anecdotes. The data obtained through focus groups can help you better serve your students or other stakeholders. However, transcribing hours of focus group recordings can be challenging. A single hour of recorded audio with multiple speakers could take approximately 2-3 hours to transcribe. While student assistants can help, manual transcription often remains a significant project speed bump.

You may consider utilizing an AI software, such as Descript, to quickly transcribe your focus group or interview audio. NC State’s OIT has reviewed the online software and has approved the Clickwrap, making it easier to purchase! Descript is low cost and easy to use. You simply import your audio, identify the number of speakers and within 1-2 minutes, you’ll receive a complete transcript. As with other AI programs, a crucial step is to review your completed transcript.

You can anticipate that the transcript will need additional edits to ensure speaker accuracy, correct technical jargon and refined phrasing, but this editing process is significantly faster than traditional transcription. Descript streamlines the editing process with features like filler word removal, enabling you to achieve a succinct final draft more efficiently 

AI transcription can potentially save you many hours of project time! DASA Assessment staff now regularly utilize Descript to support transcription. We recommend Descript for your future assessment projects that may require audio transcription. Reach out to DASA Assessment staff for more information at dasa-assessment@ncsu.edu.