Lake Land College introduced the Court Reporting and Captioning Degree program in Fall 2021 to meet the increased demand for court reporting and closed captioning professionals throughout the nation.
This degree program trains students for careers in the judicial setting as either official or freelance court reporters. Students are also prepared for careers providing captioning for broadcast television and internet programs and providing word-for-word translation for the deaf and hard-of-hearing population in educational, civic and corporate settings.
The program is designed to train students on a specialized, 24 key, shorthand keyboard used by court reporters and captioners, known as the stenotype machine. Throughout the program, students build their writing speed on a steno machine from beginner speeds to a career-level speed of 225 words per minute. If a student does not have confident keyboarding skills prior to acceptance into the program, keyboarding skill building courses such as Keyboarding, Advanced Formatting and Processing Information can be taken.
Students will purchase or rent-to-own a steno machine.
All classes are available online, but many will offer a virtual component where students can attend Zoom sessions. If a student cannot acquire the required steno machine skill speed by the end of a given semester, the student can retake the half credit hour lab.
The final semester of the program, students will complete a one-hour internship course where students will be placed in courtrooms or in the deposition setting under supervision of a court reporter.
Upon graduation, students will be prepared to sit for the Illinois Certified Shorthand Reporter (CSR) and the National Court Reporters Association (NCRA) Registered Skilled Reporter (RSR) and Registered Professional Reporter (RPR) certification exams.
Program application requirements include admission to Lake Land College and completion of three program assessment tests: an interest exam; English and grammar exam; and a timed keyboarding exam.
For more information about the special admission Court Reporting and Captioning Degree program, contact Lisa Earp at learp@lakelandcollege.edu.