diff --git a/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/js/src/video/display.coffee b/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/js/src/video/display.coffee
index 3880091661..90e465d0ec 100644
--- a/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/js/src/video/display.coffee
+++ b/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/js/src/video/display.coffee
@@ -9,6 +9,12 @@ class @Video
     @parseVideos @el.data('streams')
     @fetchMetadata()
     @parseSpeed()
+
+    if $.cookie('hide_captions') == 'true'
+      @el.addClass('closed')
+    else
+      @el.removeClass('closed')
+
     $("#video_#{@id}").data('video', this).addClass('video-load-complete')
 
     if YT.Player
diff --git a/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/js/src/video/display/video_caption.coffee b/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/js/src/video/display/video_caption.coffee
index f65debb1a2..ae6b0c8ed1 100644
--- a/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/js/src/video/display/video_caption.coffee
+++ b/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/js/src/video/display/video_caption.coffee
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 class @VideoCaption extends Subview
   initialize: ->
-    @loaded = false  
+    @loaded = false
 
   bind: ->
     $(window).bind('resize', @resize)
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ class @VideoCaption extends Subview
     @$('.subtitles').html(container.html())
     @$('.subtitles li[data-index]').click @seekPlayer
 
-    # prepend and append an empty <li> for cosmatic reason
+    # prepend and append an empty <li> for cosmetic reason
     @$('.subtitles').prepend($('<li class="spacing">').height(@topSpacingHeight()))
       .append($('<li class="spacing">').height(@bottomSpacingHeight()))
 
@@ -131,10 +131,12 @@ class @VideoCaption extends Subview
   toggle: (event) =>
     event.preventDefault()
     if @el.hasClass('closed')
+      $.cookie('hide_captions', 'false', expires: 3650, path: '/')
       @$('.hide-subtitles').attr('title', 'Turn off captions')
       @el.removeClass('closed')
       @scrollCaption()
     else
+      $.cookie('hide_captions', 'true', expires: 3650, path: '/')
       @$('.hide-subtitles').attr('title', 'Turn on captions')
       @el.addClass('closed')