10 ms·
How I Teach Classes Remotely
- unwoundmouse 7y agoThis appears to be a sales post, with a bunch of affiliate links. Perhaps the actual products are good, but the credibility drops substantially as he has monetary incentive to list these things. edit: It seems like the post author is acting in good faith
- movedx 7y agoI think that's unfair. He's providing valuable knowledge, and sharing his extensive experience, during a time when it's beginning to be really rather quite important. Affiliate links are a perfectly acceptable norm and, frankly, don't disadvantage you in the slightest (in fact they give you an advantage in some cases: discounts, free months of services, and more.)
- smoyer 7y agoPlus he's here in this thread and adding to the conversation. What does it hurt if you get the product for the same price and an affiliate makes some money?
- GauntletWizard 7y agoIt can hurt a lot, see nearly any quack peddling homeopathy. But no, self-serving posts are not against the rules of this forum, nor inherently evil.
- swader999 7y agoThe mike hiss tips are something I've never thought of. Could make a large difference.
- solresol 7y agoSorry about that -- I can change the post to remove them if that would make it more credible. I'll be very surprised if I make any money from them anyway since the target audience (teachers and students) would get krisp for free, for example.
- TheSpiceIsLife 7y agoI wouldn't worry about it. You've called out the affiliate links, so you're being transparent about it. You can't satisfy all of the critics all of the time.
- cerberusss 7y agoTo me, it's unnecessary to say sorry; affiliate links are mentioned, plus it's quite a useful resource.
- samspenc 7y agoI've been wondering... what if it's a regular post or article without affiliate links? I've noticed a lot of similar articles talking about people using Microsoft Teams or Google Meet to hold classes remotely (without affiliate links), would that count as advertising?
- ehsankia 7y agoThe strangest part was the weird piping through Amazon Workspaces to not accidentally show your popups? This is a sector game streamers have already perfected, you only need OBS, and you want to only capture individual windows, preferably not your browser ever.
- jedieaston 7y agoOBS is super complicated for non tech-savvy users, so it’s probably not a great option, but some video sharing systems (I want to say Zoom?) can target a specific window. And as to the Workspace thing, it is super handy to have a immediately revertable system for any kind of demo so it’s controlled and you can reset if something goes wacky, and a Workspace (or Citrix or whatever) specifically is handy because it doesn’t eat CPU/RAM which streaming HD video typically wants a lot of.
- solresol 7y agoI'm usually teaching over Zoom / Nexi / Google Hangouts or something like this, not OBS. This is bi-directional, interactive teaching, not broadcasting / live-streaming a class. Those tools too can capture individual screens, but then how do you do a PowerPoint presentation when you only have one monitor?
- wbillingsley 7y agoZoom can share an individual window. (Including the PowerPoint one).
- syndacks 7y agoOP, I'd be curious to hear more how you structure your lessons for an online environment. This post mostly details how you [technically] teach online classes. For the many teachers who are now in a remote environment, what should they know about online learning vs traditional classroom learning?
- rectang 7y agoI enjoyed this paper by Doug Schmidt of Vanderbilt on what it was like to teach a comp-sci MOOC at Coursera: http://www.dre.vanderbilt.edu/~schmidt/PDF/POSA-MOOC.pdf http://www.dre.vanderbilt.edu/~schmidt/PDF/POSA-MOOC.pdf Section 3.1.1 "Filming High Quality Video Lectures" is especially good: > After teaching courses on object-oriented software patterns and frameworks for two decades, it's become second nature to present lively and inspiring lectures despite minimal rehearsal and ad hoc slides. This haphazard model of preparation does not work in a MOOC since there are no students to interact with while filming the videos in the studio. As a result, we needed to produce much tighter scripts and highly structured lecture material.
- pdm55 7y agoNSTA teachers have been given some advice http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teaching_now/2020/03/teachers_sharing_resources_online_coronavirus.html http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teaching_now/2020/03/teache... One tip was "Teachers are using the hashtag #virtualschool on Twitter to share resources." Other tips from https://www.edutopia.org/article/what-teachers-china-have-learned-past-month https://www.edutopia.org/article/what-teachers-china-have-le... were -- Start by continuing to use lessons that are clear and simple, and don’t introduce new programs for teachers and students to learn if you can help it. -- When building digital lessons, it’s helpful to reduce the number of external links on your online learning platform. For example, if you want students to read an article, it’s safer to upload a PDF (to OneDrive or GoogleDrive), rather than a link to an external site that may or may not work. -- Many of our classes at school intentionally used workbooks and paper-based tasks instead of laptops to reduce students’ screen time.
- pdm55 7y ago
- arthurcolle 7y agoWhat apps exist to allow for directional "paper" where both (say, given an iPad) can do collaborative writing, if you're doing something like math which needs birectional communication? My father runs a tutoring business and most students want to move to skyping but I know my father wants to be able to write on something (paper would be ideal, but obviously not practical given the current environment, but an iPad would work) and have the student see it in real time, and then the student also writes in real time and have my father see it in real time. What did Khan Academy guy Sal do in the early years to do collaborative lessons? Thanks
- greeneggs 7y agoThere are many online collaborative whiteboards. Those are the keywords you need to search for. I can't really recommend one since they all seem to have serious flaws. But for your use case, one might suffice.
- arthurcolle 7y agoThanks for the keywords, that's what I was kind of lookin for. I appreciate your response.
- rubatuga 7y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22591573 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22591573 This has a two way whiteboard system, and is also open source!
- pdm55 7y agoSal's software (2012) https://www.onlineuniversities.com/blog/2012/04/de-mystifying-khan-academy-screen-capture-for-educators/ https://www.onlineuniversities.com/blog/2012/04/de-mystifyin...
- ChristiGarcia 7y agoI use zoom to teach. He can have his slides up through screen sharing and with a touch screen laptop write directly on the screen. In addition, I use a program called Nearpod which is free right now. He could see his students working on problems in real time.
- malhaar 7y agoA big shout out to Krisp. It is an awesome product. I have used the free trail, and it works so amazingly well.
- movedx 7y agoI commented on the blog post, but: > If you are presenting a computer desktop (e.g. I teach programming classes, so I do a lot of this), then get your IT department to organise an Amazon Workspace for you. Join the conference call from twice — once from your laptop, and once from the Workspaces session. Share the Workspaces screen, not your home laptop. That way, if a message pops up on your screen, the students won’t see it. I can recommend a better option (in my opinion): use a VM to "house" the work you're doing and then using OBS to broadcast that VM's window to Zoom/whatever using a OBS->Webcam plugin. I do this and if you get in touch (I'm in Australia too; Brisbane) I'd be happy to share my setup and show you an example of the work it renders.
- ajphdiv 7y agoI would find this helpful can you post a link to an OBS plugin for VMs. Thanks
- thunderbong 7y agoOBS is "Open Broadcaster Software" https://obsproject.com/ https://obsproject.com/
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- movedx 7y agoI'm not using a plugin to capture the VM. I just use a "Windows Source" and select the VM's window. A good tip is to set the window's resolution to 720p so that text is consoles and IDEs is very clear. I then overlay a mirrorless camera source over this and use a green screen filter to neatly place my self in the frame.
- Swizec 7y agoI have an even better suggestion: Put your computer in DoNotDisturb mode while streaming. No messages popup ever.
- 7y ago
- mc3 7y agoWho has used the mentioned Amazon Workspaces? It looks cool I'd like to try it. Any good for this sort of thing?
- jestinjoy1 7y agoI am looking at moving my programming course online due to COVID-19. Any suggestions on a low cost touch enabled tablet for recording lecture sessions. I am looking at creating content like khan academy classes.
- movedx 7y agoIt might not be as flexible or good, but I use draw.io to "draw" diagrams on screen during live streams or even pre-recorded videos.
- WrtCdEvrydy 7y ago> low cost touch enabled tablet This has different context depending on what you mean... is it a drawing tablet or some sort of Android tablet?
- jestinjoy1 7y agoAnything that help me to draw figures and write equations on screen
- WrtCdEvrydy 7y agoOkay, that's a drawing tablet... monoprice some basic ones I've used in the past (in the $60 range), but you can find some SEO spam articles like these (https://tabletunderbudget.com/best-drawing-tablets/ https://tabletunderbudget.com/best-drawing-tablets/) with better recommendations
- wbillingsley 7y agoIf you're on a Mac, you can connect an iPad and record its screen (over the lightning cable) from Quicktime
- gnicholas 7y agoMy wife is a university professor and is being told she needs to record lectures going forward. I'm wondering how she can easily record a lecture video and then splice in powerpoint slides later. The best I can think is to record yourself on a computer, while flipping through slides on an iPad right next to your screen. Then afterward go through and take screenshots of the Powerpoint and insert them into the video (using iMovie?). This would probably take me 30 mins for a 45 min lecture, and I'm experienced with iMovie. If there are transitions to preserve, it would take much longer. Are there other solutions? Seems like something that Zoom should be able to do — you share your screen and video your face on a recorded session. Then afterward you can go back and choose which stream (face or screen) is used at any given point in time.
- worthless-trash 7y agoAfter having done editing, I imagine that 30 minutes is optimistic. Your best bet is to take the low-tech approach and distribute the slides seperately in pdf form.
- gnicholas 7y agoYeah, I've done work in iMovie and think it could be done without too much difficulty, so long as no animations are needed (which is not ideal, of course). Part of the reason for having slides big on the screen is that then you can have your face off-camera at times, in case you have to scratch your face or whatever. Being right in front of a high-res camera for 45 mins is not awesome...
- ghaff 7y agoEven as someone who does a lot of presenting to audiences, I find recording video of myself speaking all by myself is really awkward. I suppose it's something one can get used to but I find it very hard. My usual approach is to do a quick video introduction to humanize it and then just talk over slides.
- solresol 7y agoThat's why I do the two system thing (Workspaces for the slides, laptop for my face video). Then I don't even bother editing it afterwards unless I think there's something really important. The recording shows your face in a window because you are speaking, and the content in a big screen. You just hit the "record" button in Zoom and it works. This of course makes sense because we were operating remotely; if your wife is teaching in a lecture theatre then that's a different kind of thing. Likewise, if she is creating lectures to be viewed offline, then the cost and effort goes up, and she's now going to be spending all her spare waking hours editing video.
- maher_au 7y agoHere is a analysis of the options we have enterprise access to (but common tools) in a simple chart I made for my university. https://sites.rmit.edu.au/sister/2020/02/28/which-recording-tool-is-suitable-for-my-online-delivery/ https://sites.rmit.edu.au/sister/2020/02/28/which-recording-... It also links to how to guides
- vhiremath4 7y agoI would like to plug Loom as well as a way to create asynchronous video messages. You can record anything with it (even meetings or presentations). We currently power over 52,000 companies around the world and our tool is free for education forever. No strings attached. https://www.loom.com https://www.loom.com disclaimer: I'm a founder
- endgame 7y agoAnd you DIDN'T finish your pitch with "Ask me about LOOM"?
- jashmenn 7y agoI LOVE Loom and am a paying customer. But your current versions have one critical flaw: you'll lose data if you're on a spotty internet connection. After a month of having to email your support to "restore my videos" I just gave up and switched to using OBS and Dropbox to share these videos. I love, love your product. But without a more reliable upload (or being able to access my recording locally) it's too big of a gamble to use on a regular basis. Any chance fixing this (for spotty connection folks) is on the roadmap? I'd be fine if I could just upload my own videos as well. In any case I (almost) love your product. I expect you'll be really, really big. It's a good experience overall (when it works).
- InternetOfStuff 7y agoLast I tried it, it didn't work on Firefox, and was somewhat unstable. Too bad, really. Loom seemed nice.
- RMPR 7y agoAs a student, I wasn't at first interested in reading this post because of the title, but I ended up opening it anyway, and the first point (krisp.ai) is something so useful that I wonder why I didn't hear about it before, does anyone know a good FOSS alternative?
- davitb 7y agoFor the next 6 months, Krisp is free for all students, teachers, hospital and government workers. Also, it just went Freemium, comes with 120min/week free noise cancellation. More here: https://krisp.ai/blog/covid19-response/ https://krisp.ai/blog/covid19-response/ (I'm the CEO & Co-Founder)
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- newsbinator 7y agoJust signed up to try it. The Mac menubar window footer says my free subscription expires on April 1, 2020?
- davitb 7y agoYou have trial until April 1st. Then it converts to 120mins/week. If you are a student, teacher, hospital worker or a non-profit - reach out to support@krisp.ai and you will receive 6 months free.
- z3t4 7y agoOn a unix like computer it should be fairly simple to pipe the audio streem via a filter before sending it to a loopback device.
- RMPR 7y agoThis seems interesting, I'll try during the week-end, thanks.
- wdroz 7y agoI personally use OBS with the v4l2sink plugin to stream into a fake webcam (v4l2loopback). Then you tell [INSERT_YOUR_VIDEOCONF_SOFTWARE] that the dummy webcam is your webcam. What I like with this approach is that you can fully control your scene.
- Seirdy 7y agoNice; this could combine well with pretty much any videoconf software (e.g., Jitsi). Just one URL and everybody's seeing your OBS recording!
- dagi3d 7y agoRemember to double check you closed all incognito windows. You know what I mean.
- k__ 7y agoSomehow that whole incognito meme never caught on with me. It is really so much safer to watch pr0n in incognito tabs?
- krtkush 7y agoNo its is not. You can still be tracked; I have personally experienced it. Incognito mode is for keeping your browsing history "clean" on your end. So that if your friend or relative uses your computer, he/she does not stumble upon stuff you don't wont to see.
- k__ 7y agoAh, okay Somehow I never had an issue with that.
- crazygringo 7y agoTo be clear, someone doesn't need to actively search your browsing history. It's especially to prevent it from showing up in autocomplete. Imagine you tell your mother to look up a plane ticket on Priceline, she types "p" into the address bar, and all of a sudden 8 different porn videos show up as the top 8 autocomplete suggestions. Now if she's polite she probably won't say anything and you'll never know. But...
- k__ 7y agoSure, I understand that issue. I just never had a problem with my family or friends to see that I watch porn.
- botwriter 7y agoMy girlfriend got kicked out of her teaching sessions by one of her students... think about admin setting first.
- billars 7y agothe elefant in the room here is how he does the streaming?
- RasmusSoerensen 7y agoWhat about note taking. How do you do that? You could test out : https://focusonlistening.com/en/ https://focusonlistening.com/en/
- wbillingsley 7y agoPersonally, I use a bit of an ecclectic mix depending on the class. Online classes can be nicely informal in some ways. (I used to teach for an Australian metro uni, but have been teaching mixed on-campus / online classes at a smaller regional uni for 5+ years) Hmm, maybe to explain how informal, I should post links to some bits of my units that can be seen outside the uni: On the low-end, this has the first couple of weeks of my Scala unit, taught to a small on-campus and larger online cohort. (Minus quizzes and assessment). https://theintelligentbook.com/willscala/ https://theintelligentbook.com/willscala/ So far, so traditional (but you'll already spot a mix of desktop recordings and in-class recordings). This is some stuff I've been putting together as "outreach" that goes alongside another of our courses (try in Chrome, slow in Firefox): https://theintelligentbook.com/circuitsup/ https://theintelligentbook.com/circuitsup/ Though that's partly just me doing a "redux" on interactive smart materials from my PhD many years ago For more "social" courses (HCI, Software Development Studio), I have an open source (but badly documented) system I built for students to submit videos to each other for critique. 2016 paper describing it here: http://2016conference.ascilite.org/wp-content/uploads/ascilite2016_billingsley_concise.pdf http://2016conference.ascilite.org/wp-content/uploads/ascili... I also use Slack extensively in some units. Desktop recording usually via OBS, though I used to just use Quicktime when recording on my Macbook Pro. On the "what do you desktop-record with?" side, I tend to use an AudioTechnica AT2020 condenser microphone via a Scarlett 2i2 into the computer. That way it rarely needs any post-production as it's fairly clear in the raw recording. The main thing is to remember that although they like you to be somewhat watchable, they're usually more led by what you want them to do. Assessments, tutorials, etc. It's not watched end-to-end like Netflix shows. So be personable, but don't feel you need to panic too much about high production values. Pardon that being a quick and rough post - there's lots of good comments on here already.