Better Streaming For Remote Teaching/Learning

[Uttamattamakin]

Those who have interacted with me may know that I am a college professor.  My subjects are mathematics, physics and astronomy and I have a degree in astrophysics.    Due to my side hustle (very occasionally I've been a cam girl if money was really tight* )  I know more than the average teacher about streaming.  I am adept at using OBS to put out a hardware (NVENC on a GTX 1080) encoded stream at 1080p high bitrate low latency over my homes fiber optic connection. 

 

I am thinking of streaming video via YouTube instead of via the system our school uses for the following reasons. 

• MUCH Better quality video. 
• Not taxing one of my personal computers to destruction. 
• Redundancy if the Learning Management System (LMS) we use has a sever meltdown it is unlikely YouTube would as well.
• Redundancy it is unlikely both of my computers would simultaneously crash during class.  

The only negative I can think of is that IF a student only has a phone to access the internet then they can't necessarily see the video AND the blackboard website.  Though I can see a video in a small window while something else is maximized in the background on Android I am not sure all phones can do that. 

 

I am open to any better ideas questions or comments from the geniuses on this board on how I can make this a better experience. 

 

Please forgive your poor old teachers

Especially the older ones.  Many of them never had even a little experience as a student with online learning.  It did not exist at all when they were students.  Even for me in my 30s-40s it was barely a thing at all.  Many of them may have actively shunned anything internet related.  Many of them had no use for all but the most basic internet access at home.  Last but not least realize we have no control over the system our colleges choose.  Even the top brass can't change anything on a time.  What we've got is what we get. 

 

It is so irksome to think of how so many frivolous entertainment platforms are so SOOO much better thought out and implemented than those used for education.   What we have to use is just barbarically archaic by comparison.  One option available still uses JAVA! 

 

 

 

*I've done far more degrading things to get by... 99% of which were as part time faculty! 

[Aimi]

Someone I know is using this "Zoom" website/app, since all of their state's schools are closed. https://zoom.us/

I'm not sure if it will offer exactly what you need, but the alternative exists.

[The_russian]

We also use Zoom for school, and it has the functionality we need. We have a hybrid system where the professor lectures in class and the lecture is also streamed on Zoom, as well as being recored for future reference. You can share your screen and your webcam, and they will both display on the stream with one being a small window in the corner. If the screen is more important, they can click on it and the screen goes fullscreen and the webcam goes in the corner. Another advantage is students can choose to chat or use their mic to talk to you. Overall I would recommend looking into Zoom, I'm not sure if there is native support for recording though. 

[Uttamattamakin]

13 hours ago, Aimi said:

Someone I know is using this "Zoom" website/app, since all of their state's schools are closed. https://zoom.us/

I'm not sure if it will offer exactly what you need, but the alternative exists.

I know but the thing is we can't just switch to a completely different platform.  Zoom would completely replace what the school uses.  Youtube could maybe supplement it.  PLUS to hold a meeting large enough for a class would cost me money I don't have. 

Not a bad idea though.  I am trying to get one of the schools I teach for to make the Zoom acccount available for teaching. 

[Uttamattamakin]

12 hours ago, The_russian said:

We also use Zoom for school, and it has the functionality we need. We have a hybrid system where the professor lectures in class and the lecture is also streamed on Zoom, as well as being recored for future reference. You can share your screen and your webcam, and they will both display on the stream with one being a small window in the corner. If the screen is more important, they can click on it and the screen goes fullscreen and the webcam goes in the corner. Another advantage is students can choose to chat or use their mic to talk to you. Overall I would recommend looking into Zoom, I'm not sure if there is native support for recording though. 

Again.  Very good.  I know of Zoom but I can't just completely switch platforms.  If a teacher is stuck with an inferior platform we need to work around it's deficiencies. 

BB Collaborate Ultra has the advantage of being able to run with at least basic functionality in every HTML5 web browser without needing to download anything.  It's big problem is when the servers are overwhelmed a pure HTML5 app is just completely broken.