Software for Making Lecture-Type videos

[bunnspecial]

I am a college professor, and one of my long-term projects is to make video lectures for my online ansynchronous classes. I'm hoping to work on it this summer.

Basically these would primarily be me sitting and talking, but what is key is the ability to screen share. I also need one of two things-either a virtual white board that I can draw on with a graphics tablet, or the ability to toggle to a document camera(showing me writing on paper).

I have some old lectures that were recorded in Zoom during a live, synchronous class. Unfortunately I can no longer use these as other students present are readily identifiable and are active participants so I would need to track all down for their permission.

My inclination is just to use Zoom to do these just using my personal meeting room with no one else present, but I'm wondering if there's a better alternative out there. I know I CAN do it with Zoom and am comfortable with rapidly doing all the functions I need(whiteboard, screen share, etc) but if there's something better and/or easier I'm open to it.

Can anyone offer any suggestions?

 

[rm5]

Zoom for sure would be easy and straightforward to set up, hence why so many teachers used it back during the pandemic, although it does have limitations resolution-wise, which can make things look like crap on big hi-res monitors. Have you tried OBS? You can assign all your cameras to different "scenes" and then you can switch between them. You can also capture your whole display, or just individual windows. You can download it from their website if you wanna try it out. Other than that, I honestly think Zoom would be a great option for you!

 

[tragicwinding]

I second @rm5's suggestion to try out OBS. It's a cool versatile tool that allows you to create scenes with different sources like your webcam, screen share, and even a virtual whiteboard app. I also like that it supports overlays so you could have your webcam feed in a corner while sharing your screen or whiteboard.

Another alternative you might want to consider is Camtasia. It's a paid software though.

However, if you're already comfortable with Zoom and it fits your needs, it's perfectly fine to stick with it! It's all about finding what works best for you.

Good luck with your video lectures!

 

[GrumpyCoder]

Another vote for OBS or if you're willing to pay, check out Wirecast.

In my experience there's no perfect software to do it all. But that might depend on what exactly you want to do. I've experimented with this a lot, recorded my lectures by university staff, provided all sorts of material including video lectures. The more time-consuming task has always been cutting and presenting the video in a good way (add Final Cut to the mix). For example you might want PiP (Picture in Picture) with slides/writing large and yourself in a smaller box in a corner or vice versa or even switching camera feeds. That's what always took the most time for me. I've used several solutions in the past with OBS and Wirecast being my favourites for video capture of myself, slides and additional iPad for handwritten/sketched content, but your mileage may vary. If that helps, I'm teaching in the field of math and computer science at a university.

 

[sevoneone]

Something to consider for your virtual whiteboard/document markup solution, if you have one, is an iPad with an Apple Pencil. When you plug in an iPad or iPhone to a Mac and trust/allow the connection on both ends, a video feed of the display becomes available as an input into OBS, QuickTime, Wirecast etc. Very handy.

OBS and these other apps are great for mixing video, adding downstream graphics in a "live to tape" scenario. If you want/need to have more control over the editing, you may consider something like the ATEM mini ISO, which is a standalone video mixer and recorder with 4 HDMI inputs. What's nice about it is, while you can mix and record live to tape in the same way as OBS, it is also recording clean copies of each of your inputs and creating a project you can open in a video editor on your Mac later and make fine-tuned edits, add graphics, adjust the sound mix etc.

 

[bunnspecial]

Thanks everyone for all of the information and I apologize for my delay in responding.

I am looking at OBS now, although as unfortunately is all too often the case, timer has gotten away from me. I just got back from a week out of town, and hadn't actually paid attention to the fact that I only had 3 days from my return to the start of this next class(I thought I had an extra week in there). Since I need some ready to go on Monday, I'm going to use Zoom in the short term while I look at the other suggestions here. I'm sure I'll end up redoing my early videos anyway(or all of them if I can manage to get the textbook changed as I've been trying for 3 years now) so this will be something of a "living" collection.

As far as editing, I do have a full Adobe CC subscription. Any thoughts on using Adobe's solution vs. Final Cut? I have zero video editing experience so would be learning anything I used from scratch.

 

[rm5]

As far as editing, I do have a full Adobe CC subscription. Any thoughts on using Adobe's solution vs. Final Cut? I have zero video editing experience so would be learning anything I used from scratch.

I say if you have an Adobe subscription, use that! I do think Final Cut is better than Premiere, but if you already have the subscription, why pay $300 for Final Cut?

 

[Hrududu]

Loom might be a good solution for you.