I’ve been teaching a course on campus that is also recorded/live for students that want to take it online for a few years now. So we just all moved online. I could have kept teaching in the empty classroom for the recording and distribution facilities, but decided to do it at home since my other course was not online and I had to solve the problem anyway.
I think I prefer a capture device solution like CamLink in my case. Unfortunately they were already gone from the stores by athe time I decided. The software solutions I tried were CPU intensive on my university supplied Mac laptop. My personal Mac mini would be up to the task. This Canon solution could be a nice alternative. But I have a Mac. And only one week of lectures left in the spring semester so it came a bit late for me. Looks like I’ll have plenty of time to explore options over the summer. Not sure what format we’ll be teaching in the fall yet.
But the real issue isn’t the device or software. Like photography, it’s the composition. Monitor/camera placement. Microphone. Lighting. Backdrop. I even provide background music and chat with them before and after the live lecture. I turn on the video when the lecture starts. Most people haven’t a clue. Fortunately, I’ve been to enough conferences over the years to see how the professionals do this. I’m actually getting to use a lot of my photo/video gear even with a webcam. My video feed stands out in a Zoom faculty meeting and students talk about my talking head (black background, black shirt, spot light, hair light) ala Max Headroom on an MS Teams video feed. I just couldn’t resist with the beard. But that’s another story.
(straight from a Logitch C930e webcam)
I think I prefer a capture device solution like CamLink in my case. Unfortunately they were already gone from the stores by athe time I decided. The software solutions I tried were CPU intensive on my university supplied Mac laptop. My personal Mac mini would be up to the task. This Canon solution could be a nice alternative. But I have a Mac. And only one week of lectures left in the spring semester so it came a bit late for me. Looks like I’ll have plenty of time to explore options over the summer. Not sure what format we’ll be teaching in the fall yet.
But the real issue isn’t the device or software. Like photography, it’s the composition. Monitor/camera placement. Microphone. Lighting. Backdrop. I even provide background music and chat with them before and after the live lecture. I turn on the video when the lecture starts. Most people haven’t a clue. Fortunately, I’ve been to enough conferences over the years to see how the professionals do this. I’m actually getting to use a lot of my photo/video gear even with a webcam. My video feed stands out in a Zoom faculty meeting and students talk about my talking head (black background, black shirt, spot light, hair light) ala Max Headroom on an MS Teams video feed. I just couldn’t resist with the beard. But that’s another story.
(straight from a Logitch C930e webcam)
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