Question / Help TEACHING TOOLS

AlexM

New Member
Hi there! I am looking for a good screen capture software (Windows 7 and up) for my teaching purposes (tutoials and teaching lessons for flipped classrooms). Normally, I will like to record videos showing a third party media file (as a YouTube video, or some piece of some film) together with my webcam, and some annotations down the road.
In second place, my computer is managed by a third person (TIC guy) so I cannot install things on my own. This means that I need a "plug and play" tool (something that does not require me to install divers, additional software, etc).

So...here are some questions:
--> Can I trust/expect OBS to be a tool that I can use on a standard Laptop (Windows 7 --> I include an image below with the laptop configuration/properties).
--> Can I record video pieces streaming from NetFlix or similar platforms? Or OBS can only get streaming from YouTube...?
--> Can I write text while I am recording in a way that the recorded video (output) shows this text as a layer showing the text writing?
--> Is there any way that I can add some drawing as I am recording? For example, imagine I need to circle some part of the screen to highlight some part of the content in the screen...
--> I plan to use VOICEMETER (https://www.vb-audio.com/Voicemeeter/banana.htm) as an audio input source (I do some mixings there). I have this in another laptop and it works well. Should I expect any problem while adding VOICEMETER as an audio source?

Thanks in advance for your support.
Àlex

Laptop Properties.PNG
 

koala

Active Member
OBS is not a one-in-all tool that is specialized to do exactly the things you want to do. It is a general purpose tool for arranging and composing several video, image and audio sources into one consolidated video, and for recording or streaming that video.

It can be tailored to do what you need, and you will need additional software. For example, it does not contain some kind of whiteboard on its own where you can write or paint on. You have to get and install some kind of whiteboard software and capture its contents to incorporate it into the video produced by OBS.

If it comes to Youtube or Netflix, you can always capture the browser window you use to display Youtube or Netflix. This way, you don't capture specifically "Youtube" or "Netflix", you capture a browser. OBS can capture a browser.
OBS can also get Youtube videos directly as media source with the help of the vlc media source. For Netflix this doesn't work, as far as I know.

It also depends on how you want to produce your videos. Do you intend to produce and stream live video, live as you are teaching? This way you need to compose your video and all items in one step within OBS.
Or do you want to produce teaching videos as recording on disk and upload/distribute them later? In this case, you may record different sources of your video independently and compose them in a postprocessing step with a video editing software. For example overdubbing audio later, or writing text notes over the video later.
 

MikeFloutier

New Member
Loved this Koala, almost philosophical.

I'm very new to OBS and this helps enormously; painting a broad picture.

Thank you!
 

Albrecht

New Member
Hi Alex, I've been teaching with VIPKid + OBS for months already. You may also find the Facebook group OBSessed: for those using OBS + VIPKid. I'm also planning to use Voice Meeter Banana and OBS for my online classes. Where can I find the setup tutorials? Also: can I write my speech beforehand and then convert the text to speech using a plugin or tool (like SpeechChat perhaps) and mix it in my video?
 

koala

Active Member
You're answering to a 1.5 year old thread the thread opener never visited and checked again. Please create a new thread with your current topic or issue.
Apropos TTS for tutorials: Text to speech works, but it is lifeless. It's the point of a good tutorial to teach, and the voice of the teacher is very important for teaching. A good teacher is able to make a great interesting show out of the most boring content. Don't torture your students with TTS.
For example, look at this math lesson. Although it is recorded from within a VR shooting game, it's as alive as it can be due to the narrator.
 
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