TrueConf Server can be used as a corporate and educational platform for conducting lectures, seminars, and workshops.
For this purpose, TrueConf video conferencing system provides multiple conference modes that meet the requirements for such events.
One of the available options is the video lecture mode.
The second option, which we recommend, is a moderated role-based conference. In this article, we will speak about this mode from the standpoint of organizing educational activities. Why do we recommend this mode? It enables users to connect a larger number of participants to a conference which opens up more opportunities for holding educational events.
The full list of features available in this mode is closely described in the documentation. To learn more about meetings held in this mode, check the article in our knowledge base.
You can hold video lectures in every TrueConf client application.This mode is available not only for TrueConf desktop apps (Windows, macOS and Linux), but also for mobile platforms (Android, Android TV, and iOS/iPadOS).
Check the documentation to find the full list of supported platforms with the complete description of TrueConf solutions and the main details related to their use.
Here we will explain how to hold a video lecture in TrueConf client application for Windows.
Table of Contents
TrueConf Video Lecture features
If you need to monitor the conference participants and to make them focus on learning resources, video lecture mode suits you best.
The maximum number of participants is 36 (or 49 by request, if the machine, where the video conferencing server is deployed, can meet the load requirements).
- attendees – up to 48 participants who can see and hear only the speaker (teacher). Thanks to this mode, attendees can focus on the lecture without being distracted by other participants.
- speaker – 1 participant who can see and hear others.
If a speaker creates a video lecture in TrueConf client application, he or she becomes the conference owner. Speaker can add or remove participants, mute/unmute their microphones or end the conference.
In addition, the conference owner can assign any student as a speaker. This student will be displayed in the layout for other participants just like the lecturer. At the same time the student will see and hear the other participants. To assign a user as a speaker, navigate to the list of conference participants (don’t confuse it with the address book) and select Appoint as moderator in the context menu.
Important!
Students assigned as moderators (up to 48 users) are given full rights, e.g. they can control AV devices of meeting participants or end the meeting. So, we recommend that you take security of your meeting seriously and choose your speakers with care. For meetings with multiple simultaneous speakers, we urge you to use a moderated role-based conference.
In turn, the moderated role-based mode, which we recommend, supports more features that make it much easier to hold educational events.
The standard video lecture mode is organized in such a way that any speaker is given the podium; as a result, this person can disrupt the flow of various activities like lessons or lectures.
In a moderated role-based conference. you can select the participants who will be allowed to speak. Moreover, you do not have to give the podium to the users who were not expected to speak during the event.
It is also critical to consider additional features that can improve communication with the audience. If you need to get feedback from one of the attendees, it is always possible to use the Audio remark feature. This feature will enable attendees to make a comment without taking the podium, for example, it may be helpful when a student needs to ask a question. If an attendee should be allowed to give a more detailed answer, but you do not want to appoint this person as moderator, you can give the podium on request.
By combining various features of a moderated role-based conference, you can reach the maximum flexibility when holding an event.
Installing and configuring TrueConf application
To learn more about the configuration of TrueConf application, check the documentation: installation, application settings, device configuration.
You can download the TrueConf application for your platform here.
Video lecture in TrueConf client application
To learn how to quickly create a video lecture, check the TrueConf for Windows user guide. When creating the conference, go to Options section and set the following parameters:
- The topic of the conference – in Enter Conference Name field;
- Video Lecture – in Conference type section.
Students will better perceive the information if you use the following client application tools:
Sometimes, you may need something in addition to sharing video or slideshow from a local storage, for example, it may be necessary to show a stream from a different online platform. In such a case the OBS application and its virtual camera feature may come in handy. To learn more about the use of TrueConf in combination with this software, check our article about the use of TrueConf and OBS.
Here are some other available options:
- enlarge the participant’s video image or drag it on a separate screen. In this case, other participants will also be visible.
- enable video recording of the lesson (available only to the conference owner) so that it could be shared via social networks and uploaded on YouTube.
- Streaming to third-party platforms. To activate this feature, you need to contact your administrator. This person will be able to connect the stream to any supported service with the help of TrueConf Server. To learn more about each connection method, check these articles: YouTube and Facebook.
- Streaming with OBS Studio. In case it is impossible to connect the stream directly or if additional configuration is needed (for example, you need to customize the visual style of the stream), you may use OBS Studio combined with TrueConf solutions. For more details about streaming with OBS, check the full article.
- Streaming via NDI with TrueConf Room solution. If you or another lecturer are in a meeting room where TrueConf Room (software-based endpoint) or TrueConf Group (hardware endpoint) is used, you can stream an event via NDI protocol to the local network. This strategy is more appropriate when you are holding an in-house workshop for some company employees and you want to stream this event to the rest of the staff. For more details about this method check the documentation for TrueConf Room and TrueConf Group.
- This activity will help you not to get confused in any unexpected situation: availability of text notes or at least an approximate plan will help you feel more confident and control the flow of discussion even if something unplanned occurs.
- This task will enable you to gain deeper insights into the topic that you want to discuss: while getting ready for the lesson, you may find potential gaps in your knowledge or discover the ideas that can make your lesson more interesting.
- While writing the plan, you will better understand the perspective of students and adapt the material to the needs of your current audience. Besides, you will consider the peculiarities of each group of learners.
- Determine the goal of your lesson. Create a list of tasks that should be performed to achieve this goal.
- Learn more about your audience. Determine how well your audience knows the lesson topic and identify the most likely questions that they may ask in response to your presentation.
- Create a detailed step-by-step plan. This step may be very helpful; yet, it is often overlooked by many lecturers. Writing the full text will help you formulate your ideas in a more clear way and find the flaws in the plan that you designed before.
- Write a brief bullet-point summary of your plan. This summary will help you keep track of the discussion at any moment.
- Minimalism. The clarity of the material determines how easy it is for learners to dive into the topic. Too vivid images or accompanying video can become a distraction and make it more difficult for students to understand the material.
- Keep text to the minimum. Include text in your presentation only when it is absolutely necessary. All the key definitions should be reduced to the key ideas so that they could be read multiple times before they are removed from the screen.
- Visual aids can be used without text, while text is not acceptable without illustrations. Every piece of text in your presentation should be accompanied by a visual aid that will help you get your points across.
- Keep your discussion up to date. If the subject of your lesson is something that changes frequently (e.g.,, if you are talking about the development of artificial intelligence), the material should be reviewed and brought up to date before the start of each lesson.
- Focus on self-study. The lecturer is the person who needs to explain certain complex ideas related to the material. However, the learning materials should not be a mere supplement to the lecturer. Instead, they should be organized in such a way that a student can review them and quickly recollect all the key ideas that could be forgotten.
- Audio remark. Students can use the
Audio remark feature to give a short answer to a certain question. This feature will allow the lecturer not to get distracted by the process of meeting moderation. Each student is automatically allowed to speak for a short time. - Chat. Text chat will enable students to express their opinions without interrupting each other.
- Reactions. This tool makes it easy to receive feedback from all attendees. Besides, it may be useful for testing how well students understood the lesson topic.
- Alternation of activities. Excessive monotony and routine during a lesson can make it difficult for learners to understand the material. Combine lecture with demonstration, theory with practice, explanation with quizzes, and so forth.
- Optimal number of visual aids. Images, charts and graphs are critical for the proper understanding of the lesson topic. However, the excessive use of visual aids can have a negative effect that will distract students’ attention from learning activities.
- Interaction with the audience. No matter how interesting your lesson is or how good your material is, sooner or later students’ attention may weaken. At the beginning of this section, we discussed the methods teachers can use to ensure high-quality interaction with students.
Please take into account that video recordings are available only to the owner.
If you are the owner, please check out our knowledge base article to learn how to enable conference recording and manage the recording process:
If you are not the owner, to get the recording, you will have to contact the person with the owner status (the user who created the meeting and has full access to it).
How to schedule a video lecture on a certain date
To learn about this topic, check the guide about scheduling conferences in a client application. You can schedule this conference to be held on certain weekdays.
Is It possible to stream a video lecture?
It is possible to distinguish multiple cases that may require different configuration and different approaches.
How can attendees join a video lesson
Attendees can join a video lecture in different ways: from client applications, from a browser via a link on the conference page etc. To learn more about other options, check out our blog post about joining a TrueConf conference.
Holding a video lecture
Now when you have a better idea about the technical details related to holding a lesson with TrueConf, we can discuss how the event can be organized and how to structure the learning materials.
First, you need to select the format of your lesson. This is a critical step because at this stage you need to understand what additional features of the platform and third-party solutions are needed to extend the core functionality of TrueConf. As it has been said before, you can choose one of the two conference modes in TrueConf: moderated role-based conference and a video lecture.
Let us suppose that you are intending to hold a practice-driven workshop, e.g., you want to show your students how to use PowerPoint. In such a case, theoretical materials would not be enough: you will need to rely on demonstration to get your ideas across.
In this case, you will surely need such a feature as Screen sharing. However, at this point, you will have to decide if standard screen sharing will be enough or you want to customize the visual design of your presentation and display the video feed from your camera in the layout. Then, you will need to install OBS Studio and use its virtual camera feature as it is described in our knowledge base article.
When you have a clear view of how information should be presented during the lesson and have all settings configured, you will need to focus on writing the detailed plan of your lesson which is the most important and time-consuming task. Regardless of how well you know the material, the plan must be written.
Why should I do it?
Writing the lesson plan can be divided into multiple stages:
At the next stage, you will need to get ready the visual aids for your lesson.
It is critical to stick to the following rules:
When the lesson plan and all learning materials are ready, you should select the place where the lesson should be held. Both you and your audience will need to select a location where nothing will distract you. For instance, you will need to pick a quiet location which is not likely to be visited by outsiders. At the same time, you should keep your own comfort into consideration and the need for good Internet connection.
Selection of peripheral devices is equally critical because they are needed for sending high-quality audio and video.
To solve some of the problems related to location and audio, you may try some features of TrueConf client applications.
To remove all external noises from the audio captured by the microphone, consider such a feature as Noise suppression. To learn how it can be activated, read the documentation.
If you want to remove your physical background from your video feed, use such features as Background blurring and Virtual background.
How to engage students into learning activities
To make your lessons more demonstrative, you can stream additional audio and video materials during the event.
It is now easy to manage the interactions with students and invited speakers (e.g., some experts in the field) because one can combine different ways of communication:
Interactivity is an excellent strategy for keeping learners’ attention. Students should always have a chance to express their opinions, reply to a question, or take time to use knowledge while solving some problem, taking a survey or participating in a discussion. Students cannot be mere recipients of new information.
There are several common rules that will help to make the lesson both useful and interesting:
So, by combining these recommendations and features of TrueConf applications, you will be able to design an effective and engaging online lesson in any format.
