OBS Studio is a free, open source tool that is used for a variety of broadcast and media activities, such as podcasting, streaming, video creation, and more. Since COVID, many educators have seen value in OBS Studio for its ability to allow for dynamic media integration into online classes and videos with little to no broadcast experience needed. The software uses an interface that may be familiar to digital media creators, broadcasters, and sound engineers as it uses sources from a variety of inputs to mix into one output (whether streaming or video) and includes a number of filters to manipulate the input sources. This interface and workflow is likely foreign to most faculty without media creation backgrounds and can be intimidating. This project will focus on creating instructional materials to assist faculty with their adoption of OBS Studio into their teaching practice.
This project will focus on demonstrating teaching situations specific to our home institutions and is based on the idea of Scenario-Based Learning which includes “situated cognition, the idea that knowledge is best acquired and more fully understood when situated within its context” (Massey University, n.d). This project will echo a similar approach we took to developing Zoom support materials at Seneca last year. We found faculty knew how to use Zoom in theory, but they really struggled when trying to visualize how to deliver a complex lesson they were used to delivering in person. OBS Studio is a similar situation where faculty understand the tool theoretically but when it comes to using it for their teaching, they can’t get started. During a live session it can be very intimidating to be expected to switch between numerous software programs, videos, images, whiteboards, cameras, and more. These videos will be an attempt to demystify the process of multitasking in OBS Studio by providing a demonstration of how they could facilitate their online class using examples specific to their teaching.