Using OBS to Create Video Lectures for Online Counseling Students

Abstract

Online learners face a different set of obstacles than their classroom-based counterparts as they seek to develop clinical skills solely through interaction with the content of an independent learning curriculum. While ground campus learners benefit from classroom content such as lectures or roleplay activities with their peers to rehearse clinical abilities, online students may struggle to identify ways to connect with the source material in a manner which leads to becoming a professional counselor confident in their own theoretical orientation and the related skillset. To this point, some information is available to explain the impact on using video lectures to allow for class time to experience a flipped classroom format. However, this does not extend to online learners who neither get the benefit of an in-person lecture or counseling related experiential activities during class time. This reflection will seek to bridge this gap, explain how to use software commonly used for streaming video games to make the online class more vibrant, and extend additional learning opportunities to students early in the counseling curriculum who may not have identified their flow yet as an independent learner.

Full text

Daniel A. Kaufmann, Grand Canyon University
Online learners face a different set of obstacles than their classroom-based counterparts as they seek
to develop clinical skills solely through interaction with the content of an independent learning curriculum.
their peers to rehearse clinical abilities, online students may struggle to identify ways to connect with
theoretical orientation and the related skillset. To this point, some information is available to explain the
to use software commonly used for streaming video games to make the online class more vibrant, and
extend additional learning opportunities to students early in the counseling curriculum who may not have
Online education for counseling students
is often structured with a balance between
synchronous and asynchronous approaches for
learning, which effectively meet the standards
for online education standards according to most
Cicco, 2013). Synchronous methods of course
participation involve the points in time where the
students are interacting in real-time with either
their instructor or other students. These can consist
of text or video chat, lectures being delivered
via video conference software, role plays being
completed by students together using technology
embedded into the Learning Management System
(LMS), and many other approaches that allow the
online environment to simulate structured class
events across the geographical distance of the
participants. However, it is also commonplace
for asynchronous methods of course engagement
to outweigh the synchronous methods due to the
limited resource of the instructor, the schedules of
the students being less structured than a traditional
graduate student who is attending class at consistent
times each week (Gillett-Swan, 2017), and the ease
tool for course communications, experience, and
The inherent challenge of approaching counseling
courses this way is that the development of skills
and interpersonal traits within the student is critical
online course environments to address this form
of growth in a manner which effectively prepares
this study seeks to overcome, it is important to
establish types of learners and the various forms
of structures online programs can take. First,
integration of online formats into classrooms can
be done for traditional classrooms using methods
which grant learners additional opportunities to
wrestle with and retain course content (Gillett-

Swan, 2017). These can be referred to as “internal
learners,” since the course content is being delivered
in a location that they attend and sit within on a
consistent basis. Next, students can participate in
the program entirely online. There is no classroom
they experience, and all reading of content and
attempted informational retention becomes their
individual task to complete in isolation from a
traditional classroom environment. These can be
referred to as “external learners.” This concept
became clearer to me immediately after completing
a course as the instructor in a traditional campus
classroom that I had already taught for years in the
online format for the same university. The research
question that prompted this paper became, “How
do I give my external learners the same richness
of information and the experience of learning
from me as a counselor educator as my traditional
students just received?” In reviewing this question,
it became clear the topics of conversation with
the internal students was often more focused on
different topics than those of the external learners.
Internal learners were more prone to explore the
further development of that connection with me
as their instructor to more fully understand the
content being delivered to them. By contrast, the
external learners’ dialogue was much more likely
to revolve around the number of points being
awarded in my evaluation of their work. This often
led to a higher focus on the interpretation of course
student learning such as course philosophy, skill
development, or application of counseling work in
real life scenarios.
Building off this observation, the consistent
positive qualities of the faculty-student interactions
with internal learners was viewed in stark contrast
to the complexities of providing feedback to
the external learners. While research on online
learning does indicate some insights into the role of
human development and negative self-evaluations
for students receiving negative feedback (or even
gatekeeping efforts) from their course instructor
felt to me more related to the experienced delivery
of content as a means of structuring the view of
the student related to themselves connected to
the task of learning the profession of counseling.
In the context of counseling and psychology, the
“grading as a teaching moment” structure of online
feedback delivery began hurting the relationship
between me and my external learners in a way
similar to the selection of surrogate object amongst
the monkeys in the Harlow experiments of the
1950’s (Vicedo, 2009). Essentially, experiencing a
positive state is more valuable to a living organism
than uncomfortably having a basic need met. The
goal for my external learners became to record
my lectures in an effort to deliver new teaching
moments for them into the asynchronous structures
of the course and enhance the perception of me as
an educator beyond my reductionist role of merely
being the member of the course authorized to
submit grades.
Using OBS as a Lecture Creating Software
The solution this paper will discuss was to
use Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) as a means
of recording my lectures in the same way video
games get streamed on websites such as Twitch
or Mixer. However, those game streaming sites
would be considered synchronous, as the gamer
is streaming their gameplay to their audience in
real-time, and all interactions continue accordingly
until the conclusion of the broadcast. Knowing this
would likely not work due to the unknown quality
of my external learners’ readiness to attend such a
lecture event as a stream, I knew it would be more
effective to create a resource which could be utilized
by my students asynchronously, the same as most
other resources in the structure of my university’s
LMS. Additionally, we do not live in a world where
educators of higher learning institutions normally
stream lectures as an entertainment medium, so
such websites are not normally explored by people
for this form of content.
Downloading and Understanding the Software
Broadcaster Software program (https://obsproject.
com/). This is a free program developed for people
to be able to stream content onto Internet webpages
such as Twitch or YouTube without investing
quantities of money into their online project. Upon
opening the program and setting it up for either
streaming (complex set-up) or recording-only
your computer screen. The initial goal once the
program is open is to familiarize yourself with the
basic setup of how this program becomes an online

lecture environment. As noted in Figure 1, there
are three sections of the program that are important
to understand in order to capitalize on the purpose
of this paper:
The Presentation Window
The Scenes List
The Sources List
Once you can identify all three sections on the
control panel, you will be able to move on to the
next steps in organizing the display for your online
lecture video.
The next phase of the OBS lecture setup
involves using each of the three panels you
the creation of different backgrounds that can be
alternated between by selecting them from the list.
For the purpose of this article, only the creation of
one scene is necessary. The Presentation Window is
like an interactive PowerPoint slide, which you will
set up for use as the video display. This rectangle
space will display every item in the scene, which is
entered to the Sources List. The Sources List is a
place where each element, image, text display, and
image from the webcam will be displayed in the
location it is set at by the course instructor. This is
the most time-consuming element of programming
in your lecture space into OBS, but it also provides
a depth of creative opportunity depending on
the vision of the presenter to create the visual
experience of the lecture.
To begin working with the Sources List, it is
important to understand how the items displayed
under the + sign are used to create the lecture space.
Upon selecting the plus sign to add an item to your
display screen, you will see a list of options. The
main items you will need to complete this lecture
task are the following:
Image
Video Capture Device
Display Capture
Text (GDI+)

selected, an additional box will ask you to name
the object for your Sources list. Next, a prompt will
to place in the display environment. For lecture
purposes, I use an image that is wallpaper sized and
displays my university logo in the upper left. This
leaves me appropriate space to add other items to the
source list and place them in a way that allows me to
display what is needed to support the lecture video.
The second item needed is the webcam source.
After selecting the “add source” button, choose
“Video Capture Device.” OBS will ask you to
select your webcam device and will then allow you
to move and slide the size of this video box to a
vision for the lecture video. I choose to put this off
to the side, so the focus is still on the PowerPoint
slides. These will be added in the next step.
To add the PowerPoint to the display
environment, add Display Capture to the Sources
list. It should be noted that this project does require
there to be a dual-screen setup for the PC for the
easiest process. This allows for the OBS program
to run on the main screen, and the PowerPoint can
be presented using the second monitor while being
Once the PowerPoint monitor is added to the
Sources List, again slide and adjust the window to
the desired space in the presentation environment.
Once this has been added, everything else comes
down to personal preference and creating the
desired appearance to your presenter screen.
One valuable addition that can help create the
intended appearance for the lecture video is to
for source items and remembering to utilize the
Text (GDI+) item type to add information to the
display. To add borders, I recommend searching for
“streaming borders” on the Internet and focusing
pattern indicates it should be transparent when you
use the image in OBS. For the image in Figure 2,
silver borders are used for the “Required Reading”
box and for the PowerPoint presentation, while a
“Presenter Border” is placed around the webcam
box. These are selected to go well with the purple
background and other visual elements present on
the screen. Other borders are available (even for
free) across the Internet with proper searching.
This section relies on the lecturer having a vision
for what they would like the video to look like as a
There are other items visible in Figure 2 that can
The “Required Reading” and “Inspirational Quote”
items are included to utilize the screen real estate in
ways which can still be useful for the student. The
text is generated by hitting to add a source, selecting
Text (GDI+), and then typing the intended message
and selecting the font and other text options. Once
“OK” has been selected, the text can be dragged
to the proper location on the presenter screen. A
silver border is placed here, along with a black
background image and an image of the textbook.
and added to the screen using the Sources List. The
inspirational quote depicted is created using the
same text option and a black background image
dragged into a rectangular shape, and then having
the opacity of the square altered to make it more
transparent as a background for the quote under the
lecture portion of the screen.
of the square objects on the screen. When dragging
the sides and corners by their red dots, holding
down the “shift” key allows for the side being
moved to change the ratio of that edge to the rest of
the shape. This is important when setting up objects
together to make sure they end in proper alignment
with each other.
Once the screen is set, the faculty member will
hit “Start Recording” and deliver the lecture. Once
completed, simply click the “Stop Recording”
will be found in the “Videos” folder located in “File
website such as YouTube. If the video settings are set
be able to view it. Setting this option to “Unlisted”
instead allows only those people who have the link
to view the video, but general Internet searching will
not show this video to others. This allows the course
instructor to control access to the videos so they are
watched at the intended times during the course and
only by people who should have access to them.

Improvements to the Online Learning Process
Through utilizing OBS to create a lecture
resource for external learners, an important
element of classroom learning is added to the
online environment. While the curriculum for both
in-person and online formats is meant to balance
the opportunities for didactic and experiential
online may skew more easily into the isolated/self-
directed learning style. Allowing for the presence
of faculty lectures in an online classroom adds a
necessary element of collaborative learning back
into the counseling course experience. While this
approach opens up the opportunity to establish a
open a dialogue between students and faculty to
overcome misconceptions the student may have or
confusion related to the course content.
The structure of faculty goals in the counseling
program in which the author of this article teaches,
focuses on a few critical tasks to guide the online
learners through their goals. This list includes
daily forum interaction, responding to typed and
recorded questions from students, and providing
assignment feedback. This list is shorter than the
list of a traditional faculty, which has all the same
tasks, but includes planning course time, creating
lectures, and several other tasks. While this
article focuses on the online instructor taking on
a parallel process of these campus tasked, it seems
reasonable to consider these tasks as equally (if
not more) critical to the learning process of a self-
directed learner (Hurst et al., 2013) who is learning
sans weekly verbal or collaborative faculty
interaction. Consider the following examples of
potential student questions from a counseling
theories course:
course. It seems like every theory is based
on outdated ideas, and I am not relating
to the material or the logic of the founding
theorists. Would it be okay if I just focus on
how to help clients in the next assignment
in general rather than trying to use the
theories from this week?”
In this example, the student is attempting
to understand the theory of counseling but is
struggling to embrace the theory in a way which
feels usable to them. If the faculty member has
prepared an online lecture where they are able
to explore the required text while also providing
examples from past cases and taking strides to
attempt a transformation of the information to feel
tangible to the early-developing counseling identity
of beginning counseling students, the following
example message could just as easily have been
presented in the faculty message forum:

“The lecture video was very helpful and
informative. When I was doing the reading
this week, I was not sure I was interested
in learning further about this theory.
However, you explained some of the ideas I
basically skipped over in a way that really
clicked for me. I see a lot of value in those
ideas now, and I wanted to say thank you
for spending your time to make this class an
awesome learning experience. I have not
had a class use the opportunity to lecture
this way so far in the program.”
students of all types in the sense that videos can
be paused and re-watched, allowing for better note
taking and reviewing of concepts the student found
critical to their understanding of the topic. Both
traditional and online students have commented
this resource being available is a new experience
that has completely changed how they learn in my
course compared to others previously experienced.
These transformations to course dialogue represent
a notable shift in the collaborative opportunity
for both the faculty and student in the setting of
an online course. For this reason, it is hoped that
software such as OBS can be creatively interacted
with by online educators to begin transforming the
medium beyond the usual limitations of teaching
students in this way.
Areas for Growth
As more programs of higher learning embrace
the online model, strengths and limitations to this
medium of teaching are sure to be researched
(Cicco, 2012; Hurst et al., 2013). One area for growth
in relation to counselor education is to ensure the
presence of experiential learning and collaboration
between students with other students and their
faculty members. The development of counseling
skills is integral to numerous phases of counselor
2003). Ensuring that all programs, online and
traditional, take adequate time to address creatively
the need for communication skill-building and
sharing of constructivist opportunities toward
learning (Merlin, 2016) is important at this phase in
the transition of education. Based on the discussion
ensuring all faculty are provided support for,
encouraged to, and potentially required to interact
at a higher level than the basic online course with
their students. This aids the students in overcoming
the hurdles of lacking a philosophical connection
at the onset with new conceptual materials, as they
are then being presented the course content by a
for the subject they are presenting to their external
beyond the subject of this article, which focuses on
using a program external to the online Learning
Management Systems. In this line of thinking, it
be integrated directly into the system.
It is possible for online faculty to address the
inherent obstacles online learners face to facilitate
learning via lecture if desired. While ground
campus learners simply attend their classroom
content in person, online students are expected
to learn via independent learning, and in some
cases their own trial and error. To this point, some
information is available to explain the impact on
using video lectures to allow for class time to
software creatively, the format of student-to-faculty
interaction can still lead to collaborative learning
opportunities. Through articles such as these, it is
becoming apparent that Web 2.0 tools can improve
class experiences and course outcomes. All it
takes is the desire from both student and faculty
to create the learning environment they desire,
and to approach this preference with the creativity
education experience look as close as possible to
what their ideal approach would encompass.

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