How to Do A Class Online

Below you will find a review of WebCamMax. This program forms part of a set of programs and hardware that will easily allow you to run a classroom online.

In order to get some idea of how it is done, I will run through the example of our Blueline Academy classroom.

This is obviously particular to the Blueline Academy. But I think you will be able to see how you can easily stretch this to fit your situation.

Step 1) Open wgge.exe, select and orb, and enter 3d space.

Step 2) Use alt-D to put the editor into 640x480 mode. Actually is a little off-size, but that gives you the approximate dimensions.

Step 3) Open WebCamMax

Step 4) Select Screen on Sources drop-down

Step 5) Click "Show Selected Area" button to put the red square on the screen.

Step 6) Under Mode select "Specific Area". You could also have opted for "Follow the Cursor", "Specific Window" or "Full Screen." Specific Area works best for Blueline Academy.

Step 7) Move the square around and resize so that it fits whatever part of your screen you want to send.

Step 8) There is a little button in the far upper right (next to X that would close the program) that will let you make the WebCamMax into a small bar on your screen. This will get it out of the way.

Step 9) Open Flash Media Encoder (FME)

Step 10) File->Open then select the xml file for your Justin.TV account. Refer to Justin.tv help for how to do this part. Or email and I'll try to explain.

Step 11) Select "WebCamMax" as video source. I leave audio source alone. That works for me.

Step 12) Press the Start button and you are now live online streaming a piece of your desktop to the world -- or a select group if you have an Access code on the channel.


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A few safety precautions.

1) Close all programs that are not needed.
2) Do not type urls, passwords, names, or any other content you don't want sent to everyone on the planet.
3) If you get a phone call during the broadcast, be aware that unless you turn off sound (and are utterly sure it is off) you will be transmitting your half of the phone call to the world.

WebCamMax and Blueline Academy

Found two things recently Justin.tv and WebCamMax.

Justin.tv is a broadcasting site that allows for broadcast streaming. Normally one would be restricted to streaming yourself staring into a webcam. However, with WebCamMax it is not only possible but pretty simple to stream chunks of your desktop.

Before I say more about streaming your desktop it would be only fair to confess that the program does much more, much much more. You can stream a dvd. You can stream multimedia files from your hard-drive. You can switch between any number of connected and active webcam type devices. And, for those that like the extra possibilities of Picture in Picture -- that is available too. Pretty sweet.

However, those are not the features that first attracted me to WebCamMax. For me it was the ease of streaming parts of my desktop. I use Camtasia to record tutorials for upload to YouTube. I like Camtasia for just that purpose. But what about those occasions when you'd like to run a classroom?

With Justin.tv and WebCamMax I am able to run International online classes of pretty much any size. I have seen channels on Justin.tv with many thousand views. I don't expect that a HowTo channel will very soon run out of elbow room.

So, I've been doing Blueline Academy workshops, tutorials, and classroom lessons using WebCamMax. I can work in the program, people can view what I'm doing live. Ask me to clarify a particular point, redo something, and in general interact. Can't beat that.

There seems to be a minor glitch in the system if you want to use voice over while running a video. Well, what do you want for $29.95? And, I'm not entirely convinced there might not be a workaround for that issue. The problem is, in order to broadcast you are juggling Flash Media Encoder, WebCamMax, and your audio card mix board. Lots of buttons to monkey with. So who knows what other potentials exist.

For me, I know that just doing the simple stuff I can manage to get my mic to transmit audio and the WebCamMax to transmit my desktop, and thus I can do online classes around the world. A major boon for a distant learning program. And the total cost is practically zero.