How to Stream Live PowerPoint Lectures + Webcam to YouTube

As most colleges and universities around the world begin to transition into online teaching in response to the global coronavirus pandemic, I thought it might be useful to develop a guide explaining how to stream PowerPoint plus a webcam feed overlay live to YouTube. This is the same technique I used to record video for my free online course on R, which was done partly at home and partly through live captures on my in-person course.

I suggest YouTube Live streaming because I am confident that Google’s YouTube infrastructure will easily handle an extra half million or more streaming videos a day, and I am not quite as confident that Zoom’s will handle it, which seems to be the default most academics are thinking of. A lot of businesses, government agencies, and even K12 schools are planning a move to Zoom. Maybe it’ll be fine, but it’s hard to say until we see it happen, at which point it may be too late, and you may end up scrambling to find a new solution.

The primary downside to YouTube Live versus Zoom is interactivity; the only way students can communicate with you during class is through live YouTube comments. It works, but it’s clearly not as smooth as Zoom’s video features. So for a large lecture-style class, I’d go YouTube, and for a small interactive class, I’d go Zoom.

You can download this guide from Google Drive by clicking here.