Alternative venues for online classes.

October 22, 2020 2:11 PM

What non-zoom/meet/teams online meeting systems are you using to teach classes?

I'm sick of the existing systems, and would like something fresh(er) to capture students' attention. I recently posted about Roguelike Celebration's experiment with a MUD-like conference, and other people posted about Gather, etc., and got to thinking about what alternatives exist? My students are design majors, not a lot of deep techies, ITMAD.

posted by signal to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

Response by poster: Whatever system I use has to allow them to share their screen.
posted by signal at 2:12 PM on October 22, 2020

I really disliked Gather. I really like Jitsi Meet, though I haven't used it for a class. It's free and web-based, so it might be something worth looking into to see whether it might work for you. Just like Google Hangouts, it tends to get the computer fan going. It's not exactly an alternate venue in terms of user experience, though, as it's pretty similar to Zoom, Hangouts Meet, and Microsoft Teams.
posted by limeonaire at 2:55 PM on October 22, 2020 [1 favorite]

Are your students sick of the existing system? Because ... some people are tired of bopping around to different systems. If you're just fatigued with it, and it's working okay, I'd ask your students for their take first.
posted by bluedaisy at 3:05 PM on October 22, 2020 [6 favorites]

They are all equally terrible in their own ways, and there is not a simple answer. I use webex and blackboard collaborate daily, and webex is mostly ok?
posted by aspersioncast at 9:59 PM on October 22, 2020