looking for advice on teaching ukulele online

[DaveY]

I have an 11-year-old uke student who now will be taking most or some of her lessons with me online, and I'm looking for advice both technical (I have a Mac computer, and an Amazon Fire tablet -- is Skype still the way to go? or something else?) and otherwise (set-up, how to make sure we can see each other, sound, anything else). I'm waiting to hear what device(s) she has.

I really don't want to teach this way, but the student's parents want to eliminate the drive to my house, and what I'd charge to go to theirs is more than they want to pay.

Thanks . . .

 

[Ukulele Eddie]

At work, we evaluated several platforms and settled on Zoom which is free to use for 1:1 video. The superiority of video quality vs. FaceTime or Skype is impressive. I can be used with an browser and there is a downloadable app for smartphones. Might be worth checking out.

 

[actadh]

I just attended a meetup where the moderator used Zoom. It wasn't bad.

Google Duo is similar and has apps in the Google store and the Apple store.

You can set up a free digital classroom for your student with Easy Class
https://www.easyclass.com/
that gives you an online learning management system for your assignments, lets you grade the results and give feedback, and store the resources you wish your student to use.

 

[DaveY]

Thanks, Eddie and Laura. Laura, does easyclass also have the video component? Or is meant to supplement that?

 

[actadh]

Easyclass would be used for asynchronous communication. I know you can upload files, but I don't know if you can embed videos. There is no meeting component, so you would use Zoom etc. for virtual interaction.

I teach in Sakai, which does have the interactive video component. Sakai is an Open Educational Resource, so you could look into that as an option. Our site is part of a consortium of colleges, but you can look into this link to see if you can use it as an individual. There is trial section at the bottom of the link, or you can download the source code to host it yourself.
https://www.sakaiproject.org/