We’re laying this out based on 5 different situations, so read through to see which one most closely resembles your own. Please also know that we have the most experience with Google Classroom and are working from our experience with it. Other LMSs (Learning Management Systems) are fully capable of making things happen but it will take adjusting. We cannot possibly cover every detail required to make things work for every LMS and situation. You can certainly Contact Us. We are willing to help out in anyway we can, but please be understanding if we cannot answer all of your questions!
Music Distance Learning through Synchronous Instruction (live teaching through video conferencing)
Video Conference Class & Student access through LMS
If you are teaching live via video – almost all of the most common services offer a share screen option. You can simply have your screen share be the presentation and take the students through it almost like a normal classroom! Send students the Digital Guided Notes through your LMS. Make sure you get each student their OWN copy of the guided notes (you don’t want everyone trying to make edits to your original document!) – In Google Classroom be sure to change the settings to “Make a copy for each student” when you create the assignment VIDEO GUIDE. For other systems you can send them the link to the Digital Guided Notes but change it to make what’s called a “Force Copy Link” VIDEO GUIDE.
Video Conference Class & No LMS In Place
If you are teaching live via video but do not have an LMS in place, do everything from the paragraph above as far as video conference screen sharing, BUT – To get the guided notes to the students you can either send home a printed packet for them to write on, or email the students a copy of the Digital Guided Notes. There are a few ways you can email these to students:
As a PowerPoint File – Anytime you download Google Slides out of Google Drive they convert to a PowerPoint file. VIDEO GUIDE
Force Copy Google Slides – Create a force copy link for students to each get their OWN copy of the Guided Notes Google Slides files in their Google Drives. Do this by creating a force copy link and sending it to students. VIDEO GUIDE
After the students complete the notes, they can email them back to you.
Music Distance Learning through Asynchronous Instruction (teacher assigns, student works at own pace)
Fully Digital – Full student access through LMS?
Send the Presentation & Digital Guided Notes to students through your LMS as an assignment. You need each student to get their OWN copy of the guided notes. In Google Classroom be sure to change the settings to “Make a copy for each student” VIDEO GUIDE. For other systems you can send them the link to the Digital Guided Notes but change it to make what’s called a “Force Copy Link” VIDEO GUIDE. You will also need to send the students a link to the presentation so they can view it on their own. VIDEO GUIDE It is important to change the sharing settings so they cannot just copy and paste the presentation into the Digital Guided Notes– this is covered in the previous VIDEO GUIDE.
In this situation students will have the presentation AND the digital guided notes open at the same time. They can go back and forth between them or have one window open on one side of the screen and the other window open on the other side of the screen (I even had a student use her phone as a second screen). They will not get all of your extra tidbits you can add during a live presentation, but they can still read the information and watch the videos.
One afterthought – Instead of sending the students the presentation, you could record yourself GIVING the presentation and send that video to students instead! You could use screen capture software like Screencastify or ScreencastOmatic so students could properly see the presentation information and hear your recorded voice.
Sending packets home & home has internet?
Print the PDF guided notes to send home, and send the link to VIEW the presentations through your LMS – VIDEO GUIDE. If you don’t have an LMS in place – you can send home a list of short links VIDEO GUIDE for students to easily type into a browser to access the presentations. Students read through the presentations online and fill in blanks of printed guided notes.
Sending packets home & home has no internet?
One option is to print the PDF guided notes AND print the Google Slides presentations out for students to take home. Students read through printed presentations and fill in blanks of printed guided notes. This is probably not ideal for this particular product as students would be unable to view the YouTube videos, but if you have a situation where only one or two students in your class don’t have internet and the rest do, it would suffice.
Link to Playlist of All Included How To Videos
That’s it for this blog post – be sure to check out more Distance Learning ideas we have!
Sign up for our newsletter to receive updates, freebies, and notifications!