Online Teaching/Learning Platforms

Zoom’s CEO Eric Yuan instructed staff not to ramp up sales or marketing due to the coronavirus crisis. “If you leverage this opportunity for money, I think that’s a horrible culture.” 

Exclusive: Zoom CEO Eric Yuan Is Giving K-12 Schools His Videoconferencing Tools For Free

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2020/03/13/zoom-video-coronavirus-eric-yuan-schools 

Zoom lifts the 40-minute limits on many K-12 educational institution accounts and community educational organizations (Chinese School etc.)

Students or teachers who fill out an online form using their school email addresses and are then verified by Zoom will have any accounts associated with that school’s domain also gain unlimited temporary meeting minutes, according to a site set up for the process overnight. The free Basic accounts are also available by request in Austria, Denmark, France, Ireland, Poland, Romania and South Korea, a spokesperson for Zoom said. "Given that many K-12 schools are starting closing, we decided to offer Zoom access to all K-12 schools in the country starting tomorrow," Yuan wrote in an email overnight.

The following document provides nice summary of Pros and Cons of several key online teaching/learning platforms:

Comparing & Contrasting FREE Platforms & Procedures For Online Music Instruction:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yQkpa7yVXRVXNNtchiS7_unIXgv5crvGiLMYlF7yYXA/mobilebasic

Comparing & Contrasting Platforms for Music Lesson Instruction - Zoom vs. Hangouts Meet vs. Skype vs. Facetime vs. WhereBy vs. Others

Comparing & Contrasting FREE Platforms & Procedures

For Online Music Instruction:

Skype, Zoom, Hangouts, WhereBy, Facetime, etc^[a].

[See Also: Online Teaching Resources / Distance Learning Ideas for Band Directors ]

By Bradley Mariska, assisted by Scott Agster, Erin Holmes, and Heidi Stodola

On 18 March 2020, a group of Minnesota band directors tried all the major video conferencing platforms to determine the advantages and disadvantages of each. Read below for general notes, including specific thoughts about the pros and cons of each free platform. Most importantly: use what works best for you and your students. Find meaningful ways to connect, regardless of the platform!

General Notes regarding online music instruction

These reminders are actually more important than anything! Regardless of which platform you use, everything is dependent upon your equipment and the quality of your internet connection. Regardless of which website/app/platform you use, please ensure that you and your students follow these simple instructions:

• Always close ALL other programs and apps. If you’re using a web-based service, your browser should be the only program open. If using an app like Zoom or Facetime, close EVERYTHING else. This is ESPECIALLY important on simpler machines like Chromebooks and iPad (They just don’t have the CPU power to handle video conferencing well)
• Always use earbuds or headphones instead of a speaker, even if only meeting one-on-one. If you don’t have headphones, just use the built-in speaker. Adding a Bluetooh speaker adds even more to latency issues. We repeat: always use headphones! (Both teacher and student!)
• Use a WIRED external mic if at all possible (even a cheap one is way better than the built-in microphone; do NOT a Bluetooth microphone - even more lag!)
• A $10 USB mic like this is MUCH better than your built-in one
• An awesome middle-of-the-road $35 option
• If you’re serious, step up to the $100 level for something nice that you could also use for podcasting, serious recording, etc.
• Never play directly into (or ‘at’) the microphone (“off-axis” setup is very important). Distortion and clipping are already issues with video chat - don’t make it worse by playing “at” the mic.
• For on-board mics, have students back up at least 3-5 feet from the computer or laptop and play off-axis. This allows a little buffer from overwhelming the on board mic.
• Lag exists on ALL platforms. Do not try to have a “rehearsal” or even “sectional” with multiple students playing at once. You can meet with a group of students (probably 5 or less) but only one person should be playing at a time. The technology just isn’t there yet.
• If possible, reduce bandwidth usage on your network. For students at home, this can actually be quite easy. Turn off the gaming system, stop streaming Netflix, etc. You can free up a ton of bandwidth and improve your video call immensely!
• TEACHERS: If at school, connect to a hardwired Ethernet connection rather than using WiFi

Zoom

• PRO: Awesome extra features (easy to record, whiteboard feature, advanced a/v settings, etc.)
• PRO: In most situations, audio was best when set to auto-adjust (dynamics are attenuated, however); the nice thing is that you have control over this either way
• PRO: Free *FOR NOW* but in the past, it has had a fee
• CON: Some districts disallow Zoom (data privacy concerns)
• CON: Software/app to install (no web-based option)^[b]
• BOTTOM LINE: This was the best performing platform overall, in terms of quality of audio, least lag, and video clarity. It also offers the most features. RECOMMENDED!

Google Hangouts Meet

• PRO: Closed captioning - VERY accurate and effective.
• (Although when Heidi tried this later in the day with her fellow staff members, it was not as accurate but that group was not as polite and patient with verbal chatter and background noise. Especially bad captioning with Spanish because it just tried translating to English - badly.)
• PRO: Really good layout for up to five, accommodates up to 100. (Multiple view options. We recommend that you set to “tiled” view, you can see the other four people very clearly and prominently)
• You can have up to 100 in your meeting with the paid G-Guite.
• You have to lay down ground rules and make everyone go on mute and "raise their hand" by messaging in the chat window. Don’t forget this!
• Audio/Video not quite as good as Zoom but not significantly worse
• PRO: Easy to screen record the session
• (Note: the person who created/initiated the hangout is the only one who can do this)
• When Heidi did this with staff later in the day, any of them could start/stop the recording. We are not sure yet if this is open to all staff or all students as well.
• The meeting recording gets saved in a folder in my Google Drive and it's titled Meet Recordings.
• Better video on computer vs phone
• Chromebooks have pretty bad sound, so the phone app might be better for some. Or an alternative laptop.
• However - when Heidi led Google Meet with those outside her district she had to allow non-district accounts to enter. So having students join a Meet on a device that is logged into their school apps account is best.
• More lag than ZOOM but better than Skype
• BOTTOM LINE: Overall, this is probably the best option for schools for a couple of reasons.
• First, most educational institutions already have G-Suite (which makes it free, but also your district/school has accepted the user agreement)
• This is important because Hangouts MEET is far superior to Google Duo and regular Google Hangouts in terms of the A/V quality as well as the features within the video chat itself.
• Lastly, if you record every session, you have a record if a student is inappropriate.

WhereBy

• PRO: Super simple to join a ‘room’. This was the easiest, simplest platform of the whole test.
• PRO: Web-based. No app/software to download.
• PRO: Nice layout - fun features like emojis!
• CON: Pretty serious latency issues. We found ourselves talking over each other and having to pause a lot.
• Screen freezing is common.
• CON: Chromebook was NOT super compatible
• CON: Free account only allows 4 in a ‘room’ at a time.
• BOTTOM LINE: A really easy, simple alternative. But when it comes to audio/video, there are much better options. (Maybe better for a ‘chat’ than for a band lesson, but if other options don’t work, this is a possibility.)

Skype

• PRO: Low notes sounded good
• PRO: Emojis!
• PRO: Most people already have accounts
• PRO: There is now web-based option, in addition to the app.
• CON: Pretty significant lag issues. Below average.
• CON: Distortion on highest notes
• Con: must have an account. The whole “logging in” thing was pretty awkward.
• Con: on school devices for 1:1 districts, students might be blocked from using Skype.
• BOTTOM LINE: Do not recommend. The benefits do not outweigh the negatives. It was just a hassle.

Facetime

• PRO: If both users have a good Internet connection and newer/more recent devices, the video quality is quite good since there is much less “translating”
• For example, if you and your video partner both have the newest generation iPhone and/or iPad, you will actually get a pretty solid A/V connection!
• PRO: Very simple to use and connect on an iPhone, but….
• CON: Facetime is quite klunky on a computer
• CON: Latency test was quite ‘average’. No better than other platforms. Not as good as Zoom.
• CON: Only available to Apple users
• CON: Really just for ‘chatting’ - no extra features.
• BOTTOM LINE: Do not recommend unless you’re both Apple users with newer devices on fast internet connection and you don’t need any extra features.

FreeConferenceCall.com

• PRO: Web-based OR app-based.
• PRO: Latency test: not bad for audio! Almost as good as ZOOM!
• HOWEVER (CON) No support external audio devices (mics) available. So there might not be significant lag, but the audio quality is relatively poor.
• CON: Video quality not as good
• PRO: You can literally have 100 people (or more!) on a “call”
• This might be a great option for a lecture, student/parent meeting, etc. If you need to gather a LARGE group of people together in a “live” setting, this would work very nicely.
• CON: Pretty basic in terms of features. Nothing fancy.
• CON: We had some issues connecting. The process for joining the ‘call’ is simple, but we got several error messages before getting everyone into the video chat.
• BOTTOM LINE: Great for big meetings, pretty strong when it came to the ‘lag test’, but video quality was poor. Lacked the features of other apps/platforms.

Because we had previously heard very mixed results, we did NOT test Facebook Messenger Video or WhatsApp. We also did not test paid services like Cisco and BrainCert.

[a]This document is now open for commenting! If you have additional thoughts based on experience, please feel free to leave a comment.

[b]There is a web based option.