The normal situation is that the woodwind unit have a weekly class in which students are rostered to perform a solo piece on stage in front of their peers and 2 faculty members. When shutdown happened I had to come up with a way to continue this important activity – that of learning the art of performance – while being online.
So I moved to a discussion board assignment in which the performers uploaded a video recording of their performance from their home. The listeners were required to make comments on 3 of the performers each week. Sound quality issues that had to be worked through meant that a live zoom concert was just not good enough to hear the nuance required at this level of performance.
I believe what was crucial was to engage the students particularly at the start when there was so much upheaval in their lives. To that end I spent quite a lot of time making encouraging and, so I’m told, amusing announcements. I received numerous heartfelt emails from the students thanking me saying that they looked forward to them and that it was exactly what they needed. I’m sure it is what helped to get them all on board.
The student response was outstanding. EVERYONE performed on time and put a lot of effort into making it work. But even more important was the quality of peer comments. They really were insightful and inspiring.