Hal Leonard Adds Video Recording to Its Essential Elements Interactive Platform

By SBO+ Staff

New feature lets students record videos and send to teachers
for feedback and assessment.

Milwaukee-based Hal Leonard has been doing as much as possible to support music educators by providing innovative tools to help them with distance learning. The latest addition to their virtual tool chest is adding groundbreaking new video recording capability to its Essential Elements Interactive (EEi) platform. With EEi Video Assignments, students can record videos in a safe and secure platform to send to their teacher for feedback and assessment.

More details from Hal Leonard (www.halleonard.com):

EEi is the online component of the bestselling Essential Elements Band and Strings methods and is available at no additional cost to anyone using an Essential Elements book. Educators can set up accounts for their classes and use it for online learning, teaching, assessment, and communication—ideal for today’s band and string students who may be using a combination of in-person and at-home learning.

The Video Assignments functionality joins audio options already in place. Students can now easily record videos right from the EEi Music Studio. They can review the recording and decide if they want to re-record or save it. Once they’re satisfied with it, they can submit the video to their teacher for feedback and, if desired, download the video to send to friends and family. Teachers can review the submissions then send written feedback or use in picture-in-picture mode to send audio feedback to students while referencing EE Music on screen.

The video recording is just the latest of several features that have been added to the EEi platform to help teachers and students during the increased need for online learning, including assessment tools and teacher feedback options. Essential Elements Interactive has been a valuable tool for tens of thousands of music programs over the past year and the EEi team is constantly monitoring and evaluating school programs to make changes that will not only benefit students and teachers during the current online teaching environment, but also with the new revised landscape of in-person music education moving forward.

For more information on Essential Elements and Essential Elements Interactive, visit the EEi blog at www.eeiblog.com.