Assessing students with video...suggestions needed

[F5Percussion]

I'm looking for some advice on assessing my students on an individual and sub-section level. I'm the percussion caption head at a high school. Unfortunately that's not a full time gig and I'm still in college so I don't get to spend all day hanging around at the high school meeting with kids during their free time. I only have limited time during morning band rehearsals and after school percussion sectionals to interact and drum with them. I want to be able to assess the kids individually, figure out if they really know their music well as an individual and give them personalized comments on their playing. My thought was to have them do video assignments that I can watch and make comments back to them.

Every kid is issued an iPad from the school (honestly provides more of a distraction than a learning aid in my opinion) so I want to make use of that in any way possible. It makes it easy for them to video themselves. The trick after that is where do we put the video? A private YouTube account? Email? An app of some kind? I would love to easily make comments back to them in the same medium.

Does anyone have any experience with anything like this? OR a better idea on how I can assess my kids? Thanks!

[ohmycheese]

I think you should check to make sure it's okay with their parents first cause you never know who has that one parent that overthinks why you want then to video themselves.

Anyways. For drum corps, I had video assignments since we didn't have monthly camps. We all posted to this one YouTube account that was set to private so no one could watch it if they didn't know the amount log in. Pro: it's easy for everyone to post to one account. You can comment on the video with critique and stuff. Con: some students may not like that other students in the line can view their video.

If they all have their own personal YouTube accounts, they can upload assignments on "unlisted" and send you the videos via url. That way you can only see the video if you have the link.

[F5Percussion]

Thanks. That's kinda what I was thinking. I'm just not sure whether to do one private youtube account or have each of them use their own.

[NGPercussion]

Skip the parents and check with your BD. The consequences for you if some dumb kid or parent or whoever decides to blame you for something you didn't do can be pretty devastating. Before you do or even mention anything, be sure you're playing the game and clear it all the way up the chain of command so you have full support. It helps if the BD and administration have access to whatever you're doing as well, so there can be no mistakes. Sadly, that is the society we live in.