Collabra has eliminated the need for written practice logs. Viewing their weekly practice times is by far my most used feature, but I also use Collabra for creating Assessments as an alternative to students emailing me their recordings. My students feel accountable when they know I can listen in, and I can easily give specific feedback on their work.

Being able to see my student in the practice room is a huge advantage of Collabra. For every instrument there are posture issues, and with voice, your body is your instrument. I watch their practices and leave comments so they know they are being cared for outside of the lessons. I also like that I can pre-record small explanatory exercises for my students to review. They can hear me describe why I want them to do the exercise, and then I can have one of my graduate students demonstrate it, so they fully understand the exercise. I don’t think there’s anything that I don’t like about Collabra. Several of my students are becoming teachers soon and they are really excited about what they could do with Collabra and their future students.

I use Collabra with my Piano Pedagogy class, and it provides a perfect way to record and review my students’ lessons. Collabra really solves a problem for me. In the past it was difficult to observe my pedagogy students in their practice lessons more than once or twice per semester, and now I can observe them on a weekly basis. The software feature that allows for time-stamped comments on what I observe is a unique and very valuable tool and makes Collabra stand out from other video methods I’ve used in the past.