Google Hangouts can be a great tool for faculty to enhance their classes. Here are four ways that you can use Google Hangouts to improve your teaching practices:
1. Virtual Office Hours
Use Google Hangouts to host virtual office hours for your students to set up times with you. You can establish set office hours for them to engage in virtual discussions about their grades, a project they are working on, or extra help on an assignment. As Google Hangouts will allow you to access Google Drive you can use it as a medium to effectively discuss schoolwork.
2. Review Sessions
Rather than trying to find some space on campus to engage in a bigger review session, hold one virtually with a Google Hangout. Google Hangouts limits participants to a maximum of 10, so unfortunately there is a limit to number of students that can be in the Hangout.
3. Record Instructions for Later Playback
By recording a Google Hangout, you can provide your students with instructions that they can later playback. Record yourself giving a lecture, working out a problem, or physically demonstrating a concept and then embed it in a content page in Canvas.
4. Bring in a Guest Speaker
Guest speakers can be challenging and expensive to organize. However, you can easily bring the world to your students by hosting a guest speaker with Google Hangouts.