Just in time for back to school, Dubspot Online, the electronic music school for all citizens of the world, has updated their courses and community to take advantage of the latest Google technology, reflect the most recent versions of the top music production software, and bring in more noted music technology experts as teachers.
Dubspot Online has recently rolled out some savvy uses of Google technology solutions for their students. Instructors’ weekly office hours are now held via video conference on Google Hangouts. This has proved wildly popular with students and teachers alike and has greatly increased student engagement.
Dubspot Online is also using a Google+ community as the main online meeting place where students can find collaborators, share music, get questions answered by peers and teachers, find out about cool events, and find new opportunities like DJ gigs, remix contests, and production work. This enables the online school to function much like its terrestrial counterpart in New York City’s Meatpacking District – as a hub for a scene of creative artists of all levels to interact and artistically support each other.
Popular Dubspot Online instructor Jason Emsley, who teaches several courses including “DJing with Traktor” and “Music Production with Ableton” notes, “By meeting my students in Google Hangouts I am able to communicate with them in a much more effective way than through chat rooms. The Hangout platform also encourages them to share tips among each other and create more meaningful bonds for collaboration and networking, which is such a strong part of the Dubspot culture.”
In addition to Hangouts and Google+ Dubspot is also adapting other innovative ways to use Google technology to be rolled out in the next six months.
John von Seggern, the director of Dubspot Online notes, “by taking advantage of Google’s platforms, Dubspot is able to grow and change at the same rate as the music technology our students work with evolves. We don’t have to invest in creating our own technology solutions and can instead concentrate on course creation in a rapidly changing field, which makes for more satisfied students.”
Dubspot has and continues to re-engineer its curriculum and technologies in the music production and online education worlds. Recently updated courses includes newly designed curriculum for Apple’s Logic X, Logic’s first updated version since 2010. This fresh new course was designed by noted artist, producer and Dubspot New York City and online instructor Matt Shadetek and will be launched in late October. Additionally, its signature Ableton Live course has been updated to reflect the recent release of Live 9. The popular Music Foundations course in music history and theory for electronic musicians has also been overhauled.
In Dubspot teacher news, Jon Margulies, one of Dubspot’s early curriculum directors and a respected Ableton Live expert has returned to the fold to teach Mixing and Mastering courses online as well as to lend his talents to editing the Dubspot blog. Noted studio cellist and producer Brent Arnold has also signed on as a new Logic instructor. Arnold is best known for his cello music for Louis C.K.’s show “Louie,” as well as his work with Reggie Watts, Modest Mouse, Amanda Palmer, Death in Vegas, Wayne Horvitz, and Sleater-Kinney.