Hi @ SkipBurz ,
It is so great that you are putting all this effort into helping these students out!

Will they be doing audio recording along with the editing and mixing?
On the MAC, you can use the built-in audio to record audio using a crappy onboard mic. On the PC, you will really end up using a dedicated audio interface with ASIO drivers. The onboard audio on Most PCs, especially with a built-in Mic can be all over the place quality and reliability wise no matter how new or old the PC is.

Since you need to keep it cross-platform, it would make sense to me to get all using a very similar or the same audio interface, so there is some consistency with the instructions.

Presonus bundles Studio One Artist and Ableton Live Lite.
Focusrite bundles Pro Tools First and Ableton Live Lite.
Steinberg bundles Cubase LE
Most all of them do come with good to great built-in content, virtual instruments, audio effects and some 3rd party extras.

Any of these companies' 1 or 2 input interfaces make the most sense for teaching the basics.
All\most all the major programs at this point have very similar features, terminology, and functions. If someone is learning the audio production basics in Reaper, Ableton, Cubase, Sonar, or Studio One, they will be able to get around in almost any major DAW.

Are some of the issues income-based or internet accessibility-based?
Have you researched grants or looked at some form of fundraising for the students having trouble doing the course remotely?
Have you reached out to manufacturers? Sometimes they like helping out schools for the good PR/marketing it gives them.

Thanks Chris

@ joeq a Comm degree is what I have.

Thanks to all those who chimed in with helpful suggestions. It looks like only a couple of students will be remote and the rest have opted to be in person. Therefore, most will be able to use ProTools in our digital media lab where we have several site licenses. The other two students have newer MacBooks and we're going to meet to either install ProTools First on their machines or we'll transfer a couple of our site licenses to them for the summer. This is a master's program and the students are all working professionals, so they don't need too much hand-holding. Thanks again!

If this is a mastering degree and all students are working pros then this is not the question you should be asking!!!!!

There is no "ring to rule them all" in audio production ! they must learn them all...yes logic too, and reaper and protools...ALLLLLL....! and they 're all free to some extent...try everything ...you'll prefer this or that but.......there are no toys in that list!! Audio editing works pretty much the same in all the aforementioned daws...

In the end only the Reasults matter, ... more, more, more, this is our rabbit hole.



Ray

As a student in the past, I attended classes where we used Reaper. As it has been said it really cost-effective and what is more important there are a lot of tutorials on the net and also there are rarely some problems with instaling it. In general, if you search, you can find many useful tools and resources for students. I used to use https://studyhelper.com/argumentative-essay-samples, which helped me a lot to improve my writing skills. You should not stop at one resource, you should sometimes look for others, as you can find something new and useful

Ardour would be very good choice for students since it is open source. If someone really would like to know how it works you can read it. And I think it is good enough for most educational stuff. Maybe not for film since I don't think it support Dolby Atmos.

I generally think if a school is out there claiming to be preparing young people for a future career in the professional audio creative industry, they should be teaching them on the tools that are the standard in the industry. So in this case, ProTools or Cubase.. but if it's a school that just teaches some top level overarching digital audio skills and concepts, then a free cost effect software should suffice. You would not teach future graphic designers who are being trained to work in advertising or marketing on Gimp.. you would be teaching them on Adobe products as those are the tools they will be expected to have mastered before they set foot in a professional design studio. No one on staff will have time to be teaching them how to use it.

just my 2 cents.

If you teach the tools without teaching the concepts behind the tools, it won’t matter what software one uses. Software isn’t hard to learn, there’s manuals for every program and plenty of videos online teaching someone how to find any options in the menus of the programs and such.

I think that’s true of any field, not just production. Really, school teaches you how to learn and how to think critically (or should), and experience and the student putting in their own work outside of class develops skills.

Either way, I’ve told my students that they are going to need to be versatile and open to any experience that they can find. So many are locked into the idea that they are going to be beat makers and get right with famous artists. If that happens, that’s wonderful but there’s so many more people who make a living doing all kinds of things involving audio. Sometimes a few of them listen to that advice.

I think it's all moot point since the OP made that post 2+ yrs ago and is likely long gone with his or her decision.

PS Reaper is ONLY free for 60 days. Then you're supposed to pay for it.

60 days should do it for a summer course

Fair point!