I teach a digital media marketing class that’s about a hundred miles away from my office, so this semester I tried an alternative to traditional “distance learning.” Rather than driving on campus every week or prepare stale lectures, I utilized the power of Google+ Hangouts to facilitate half of my classes this semester. Class participation increased dramatically because students were free to chat, tweet or share their feedback without fear of being put on the spot. Every class lecture or discussion is archived and available on the YouTube Channel. More than two-thirds of my students reported improved class engagement and satisfaction from using the Google Hangout classroom. Specifically in this post, I am going to walk through the steps that will help you utilize Google Hangouts in your classroom, but the steps outlined here can also be used for any business, academic or extracurricular purpose. In case you don’t make it all the way to the end…