<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>Dear Eric and Gretchen, </div><div><br></div><div>I've been teaching an online music fundamentals class for several years for incoming music majors who score low on the music theory placement exam given at auditions. The course was designed for online (and grew out of an online music fundamentals course for non-majors that I developed at a previous institution around 2002, where it is still being taught). Students enroll the summer before they arrive on campus. It is a one-credit course to keep costs down for students, but it is essentially 2-3 credits worth of material. I use MFun: Music Fundamentals e-text (published by MacGAMUT), which does have interactive drills/quizzes/assessments that can be tracked by the instructor as well lots of audio clips and animations, a virtual keyboard, etc. [full disclosure: I authored MFun, so I'm fond of it!]. </div><div><br></div><div>Because the class is for incoming music majors, I also use Blackboard to both build relationships (so students will feel like they already know someone when they arrive), and to build their ability to articulate conceptual knowledge. For example, I have had them do peer critiques of a series of very simple compositions. To strengthen their conceptual understanding (in addition to the skill-based activities), I have had them collaborate on a wiki of key terms, so by the end of the course they have had to produce both verbal definitions and examples in music notation for each term. They can continue to use this group glossary as they begin their core theory and aural skills classes as music majors. I've rotated similar activities over the years, so this is a sampling.</div><div><br></div><div>In terms of data, when I crunched numbers for a paper I presented at CMS/ATMI a few years ago, if a student had a B or better in the online course, they passed the first year of core theory. (This also gives us an early warning that those who did not receive a B or better in the online course would need intervention right away.) An important caveat to this data is that we are not allowed to *require* the online course, so it's possible that this is a result of more motivated students self-selecting (we have 10-20 students enroll each summer - it would be closer to 35 if everyone who should enroll did so). Anecdotally, one of the freshman instructors told me this week that two of his students had recently remarked that they were really glad they had taken the online course, because otherwise they would be "really lost" in first-year theory right now. I think a hybrid or flipped course (with a format similar to what Anna Gawboy described) could be even more effective for this purpose.</div><div><br></div><div>With best regards, </div><div>Elizabeth</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Elizabeth Sayrs<br>Associate Professor of Music Theory</div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Chair, Faculty Senate</div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Ohio University<br><a href="mailto:sayrs@ohio.edu">sayrs@ohio.edu</a></div></div><div><br><blockquote type="cite"><div><blockquote type="cite">Quoting "Isaacson, Eric J" <<a href="mailto:isaacso@indiana.edu">isaacso@indiana.edu</a>>:<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Dear Colleagues,<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">We would be interested in hearing about the experiences you or your<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">institutional colleagues have had with online teaching in music. Our<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">interest<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">is not limited to music theory, but could encompass music history, music<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">education, other academic areas, as well as performance studies. We are<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">NOT<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">interested in speculative critiques of the idea of online education (we<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">are<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">perfectly capable of conjuring these ourselves!), but rather in real-world<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">stories from the trenches. Responses might address:<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"> * What subject was taught?<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"> * Who was the target population?<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"> * Was it an online adaptation of an existing course or designed for<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">online delivery?<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"> * Was the course wholly online or blended?<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"> * What technolog(ies) were involved?<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"> * Is there any statistical or anecdotal information about the course's<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">effectiveness, efficiency, etc., from the perspective of the students? The<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">instructor?<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Best wishes,<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Eric J. Isaacson<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Director of Graduate Studies, Assoc. Professor of Music Theory<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Gretchen Horlacher<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Assistant to the Dean for Research and Administration, Assoc. Professor of<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Music Theory<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Indiana University Jacobs School of Music<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#006312"><br></font></div></blockquote></div><br><div>
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