Teaching music online: Changing pedagogical approach when moving to the online environment

Abstract

The development of educational technology has provided platforms for undergraduate music courses to take place in an online environment. While technology is available, this does not mean that all teaching staff are ready for the pedagogical change required to implement teaching online. A transformation of pedagogical practice (that is, to online pedagogy) is required for teaching courses online. Researchers suggest that the use of social-constructivist learning and collaborative online learning models strongly support online student learning. The following case study explores how teaching staff in an American university music department (N=7) transformed their pedagogy when teaching undergraduate music courses online. The study highlights the diversity of perceptions about teaching music online, and the influence of these perceptions on the pedagogical approaches and strategies used when teaching and developing an online music course. The pedagogical elements of teaching music online were found to have connections with the community of inquiry framework's nexus of teaching presence, cognitive presence and social presence, and suggested a social-constructivist course design. Finally, the findings show that teaching staff experienced a shift of pedagogical approach when transitioning to teaching music online. Implications include assisting music faculty in the adoption of pedagogical approaches and that they should be addressed at individual, departmental and institutional levels.

A Historical Study (2007-2015) on the Adoption of Online Music Courses in the United States

“…Each of these studies explored different aspects of technology use for teaching music in the online environment. From these studies, and others, we can see that flexible and accessible learning can be provided for online music students when supported, as outlined by Johnson (2017), with key considerations of online music pedagogy (e.g., social constructivism). Practical aspects considered for online learning in music include synchronous and asynchronous learning activities, video conferencing (i.e., one-to-one online music lessons) for direct teaching, and intuitively designed LMS course areas.…”

“…Johnson course retention rates and overall instructor anxiety as identified in the Johnson (2017) multiple case study research of online music programs.…”

Digital technologies in music subjects on primary teacher training degrees in Spain: Teachers’ habits and profiles

“…We therefore find teachers who do not take advantage of all of the benefits of using technology in music education and do not pass these benefits on to students (Belgrave & Keown, 2018; Calderón-Garrido et al, 2019; Creech, 2019; Johnson, 2017; Webster, 2002). The exception to this is score editors, which have proven to be an ally, not just when editing and digitising scores, but also when composing, listening, developing music reading skills and so on (Brodsky et al, 2008; Wöllner et al, 2003).…”

Digital fordobling af lærere

“…Teknologi har ikke traditionelt vaeret meget inddraget i musikundervisningen (Johnson, 2017), og da eksperimenter med teknologi og online undervisning i musik først de senere år har taget fart, findes der ikke megen forskning i feltet. Generelt finder man dog, at musikundervisning via online teknologi er effektivt (Draper, 2008;Eakes, 2009;Johnson, 2017), blandt andet fordi online adgang til rum og ressourcer til musikundervisningen giver mulighed for, at elever kan få introduceret musikken og eventuelt øve sig inden undervisningen (Johnson, 2017), samt at online musik i undervisningens asynkrone del understøtter et positivt forhold til musik generelt (Beasley & Chuang, 2008). Isaer i de seneste år fremhaeves fordelene ved, at studerende kan dele egne kompositioner (Crawford, 2017) og samarbejde med hinanden online (Biasutti, 2015;Whitener, 2016).…”