Developing a Teaching Framework for Online Music Courses
Abstract
Post-secondary music courses are being offered in an online learning format at an exponential rate of increase (Johnson & Hawley, in press). The purpose of this multiple case study was to develop a teaching framework that assists music faculty members in transitioning from traditional face-to-face classroom teaching to teaching in the online environment. The three case studies included: 1) hybrid online courses; 2) a fully online course focused on social constructivist learning and; 3) fully online courses with limited student interaction. Case data was collected from 11 faculty and 4 student interviews, 16 online student surveys, and 2 faculty focus group discussions between November 2014 and November 2015.
First Cycle and Second Cycle data coding and analyses (Saldaña, 2013) revealed four essential elements for online music courses: 1) online music pedagogy (e.g., teaching philosophies, authentic music learning, openness to online music learning, institutional support, and learning approaches); 2) course design (e.g., planning, organization, multimedia use, and course design process); 3) assessment (e.g., meaningful opportunities to demonstrate music learning), and 4) communication (e.g., methods for exploring subject content and technology tools). The data collected from Community of Inquiry student surveys (Arbaugh et al., 2008) and student interviews indicated that the incorporation of these components assisted learning.
The resulting teaching framework was developed from both literature and findings from the case studies. It incorporates evidenced components (course design, assessment, and communication) with online pedagogy incorporated in its iterative development process. This framework was presented to and subsequently validated by the faculty who participated in the study.
The findings and implications of this study contribute relevant evidence about current online music learning and teaching practices. Overall, constructivist and social constructivist learning approaches to course design were found assistive to providing students with interactive learning in the online environment. The implications of this study are that online music faculty require ongoing active participation in sustainable workshops as well as mentoring, and that administrators choosing new online music faculty members should seek those who have both an openness for online teaching and past experience in teaching using innovative technology.
Description
Keywords
Music, Education--Music, Education--Teacher Training, Education--Technology
Citation
Johnson, C. (2016). Developing a Teaching Framework for Online Music Courses (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/25620