LMS Proposal
To: D.C., Department Chair
From: Laura Macleod, Instructional Designer
Date: 7 June 2009
Re: Proposal to redesign MELC 372/372: Contemporary Music Orchestration and Composition I and II for Fall/Winter 2009-10
Background
The Orchestration class in the Jazz degree stream program is taken by student who have completed Theory I and II, and is intended to teach them how to compose their own music, in a variety of styles and with a range of instrumentation. Orchestration I concentrates on arranging/composing for jazz; Orchestration II concentrates on working in the European classical tradition.
The course will be moved from a traditional face-to-face delivery to a hybrid delivery. The core orchestration content will continue to be presented and discussed in class, accompanied by in-class activities in the Midi lab (a wired classroom with integrated music keyboards). However, one of the key challenges with this course is that some students arrive at it with insufficient mastery of music theory to make the most of the course material, despite having taken their required theory courses. Additional theory content will be built online and delivered via the course Blackboard website, allowing students the ability to refresh their memory on key concepts, and get additional practice where necessary. As well, the course will be designed to encourage peer-to-peer support for the various orchestration assignments due throughout the semester, encouraging the formation of a knowledge-building community focused on the process of acquiring expertise. (Scardamalia and Bereiter, 266-7)
Rationale for choice
The decision to move the course in this direction is compelled both from above and below. Humber College has clearly stated its intention to increase the amount of online course content, even for those courses generally delivered only face-to-face. Beginning in Fall 2008, all instructors were mandated to have a Blackboard course shell with their syllabus posted, and are encouraged to use the site for course-related communication.
In the case of the orchestration class, a compelling argument can also be made for the pedagogical utility of transforming it to a hybrid class. The past two years’ iterations of MELC 372/373 have made it clear that some students are still struggling with key theory concepts that are foundational knowledge for orchestration. In most cases, the students simply need a refresher and an opportunity to practice some of these basic concepts while they are working on their scores. There is no time in the classroom to provide this support and currently students are simply directed to their notes and text from their previous courses. This method has proved less than successful. By creating and delivering online theory modules, the instructor gives the students directed help in the areas he anticipates (based on past experience) will be problematic.
Because Blackboard is Humber College’s official CMS, it becomes the delivery vehicle of choice. Following the assessment model proposed by Bates and Poole (2003), a number of the criteria can easily answered by the college’s support of this platform. Therefore, ease of use (87), cost (92), organizational issues (102-3), and speed (104) are taken care of. Interactivity (98-9) is built into the very structure of the course, because it is organized around composition projects. The platform we chose to deliver the digital component of the course will not have an impact on this. It remains, then, to assess Blackboard’s ability to support the pedagogical aims of the instructor and students in MELC 372/373.
Students: (Bates and Poole, 81-2)
- A Blackboard course shell serves to consolidate all of the material for the class in a single space, one students are used to and can easily navigate. This is particularly important because students have to learn to use Sibelius (music composition software) in this course and it would be an additional and unnecessary task to use a CMS with which they have no familiarity.
- Access to Blackboard and, via the course shell, Sibelius, is available to all students with Internet connectivity and in the midi and general computer labs located throughout Building ‘A’.
Teaching and Learning: (Bates and Poole, 95)
Blackboard is able to support all of the essential pedagogical needs of the course.
- Additional musical examples, both written and aural, can be posted.
- MP3 recordings of students’ compositions can be made available to all students in the course after each major assignment.
- Scorch, a free plug-in, is available to allow reading and playback – but not editing – of Sibelius files. This will ensure that students will be able to give their peers feedback.
- Quizzing is an important need for the course instructor; he intends to integrate review quizzes (to be taken before assignments) into the course shell to enable students to gauge their level of understanding of the foundational concepts before embarking on major projects.
- Student tracking, via monitoring of the quizzes and the additional theory material posted, will enable early detection of at-risk students.
- Discussion groups can be set up to facilitate peer review, where students can be required to comment on the strengths and weaknesses of their peers’ compositions, encouraging a higher level of critical response than has been achieved in class. Composing in this class will help students become ‘legitimate peripheral participants’ in the wider jazz community; connecting composition to a peer-review process enable students to see this as professional practice rather than simply school work. (Barab and Duffy, 42-3)
Budget
Instructor’s course preparation time: Additional 20 hours above normal prep time
Instructional designer 40 hours
Total cost above normal course preparation and delivery time: 60 hours
The other potential cost is for permission to post music files other than those created by the instructor or the students in the course. We do anticipate that this will be necessary at this time, however, and no other costs are anticipated.
References
Anderson, T. (2004) Teaching in an online learning context. In Anderson T. & Elloumi, F. Theory and Practice of Online Learning. Athabasca University.
Bates, & Poole (2003) A framework for selecting and using technology. In Effective Teaching with Technology. San Franciso: Jossey-Bass.
Barab S., & Duffy, T. (2000). From practice fields to communities of practice. In D. Jonassen and S. Land (Eds.) Theoretical foundations of learning environments. Mahweh, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Ernst, J. V. (2008). A comparison of traditional and hybrid online instructional presentation in communication technology. Journal of Technology Education 9(2), 40-9.
Scardamalia, M., & Bereiter, C. (1994). Computer support for knowledge-building communities. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 3 (3), 265-83.