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Setting the Course | Distance Learning
Nov 1, 2009 12:00 PM, By Sarah Jones
ONLINE EDUCATION OFFERS NEW PATHS TO LEARNING
At Berkleemusic, students can enroll in individual classes or work toward an intensive three-course Specialist Certificate; four, five or six-course Professional Certificate; or an eight, nine or 12-month Master Certificate. Classes run 12 weeks and cost $995, or $1,495 for college credit. Each week, students work through the lesson material, post questions, upload assignments, listen to and critique each other's work, answer questions, interact with their instructor, receive feedback on weekly assignments and participate in a weekly class meeting online. “The class community becomes a vibrant online learning environment with lots of communication and musical exchange,” says Cavalier. “Students who are new to Berkleemusic are often surprised by how much they learn, how rigorous the Berkleemusic online courses are and how connected they feel to their classmates and instructor throughout the 12-week term.”
Cavalier adds that Berklee's online classes are ideally suited to hands-on learning. “For example, a Mixing and Mastering in Pro Tools course may include a lesson topic on applying parallel compression to guitar tracks in a mix,” she says. “Students read about the concept, look at diagrams, watch the instructor demonstrate the technique in a movie file and then try to apply parallel compression with the Pro Tools session provided for that lesson. Each student uploads their version of the technique in their Pro Tools session for the instructor to review and critique.” Files are transferred via DigiDelivery, and students submit mixes as MP3s.
Media entrepreneur Chris Hambly has been developing online programs since he founded audiocourses.com nearly 10 years ago. Today, he is working with SAE to develop its SAEOnline school, which currently offers 22 courses in topics ranging from Sound Design for Film to Music Theory Using Logic Pro to Digital Mastering. The four-week courses cost about $550 each and cycle each month. In addition to interacting with their professors, students are assigned Learning Advisors who help them navigate the courses.
“If we think of different generations of distance learning technology,” Hambly says, “we can see that the model has shifted from one of broadcasting — or one-way — to two-way, or multidirectional, especially if we consider that all participants in a group can interact on various levels, both synchronously and asynchronously.”
Hambly is adamant that the quality and standards of online courses are the same as face-to-face classes. “In addition, the curriculum itself should be identical,” he maintains. “If the course outcome is to up-skill a student in preparation for a job in film scoring, there should be no discernible difference in the outcome, be it available on- or offline. The difference comes in the applied use of technology, how the student experiences their learning and how they communicate with their learning advisors.”
New Media, New Challenges
Hambly notes that it can sometimes be difficult for “traditional” teachers to create an engaging virtual experience. “You have to be tech-savvy and a skilled communication moderator; you have to get the students engaging with each other,” he says. “In the virtual world, there is generally very little opportunity to use body language, gesticulation or even facial expression. Online instructors have to develop alternative skills to facilitate student participation.”
Berkleemusic professor Erik Hawkins, who teaches music production courses such as Pro Tools 110 and Producing Music With Reason from his home studio in Los Angeles, says he strives to keep class content accessible and interesting to all levels of students. “Students who are new to music production can jump in at the basic level with videos and interactive Flash workshops, while more advanced students can dive into discussion questions at more length and tackle the extra challenge portion of a weekly assignment,” he says. “There's something for every level, and you can pick and choose the materials within a lesson that best suit your personal goals for the topics presented.”
Hawkins spends the first few weeks making sure that everybody understands the basics of the music software programs that the class is working with. “This frees up the remaining weeks for getting creative,” he explains. “For example, beginning in week eight of the Producing Music With Reason course, students start writing and producing their own song that I expect them to have completed, mixed and mastered by the end of week 12 of the course. And in my Remixing With Pro Tools and Reason course, students complete three remix sketches as a warm-up for producing a full-length remix beginning in week seven. It's an intense ride, but there's no better way to hone your music production chops than to apply the production techniques that I'm teaching in the lessons to actual projects.”
It's not just the teachers who have to work harder at interacting online. Being an online student often requires an active and disciplined student, says Garcia. “The campus student is, in a sense, a less-proactive student because sometimes what you do is sit down in a classroom and receive information, and that's how you learn, whereas the online student has to go find information and learn from it.”
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