Teaching Music Appreciation Online

Book excerpt: In this book, readers will learn practical tips and strategies to teach music appreciation online. As online education is a growing field, an increasing number of teachers trained in traditional/live methods find themselves now teaching online and potentially without mentors to assist them. Students are also changing, seeking highly engaged, relevant, and interactive learning opportunities that connect to their lives. Here, readers will find helpful guidance in planning curriculum, integrating multimedia assets, designing forum discussions, developing assignments, preparing rubrics, engaging in forum discussions, preparing, managing, and teaching, the course, providing feedback and grading, and following up with struggling and challenging students. The book can serve as a resource to those already teaching music appreciation online or as a comprehensive guide to those new to the field. Additionally, it may serve as a resource to instructors in other disciplines who seek to shift live-courses to the online format, as well as music appreciation instructors who would like to integrate digital or online components into traditional face-to-face courses. The book is organized into five major sections, designed to guide the novice online educator in depth while also appealing to the seasoned veteran through the ability to review each section as a stand-alone resource. Although some readers will desire to read from cover to cover, they will also be able to move in a non-linear manner from chapter to chapter, using chapters in modular form, in order to benefit from the sections that most apply to them at any given time.