Web-based music history courses present challenges to the designer that must be overcome in order to create a viable pedagogy for distance learning. This lecture-demonstration addresses three of those challenges: evaluating factual knowledge, encouraging synthesis of that knowledge, and optimally utilizing sound & notation files. Evaluating factual knowledge and encouraging synthesis of that knowledge will be considered together as the pedagogy often overlaps. The premise of the discussion will be twofold; building on & adapting successful classroom pedagogy for web-based courses and pedagogy that is unique to web-based instruction.

According to Confucius, "contemplation without facts is dangerous, facts without contemplation is a waste of time". Therefore, the structure of any course must include:

The traditional classroom course utilizes readings, lectures, discussions, papers, quizzes and/or examinations to encourage and evaluate the learning of facts and ideas. Non-traditional approaches in the face-to-face classroom may utilize journals, where the student records significant facts from the reading and/or lectures and interacts with those facts in paragraph form. Homework assignments consisting of short answer questions about key points in the reading or lectures can also be used to encourage and evaluate the learning of factual material. All of these methods are adaptable to a web-based music history class with each having its own benefits and shortcomings.

Before sharing specific suggestions that I have found successful in my web-based course "Richard Wagner and Society," it is important that the designer of a web-based music history course recognize the shift in emphasis that takes place when moving from the classroom to the web. The traditional classroom is usually professor-oriented rather than student-oriented. The professor decides what material will be studied, when it will be studied, how learning will be evaluated, etc. The beginning, ending and frequency of the class meetings are rigid. A web-based course enables a student to determine how much time s/he will spend with each topic, when s/he will study the topic, and in some cases, what order he/she will study the topics. While this freedom to learn according to one’s learning style is advantageous to some students, it is a disadvantage to those who lack the discipline to work in a less structured environment. Therefore, I feel the best web-based course incorporates learning strategies that provide a balance of freedom and discipline.

Initially, one must consider the method of information presentation. Assigned readings are still a valid method of presenting information in a web-based course. Since the student will be functioning in a more independent environment, the reading material is best divided into small units that focus on a single subject. An introductory paragraph that appears on the web page is often helpful to focus the student’s reading.

When the professor desires to provide information not available through assigned readings, a "web lecture" can be designed. It is helpful, in presenting material, to use multimedia to illustrate key ideas. Multimedia can occur in the form of tables, drawings, audio clips, video clips, and/or scanned images. Links to other web sites with related information is an effective method of presenting ideas. It is best to keep the topic focused on one subject for each "web lecture." This helps the student in the independent learning environment and enables the professor to design activities to reinforce and evaluate the learning that takes place in each unit.

Discussions similar to ones that take place in the classroom can occur in a web-based course. There are two ways to incorporate discussions; chat rooms (synchronous) and bulletin boards (asynchronous). The advantage of chat rooms is the immediacy of communication. The student can ask questions and receive immediate answers. The same is true for the professor. The disadvantage is the need for students and professor to be available at the same time. In web-based education, where the possibility exists that members of the class may live in different time zones, it may be necessary to create several chat rooms to accommodate everyone’s schedule. Other possible disadvantages are the need for spontaneous thinking and the challenges of following several trains of thought at the same time. It is best to organize chat rooms so that no more than six students are in a chat room at one time. Three advantages of bulletin boards are:

The loss of immediate feedback and the sense of belonging to a "group" that comes from the classroom experience are disadvantages. It is important that the professor monitor the course frequently and respond in a timely manner to help overcome this disadvantage.

The pedagogical tool of research papers transfers very easily to the web-based course. I evaluate the students work in four stages: topic selection, outline & working bibliography, first draft, and final revision. Submission of work can be in the form of attached files to e-mail or submission of a hard copy via mail. Providing feedback to the student can be accomplished by e-mailing comments with specific references to paragraphs and pages or by typing comments in the body of their electronic submission using word processing software. A different font or color to distinguish the professor’s comment from the student’s work is helpful. The file containing the professor’s comments can be e-mailed back to the student.

Evaluating the student’s knowledge through quizzes and examinations in a web-based course raises several concerns. Even though web-based course delivery software includes a log-in system that usually requires a user name and password, one cannot be sure that the registered student is taking the exam. A student could give this information to someone else, but that someone else would need to do the work in preparation for the exam. This same scenario could occur in large sections of face-to-face courses where the professor may not know every student by sight. It is, however, highly unlikely that another person would do that much work for another student. In order to test memorized knowledge, timed exams can deter a student from looking up answers. Web-course software enables timed exams to be given. Preventing students from working together is the biggest challenge with no real solution. This is one of the reasons why I prefer to use other means of evaluation, either separate from or in conjunction with quizzes and examinations.

Some other methods of evaluation that can be used are journals and short answer questions in the form of homework. Electronic journals can be submitted weekly or biweekly. In their journals, students can be directed to address any combination of the following:

Designing short answer questions for homework can take the form of multiple choice, true false, and/or fill-in questions. All of these types of questions can be computer-scored, providing immediate feedback in terms of a grade and correct answers for questions marked incorrect. Fill-in questions are the most challenging for the computer to score accurately because the computer only recognizes exact matches. I find it helpful to indicate the number of words one is looking for in the answer in parenthesis next to the question. Even with this precaution, it is often necessary to override the computer scoring on many occasions to accommodate correct answers that were not an exact match. Multiple choice and true-false questions are scored accurately by the computer but many people object to their weakness in evaluating comprehension. I use these types of questions to be sure the student is gleaning the essential points from the assigned reading or the web page. I even use them to evaluate concepts by designing questions that require a synthesis of knowledge. An example would be a question that asks, "which of the following is not a favorite subject of Romantic artists? A) nature B) supernatural C) fulfilled love D) death".

Using combinations of the pedagogy discussed above creates a course design that evaluates both the knowledge of facts and the synthesis of ideas. In certain areas, such as chat rooms, bulletin boards, and electronic journals, both quantity and quality of participation should be evaluated. I set a minimum standard of quality (75%) in order for students to receive quantity credit. An entry therefore must have sufficient depth in order to receive quantity credit. I award a certain number of quantity points (ex. 5 points) for each passing submission until the maximum allotted to the section is reached (ex. 5 submissions). I then take a smaller number of the best submissions (ex. 3 best) and average their grades together to determine a quality grade. The table below, from my course "Richard Wagner and Society," illustrates this type of grading.

Background Unit — 400 possible points

The biggest challenge in creating web-based music history courses involves sound, notation, and video examples. The techniques for creating and employing these files are constantly evolving with dramatic improvements occurring several times each year. A detailed discussion of these techniques is beyond the scope of this presentation. Therefore my purpose is to give an overview of the possibilities from a pedagogical viewpoint.

Notation files can be created by scanning existing music notation or by using notation software. The notation software must be able to save the file in a PICT, GIF, or JPEG format. Either GIF or FPEG files will work on a web page. If your notation software only saves as a PICT file, you can convert the PICT file to GIF or JPEG using scanning/editing software. Scanned images of notation should also be saved as GIF or JPEG. Notation files should only be used for short examples to illustrate specific points. Scrolling on a web page to view music notation is not practical. For scores of entire movements or works, I recommend the students purchase a score anthology.

There are several formats for audio and video clips. All use some form of compression to make the files smaller for quicker downloading or streaming. Compression does, however, sacrifice some quality. One needs software to extract the excerpt and software to convert it to the selected format. The student would then need to down load (usually for free) the appropriate player to play the files. Because of the size of these files, short samples to illustrate specific points work best. One could also create MIDI files to play selected examples using the student’s sound card in the computer. For entire movements or works, I recommend the students purchase a recorded anthology.

A question that must be answered by both the individual and the institution developing a web-based course deals with copyright permissions. The "fair use" section of the copyright law is subject to many interpretations regarding educational use. The problem is compounded by the fact that sound recordings and videos of musical performances actually have two copyrights, one for the composition and the other for the performance embodied in the recording. While the composition may be in public domain and copyright permission not needed, the performance embodied in the recording is copyright protected. Seeking permission for educational use on a web page or in a self-created anthology is a difficult process and is best left to someone who specializes in obtaining copyright permissions of this type. Each institution should make arrangements with a firm that specializes in music copyright permissions in order to release the faculty member from this tedious process.