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ACA Music Virtual Center
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THE EVOLUTION OF THE ONLINE STUDY GUIDESDr. Michael Veech, Ph.D.IntroductionExplanation: The documents to the left are study guides and notes for Brass Techniques classes, coordinated with assigned readings in Scott Whitener's, A Complete Guide to Brass and William Dietz, Teaching Woodwinds (available through Thompson Learning). You may copy and adapt these study guides for similar classes (see Chapter 1 Read me First for directions given to the class).History: I joined the faculty at Kentucky Christian College in the fall of 1998. That semester I was to teach Brass Techniques. The spring semester was Woodwind Techniques. The techniques classes at KCC are set up on an every other year rotation. All of the techniques classes are scheduled to meet twice a week for 50 minutes for one (1) hour of credit per semester.In those first semesters I arranged the class so that we spent one period in lecture going over the material in the text, answering questions, etc., and the other class period in actually learning to play the instruments. The students were to learn two instruments in each family: one from the beginning of the semester through midterm and the second from midterm to the end of the semester.At the end of that first year, I was frustrated by the fact that there was not enough time spent on actually playing the instruments. Students did the best they could in the time available, yet it wasn't enough. They still needed the text information, but the schedule would not allow any additional class meetings. What to do? I then got the idea to transfer the lecture portion of the course to an online setup. I changed texts for the course (I now use the techniques books published by Schirmer Books: Teaching Woodwinds, edited by William Dietz and A Complete Guide to Brass by Scott Whitener. Both these texts are very thorough.) and wrote study guides (SG) for each chapter. I then posted these SGs on my web page. Students could then download the SGs, respond to the questions using their textbooks, and return the completed SGs to me to be graded all via the Internet. Any questions related to the SGs or the course in general were to be emailed to the class as a whole (I set up an email list for this purpose). Additionally, I communicated information of general interest to the class via emails. I put this plan into effect when these courses came back around in the rotation, which was fall 2000.The results of this experiment have been very positive. By transferring the lecture portion to the Internet, I gained one full class period of actually playing the instruments. With this additional "hands on" time, I feel that the students have a better understanding of the demands of each instrument. This is particularly important for our students as our music education degree requires an "all music-all grades" emphasis, and the majority of our students now are vocalists with little or no experience with instrumental music. Students were free to work on and submit their SGs at any time before the due date (I did receive some SGs time stamped after midnight). I set up due dates and "late charges" based upon time of day rather than class periods. For example, an SG assigned for that week was due by 5pm Friday. SGs received between 5pm Friday and midnight Saturday (a 7 hour window) were lowered half a letter grade.I will be continuing this format with the other technique courses I teach. If I can answer any questions about this, or provide any additional information, please do not hesitate to contact me.Michael Veech, Ph.D.Coordinator for Music Education and Instrumental StudiesKentucky Christian College
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Brass Techniques