After spending hours writing my first three online theory courses as a way to continue to teach as I moved across the country I was exhausted and I hoped the students would get as much out of the new courses as I did creating them. However although grades remained high for those in the classes what I learned over the course of the next few years, as I navigated online teaching/learning with the students, was that Mom and Dad still had to do a fare amount of prodding to get the kids to go do their theory lessons and homework. They didn’t have to drop them off at class anymore, but they did have to follow up regularly to get them to go do their coursework. I couldn’t help but think there must be a better way. My pie in the sky plan would have been a serious game that incorporated theory concepts, similar to the typing game my kids played when they were young. The boys had a blast, they would go back to it without prompting, ask to go play it. Couldn’t theory be the same? Well not on my shoestring budget it couldn’t.
If you know anything about music theory you know it can be about as exciting as watching paint dry, especially for middle and high school students and that’s where my learners fall. So I’m off on a project of learning and revising to increase engagement in hopes of someday getting to that magic place where the learners are engaging voluntarily and enjoying the new concepts they are learning as they prepare for their exams.
I found it interesting that in Grab Learner Attention with Your Course Content some of the things Laura Lynch tied effective engagement to were storytelling, problems and controversy, use of creative visuals, and asking questions. Someday I hope to incorporate these concepts in my project to turn my music theory courses into a larger story with challenges along the way. After all, my target market is middle-high school learners and that’s a natural place for many of them to be. The first step is adding some gamification and videos, then I’ll take it from there. Someday, just someday, I hope to make to what I saw years ago as a pie in the sky project, a reality. A truly engaging quest with learning music theory concepts not only as a means to the end of a good grade on the final exam, but also as a welcome challenge to solve the riddle, complete the challenge, or overcome the controversy, through the story that drives the learner into a world where they can learn theory concepts in an engaging way!
March 15, 2018