"Interactive, online education is an avenue that can impact instruction quickly and can reach a lot of people simultaneously all over the world."
Berkleemusic.com - An Integrated Online Presence
by John Kuzmich, Jr.
"Interactive, online education is an avenue that can impact instruction quickly and can reach a lot of people simultaneously all over the world."
Innovative far beyond the traditional classroom, the Berkleemusic.com web site now offers new and exciting instruction via the Internet. This unique site includes online classes running from 3 to 12 weeks with a Berklee faculty member. Scheduled in an asynchronous manner, students can participate in each week's agenda on their own personal schedule rather than at a specific class time. A whole new set of dynamics accompanies these online classes, including discussion boards for posting interaction between students and teachers, "live" chatting, and tutorial instruction.
Fourteen courses are currently available in the areas of music business, performance, music production, writing, and music education. Each carries on the long tradition of excellence developed by the College since its inception in 1945 and utilizes innovative curriculum design and the Berklee Press publications. Berkleemusic.com does not offer online courses for college credit, however, students who successfully complete their online courses can receive course-completion certificates.
Online Interactive Education
No question about it, the Internet is changing how we live in the 21st century, how we communicate, and how we share information. Interactive, online education is an avenue that can impact instruction quickly and can reach a lot of people simultaneously all over the world. With it, teachers can present the latest instructional materials because it is faster to produce web instruction than publish books, and the materials can be modified quickly and easily.
Berklee College of Music has offered an impressive series of contemporary classes with interactive ingredients on the Internet since October 2002. My guess is that Berkleemusic.com innovations can effectively change how music educators update their expertise, both in the United States and internationally. Berkleemusic.com is the first online music school, job site, and networking destination for the music industry. The site is the only place where music education and career development are seamlessly combined to give musicians, music educators, and music industry professionals around the world instant access to quality classes, jobs, talents, ideas, tools, connections, and opportunities available in music.
Students, music educators, and working adults in the community can quickly receive instruction from successful musicians and College faculty members. The site offers an "anytime, anywhere" educational experience, meaning students can log in to their classes at any time during the week to retrieve lessons and assignments, upload homework, participate in discussions, or chat with classmates and instructors. Participating in class discussions and completing assignments generally requires two or three hours per week. As a rule, students should anticipate at least two hours of off-line work for every hour of online instruction and participation. Berkleemusic.com runs multiple sections of its courses during a six-semester annual calendar.
Getting Started
Students select the online course(s) they want and enroll online. Once enrolled, students receive their own home page - a personal portal to Berklee's vast online community. Students can use their page to share information about themselves, track course progress and assignments, and join in discussions. Each week, instructors post new lessons. Students can log on and work on the material anytime within that week.
The lessons are media-rich and filled with fun, interactive learning activities. Projects and assignments provide practical, real-world experience as students move through the course. As the class progresses, students form a community with their classmates and teacher. Students can share ideas, collaborate on assignments, submit and critique each other's projects, and chat in real-time 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Berkleemusic.com instructors are recognized experts in contemporary music education. For example, one of the technology courses was authored/created by David Mash, Vice President for Information Technology at Berklee College of Music. He is a well-known author of nine music technology books and a long-recognized elite expert and pioneer of music technology. Other online instructors at Berklee include Pat Pattison, author, clinician, and Berklee Professor of Lyric Writing and Poetry; Jonathan Feist, editor of over 30 books and a Finale user since the music notation software was first introduced in the mid-1980s; and Mike Bierylo, who teaches Music Synthesis at Berklee and a desktop production online course.
Course Offerings
Tuition ranges from $295 to $795. The first classes offered include Music Production (Desktop Music Production, Pro Tools Basics: Setup and Recording, Pro Tools Digital Audio Editing, and Pro Tools MIDI Recording and Editing), Music Business (Promotion 101: Creating a Promo Kit that Works, Marketing Yourself in the Music Industry, and Accelerate Your Music Career), Writing (Finale Basics-Essential Techniques, Finale-Strategies for Speed and Style, Lyric Writing, and Songwriting Workshop), and Music Education (Music Theory 101). Over the next few years, dozens of new classes will be added in music production, music business, songwriting, music education, and performance.
Sample Course Review
To get a better feel for the Berkleemusic.com online courses, I enrolled as an auditor in the Finale Basics-Essential Techniques class to see what was involved. The course description read as follows: "Create great-looking music quickly and easily with powerful Finale music notation software. Tuition: $495. Duration: 6 weeks."
The web site itself was well organized and attractive. The help section was handy when I needed assistance. and it also connected me to customer service via e-mail. The course introductions were organized in 11 topics with appropriate subheadings that made the instruction easy to follow. The syllabus really focused on the contents and expectations of the class. I wished I had possessed a copy of it when I first learned Finale many years ago.
What a pleasant surprise it was to experience 13 step-by-step beginners' lessons on Finale 2003, all in a very no-nonsense manner. The small increments between lessons made for smooth transitions. Because the class was organized on a weekly schedule, I knew exactly what needed to be accomplished each week and had flexibility doing the readings and assignments.
The assignments were definitely clear and realistic for the needs of learning Finale. The discussion-board section was lively, with specific comments from the teacher about questions on assignments. Students also critiqued each other's assignments with much vigor and interest. I liked how the students were very supportive and positive to each other; and together with the teacher's input, students appeared to be benefiting a lot from this interactive environment. The online chat room was used for "live" discussions with members of the class and the teacher, and the teacher had regular weekly office hours for both online and phone inquiries. The textbook by Tom Rudolph was outstanding and included 750 pages of instruction. (See my review of this definitive text in the January/February 2003 JEJ.) I also liked how I could bookmark places on the web site for quick and easy future reference.
The learning expectations by the end of the course were similarly outstanding and can be summarized as follows:
Bonus Benefit: PassportTM To Career Growth
Berkleemusic.com also offers a unique resource for musicians and music educators intent on raising their professional profiles and career prospects. Berkleemusic.com PassportsTM are special, annual site memberships costing $49 per year that allow Passport holders exclusive access to job and gig postings, career resources, and a growing network of musicians and industry professionals looking to hire. Passport membership on Berkleemusic.com also includes:
Closing Comments
Music education is an exciting field of endeavor in the 21st century because it comprises a rich history of instruction based on the music of the masters. It can also involve the latest technology developments and instructional techniques from the popular music of contemporary society along with the music business world. Classroom teachers can utilize this mix and benefit their students, adults in their community, and themselves.
Because of its diversity, it is not always easy for music education to be current with the music of today. This is especially true when popular music is often not traditionally covered in any depth in four-year undergraduate and graduate-level degree programs. The Internet may well be the next frontier where music education can significantly evolve and excel in its future development and growth. Berkleemusic.com may well be the beginning of this next frontier for students and music education in mass worldwide. I particularly like its open-ended architecture that allows enrollment based on genuine interest, regardless of age or prerequisites.
In closing, I invite you to visit Berkleemusic.com and investigate how you can best improve professional growth in education and career development. You will not be disappointed with Berklee's online curriculum.
Publishers and manufacturers who have innovative products with jazz education applications for possible review in the Watch Out! column are encouraged to contact John Kuzmich, Jr. at 13888 W. 3rd Place, Golden, CO 80401 USA, or visit his web site.