Curso online sobre a História do Rock

Aproveite as férias para fazer um binge watching de video-aulas sobre a história do rock.

Participei nesses últimos meses de um curso online sobre a História do Rock, com o professor John Covach, da Universidade de Rochester.

Já tinha feito alguns antes deste, mas ainda acho difícil acompanhar porque acabo perdendo o interesse nas aulas. Talvez esse esquema de aulas online seja confortável e disponível demais para o meu nível de disciplina. Por isso optei pelo de História do Rock, para pegar ritmo (com o perdão do trocadilho). Se eu não acompanhasse esse, era para desistir mesmo.

Fiquei um tempo sem acreditar que estava diante de um professor, um senhor já, de uma respeitável universidade americana, explicando assuntos como Motown, Led Zepellin e Beatles. É uma sensação nova, essa de assistir uma aula que interessa muito. Sim, já tive aulas interessantes, mas pô, aula sobre “Sly Stone and The Rise of Funk”, “Rockabilly and The Wake of Elvis” ou “Blaxploitation Soundtracks” é novo pra mim.

O próximo curso quero fazer in loco. Olha que Universidade linda.

E novo também para o próprio John Covach, que me enviou ontem por email um ensaio sobre a experiência de dar aula online, já que foi o primeiro a falar para o mundo pela Universidade de Rochester.

Para ler o ensaio, em inglês, basta rolar a página

Se você quiser ter um gostinho das aulas, você pode assistir muitos e muitos videos no player abaixo ou aqui. Dá para hibernar com esse material. Clique em “playlist” para ver o cardápio musical.

To MOOC or Not To MOOC?John Covach

NOTE: The examples for the (text-only) PDF version of this item are available online at:http://www.mtosmt.org/issues/mto.13.19.3/mto.13.19.3.covach.phpKEYWORDS: MOOC, online course, distance learning, Rock music, music history, CourseraReceived August 2013

1 of 6breaking up the week’s lectures into a series of shorter videos. Correspondingly, within each week of my courses there areseveral lectures, each ranging from about five minutes up to fifteen minutes in length, making a total of about ninety minutesof lecture each week. Students can either stream the videos from the Coursera site or download the videos for later viewingoffline. Coursera also suggests putting a quick quiz at the end of each of these videos, and perhaps one in the middle as well.I decided to use these quizzes as an opportunity to review the main points of each video rather than test details from thelecture.

John CovachUniversity of RochesterDepartment of MusicPO Box 270052Rochester, NY [email protected] CitedBerg, Gary A. 2005. “History of Correspondence Instruction.” In Encyclopedia of Distance Learning, Volume 2, ed. CarolineHoward et al., 1006–11.Kolowich, Steve. 2013a. “As MOOC Debate Simmers at San Jose State, American U. Calls a Halt.” The Chronicle of HigherEducation, May 9. http://chronicle.com/article/As-MOOC-Debate-Simmers-at-San/139147/.—————. 2013b. “The Minds Behind the MOOCs.” The Chronicle of Higher Education, August 14.http://chronicle.com/article/The-Professors-Behind-the-MOOC/137905/#id=overview.—————. 2013c. “Why Professors at San Jose State Won’t Use a Harvard Professor’s MOOC.” The Chronicle of HigherEducation, August 14. http://chronicle.com/article/Why-Professors-at-San-Jose/138941/.

Footnotes1. For a history of the correspondence course, see Berg 2005.Return to text2. For an introduction to MOOCs, see “What You Need To Know About MOOCs” in The Chronicle of Higher Education,http://chronicle.com/article/What-You-Need-to-Know-About/133475/.Return to text3. There are, of course, many shades of opinion between these two extremes. Kolowich 2013a gives some idea of howpassionate these debates can become.Return to text4. For more about Coursera, see the early notice of this for-profit company’s activities at http://www.marketwire.com/pressrelease/coursera-secures-16m-from-kleiner-perkins-caufield-byers-new-enterprise-associates-bring-1645322.htm.Return to text5. This is also true of most of the universities currently partnering with Coursera. The issue of whether or not such coursescan or will count for college credit is a lively one in academe. It is worth bearing in mind that MOOCs are only one kind ofonline course. Online courses with smaller enrollments can and have been used to substitute for regular college courses, asdid one I taught on rock music at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill over ten years ago. Many schools haveused online education effectively, including the University of Rochester, which offers non-MOOC courses in several of itsprofessional schools.4 of 6Return to text6. The quiz formatting is part of the Coursera software and cannot be replicated here. It is worth noting that students whodownload the videos for viewing later also cannot see these quizzes.Return to text7. Coursera subtitles all lectures in English, while also incorporating a function that slows the video down or speeds it up.The slow-down function, in conjunction with the subtitles, is often used by students for whom English not the primarylanguage; the speed-up function can be used to review lectures before exams.Return to text8. Instructors are able to adjust the numbers of times an exam can be taken, when the exams are due, and how much credit issubtracted for late submissions, as well as many other variables. They may also decide what percentage qualifies a student forthe certificates.Return to text9. Almost 43,000 enrolled in Part 1 with about 28,000 in Part 2. Some of those in Part 2 had been in Part 1, but many in Part2 were new to the course.Return to text10. The videos were edited by Will Graver, who was also in charge of the video shoots. Will had my notes and could thusinsert those points into the video. The pictures were researched by Eric Fredericksen, who also took care of much of theinteraction with Coursera and with technical online aspects of the course.Return to text11. The remarks that follow may be compared with those of others who have recently developed and taught MOOCs; seeKolowich 2013b.Return to text12. In one post a student explained that his method was to watch each video and stop every time I mentioned a song andlisten to it. I probably mention 100 or so songs a week!Return to text13. The following remarks are based on a voluntary survey that students of Part 1 were asked to complete (almost 8000responses). They are therefore not scientific and may only provide a rough profile of the dimensions discussed here.Return to text14. The three highest represented countries outside the US were Brazil, followed by Spain and India. The forum haddiscussion rooms for non-English speakers, and these included Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, and Chinese study groups,among others.Return to text15. I often employ approaches that combine multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank to make the questions demanding withoutbeing tricky.Return to text16. We have made the videos for both parts of the History of Rock available on the University of Rochester Institute forPopular Music website (http://www.rochester.edu/popmusic/courses/rock-history-pt-1.html). Colleagues are welcome touse them freely.Return to text17. This approach has been referred to as the “blended approach” and was part of a dispute at San Jose State University5 of 6regarding the use of MOOC videos from edX, an organization formed by Harvard and MIT (see Kolowich 2013a and2013c). Using MOOC videos in a blended course that enrolls less than 100 students is not a MOOC, and one can see howcategories of online education and resources can become confused and the debate become fractured.Return to textCopyright StatementCopyright © 2013 by the Society for Music Theory. All rights reserved.[1] Copyrights for individual items published in Music Theory Online (MTO) are held by their authors. Items appearing in MTOmay be saved and stored in electronic or paper form, and may be shared among individuals for purposes of scholarlyresearch or discussion, but may not be republished in any form, electronic or print, without prior, written permission fromthe author(s), and advance notification of the editors of MTO.

Updater: Wagner Brenner