Browsing by Author "Brooks, Elina"

The aim of this thesis is to survey the experiences of Helsinki University students’ web- based musical studies. The goal is to find out if the web-based concept works in music studies, that traditionally are directed by a teacher, who gives feedback, personalized assignments and corrects student performance. On the other hand instruments have been learned to play by copying and independent studies. Though, even then, meeting with other artists that play the same instrument have been an important and inspiring factor. In recent years there has been a lot of web-based study and teaching material alongside traditional music education. For example, through YouTube many educational videos for specific skills are available for all. Alongside YouTube and other similar web-sites entire music education learning environments are starting to emerge. I have examined a Finnish web-based music school, Rockway. The goal has been to survey what sort of experiences students had involving the teaching material, user friendliness and quality of teaching. When compared to traditional contact teaching the largest difference has been the lack of direct feedback. Is it possible to assess ones own performance, for exam- ple has a song been played right, or how are students finger position or playing mistakes noticed and corrected? The second subject of study has been to find out how Rockway web-learning environment works as part of other studies or as a sole form of independent musical studies. Methods. Seven behavioral science students participated in the pilot survey. They participated by filling an e-survey that I had created. I have presented the pilot surveys results quantitatively with frequency charts, which the open answer descriptions reinforce. Results and conclusions. The students where relatively satisfied with the web-learning service. They felt that Rockway page was easy to use and that they improved in their instrumental mastery and were given tools to assess their own musical skills. However a portion of students emphasized that web-based studying can never fully replace contact teaching.