Behind The Scenes With MOOCs: Berklee College Of Music’s .

See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication 286Behind the Scenes with MOOCs:Berklee College of Music’s ExperienceDeveloping, Running, and EvaluatingCourses.Article in The Journal of Continuing Higher Education · January 2013CITATIONSREADS2152 authors, including:Alexis PerrierDocent Health7 PUBLICATIONS 12 CITATIONSSEE PROFILESome of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:Modal analysis of a Korean bell View projectAll content following this page was uploaded by Alexis Perrier on 18 March 2015.The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

Behind the Scenes withMOOCs:Berklee College of Music’sExperience Developing,Running, and EvaluatingCourses through CourseraCarin NuernbergAlex PerrierBERKLEE COLLEGE OF MUSICOhigher learning, Berklee College of Music. Key in Berklee’sdecision to join Coursera was the opportunity to provide freecators and institutions.Berklee launched four courses on Coursera in spring 2013, theSongwriting and Introduction to Music Production, beganSoftware Developer for Berklee Online, Berklee College of Music, Boston, MA136CONTINUING HIGHER EDUCATION REVIEW, Vol. 77, 2013

BERKLEE COLLEGE OF MUSIC’courses (MOOCs).ADDIE MINUS THE “AD–”developers), a video producer, an interaction developer, a copy editor, awith developing topical outlines for the courses in advance of the videoTHE VIDEO IS THE MESSAGECONTINUING HIGHER EDUCATION REVIEW, Vol. 77, 2013137

BERKLEE COLLEGE OF MUSICstudents’ concentration would be on the teacher and not on any distractingto an individual student.In a typical Berklee Online course project, the course developer’s indeveloper reviewed footage and provided annotations with correspondThe rationale for this was that if the content was not in the video, studentsrubrics, and other supporting content. Because we were launching theA NOTE ON DESIGNSongwritingSongwriting, Professor Pat Pattison presented new tools each week to helpstudents write effective songs. Students would then apply these tools in a138CONTINUING HIGHER EDUCATION REVIEW, Vol. 77, 2013

BERKLEE COLLEGE OF MUSICIntroduction to Music Production asked stuics. Professor Loudon Stearns felt strongly that it would be challenging forset of criteria week to week.In Songwriting,cal feedback, etc. In Music Production,RUNNING THE COURSESBy March 1, Songwriting had registered about 65,000 students and Introduction to Music ProductionSongwritingand 85 percent in Music Production—ers of English. Major countries represented outside of the United StatesCONTINUING HIGHER EDUCATION REVIEW, Vol. 77, 2013139

BERKLEE COLLEGE OF MUSICrun of the courses, noticed a consistent pattern with respect to the weeklyrelease of each new lesson. Not unlike the lines at an Apple store when anew version of the iPhone is released, a core group of students awaited theavailable. These students were key to the courses’ success because theyrelease of a new lesson and then to pull back and check in daily afterwards.course. He also created a screen capture video directing students to the link.For Songwriting,the different lessons in the course.for each course provided an overview of what would be due when basedMusic Productionrecord short audio clips—lyrics, “oohs,” “aahs,” bass tones, percussiveSongwriting140CONTINUING HIGHER EDUCATION REVIEW, Vol. 77, 2013

BERKLEE COLLEGE OF MUSICstudents were not to judge each other’s vocal abilities, but rather use theMusic Production, thechallenges provided opportunities for students to engage with each otherAt the courses’ end, the course developers triggered the grading processEVALUATING THE FIRST RUNin each, which is consistent with other MOOCs. Then began the dialogue1CONTINUING HIGHER EDUCATION REVIEW, Vol. 77, 2013141

BERKLEE COLLEGE OF MUSICregistration catalogue at a traditional college. In that week,Introduction toMusic ProductionIntroduction toMusicProduction142All RegisteredWeek TwoViewersWeek TwoQuiz TakersStatement ,735Retention ntQuizzes .755.15Peer 39.87CONTINUING HIGHER EDUCATION REVIEW, Vol. 77, 2013

BERKLEE COLLEGE OF wersWeek TwoQuiz TakersStatement ,439Retentionrate5.16percent10.44percent20.96 percent100.00 percentQuizzestaken4.038.5416.431.35Submitted 9.9630.33Videos16.0235.6147.8386.64Figure 1: Overall activity for the population of registered students—assignCONTINUING HIGHER EDUCATION REVIEW, Vol. 77, 2013143

BERKLEE COLLEGE OF MUSIClustrates. The data showed periodic spikes in activity in Songwriting afterProfessor Pattison encouraged students to work on together.144CONTINUING HIGHER EDUCATION REVIEW, Vol. 77, 2013

BERKLEE COLLEGE OF MUSICMusic ProductionIn SongwritingCONTINUING HIGHER EDUCATION REVIEW, Vol. 77, 2013145

BERKLEE COLLEGE OF MUSICFigure 4: Peer review grade spread 2Songwritingand about 1,300 for Introduction to Music Production.”The teacher was whatstudents liked best, by far. Many students answered along the lines of “PatIn Music Production, words and phrases like “practical” and “depth of the146CONTINUING HIGHER EDUCATION REVIEW, Vol. 77, 2013

BERKLEE COLLEGE OF MUSICSongwritingIntroduction to Music ProductionSongwriting students was peer reviewing. The feedback focused on thesuch as not understanding the concepts taught in the course or not beingnative English speakers and, therefore, unable to understand what waspresented in a song.CONTINUING HIGHER EDUCATION REVIEW, Vol. 77, 2013147

BERKLEE COLLEGE OF MUSICSongwritingIntroduction to Music Production students liked the nature of the assignIntroduction to Music Production148CONTINUING HIGHER EDUCATION REVIEW, Vol. 77, 2013

BERKLEE COLLEGE OF MUSICLOOKING AHEADSongwriting and Introduction to Music Production, Berklee has offered two other MOOCS through Coursera, an introduction toperiodically throughout the year.,Online.ENDNOTESopen online courses: In depth. Educause Review. http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/Huffington Post. March 2, 2013.Proceedings of theThird International Conference on Learning Analytics and KnowledgeNY, USA: rcent range of students’ grades. Finally, the dots are statistical outliers, i.e., the lowestgrades that concern few students.CONTINUING HIGHER EDUCATION REVIEW, Vol. 77, 2013View publication stats149

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