Creating On-line Music Theory Assignments with

Musica Analytica

Elvin S. Rodriguez, Ed.D.La Sierra University

erodrigu@lasierra.edu

Issues Related to the Teaching Music Theory

Increased demand for teacher time from a more commonly unprepared student populationThe need for one-on-one student help with homework and other projectsThe need to bring in diverse multimedia examples to showcase other musical systemsBetter management of student’s progress and learning neededGrading help

How Can Technology Help

Provide a more efficient use of teacher’s timeAssist students in the learning of music theoryAssist the students WHILE they work on assignmentsProvide data to help teachers design more focused lesson plans

Musica Analytica Software

Musica Analytica is a ‘smart’ music theory environmentMusica Analytica covers a wide range of concepts and supports them with context-sensitive interactive musical helpSupport from Fundamentals to common practice part writing and voice leading analysis treatmentChord progression analysisComplete management of student progress and work habits

Outcomes Expected for Students

Results for StudentsStudents can check and evaluate as they workStudent anxiety level is reducedStudents acquire confidence as they CAN turn in work that they know is correctUsing the built-in editor, students tend to experiment more and then check their work for correct treatmentTest scores show a marked improvement for students using Musica Analytica

The Comparison:School Setting Musica

AnalyticaTeacher creates assignmentTeacher assigns homeworkStudents collect and work on homeworkStudents don’t always know how they are doing (Anxiety begins)

Students turn in homework (Anxiety builds) Teacher corrects homework (Anxiety builds even more) Teacher returns homework (Anxiety climax) Students find out how they did (Anxiety goes away or INTENSIFIES!)

Teacher creates assignment on-lineTeacher assigns homeworkStudents check out and work on homeworkStudents check their homework as they workStudents check-in homework knowing how they didTeacher collects homework and finalizes grade

Musica Analytica

The Basics

The Cycle

Create and SaveStudents Checkout and WorkStudents Check in/MA GradesTeachers Review & Give Final Grade

Creating Basics

FramesNote EntryConversion Tool Management

Frames

The Basics Palette contains all the frame types you might need for your preparation.

MA provides MUSIC, TEXT, GRAPHICS, SOUND, MOVIE, AND Q&A frames

Note Entry

There are three basic note entry palettes:

The Notes paletteRests paletteStaff palette

Conversion Tool

Once you have created a music frame, you can convert it to an assignment/test by using the built-in conversion tools of the Convert To menu

Management Tools

Once students turn in their assignments, teachers can check students’ progress using the reports in the Management menu

Let’s Try

We will be building two assignments; one with fundamentals, and one with more advanced analysis…