The Class Web Page as an Evolving Resource

Patricia Gray
Rhodes College Music Department

 

Abstract
This presentation will show how class web pages can be used a repositories for basic information as well as for interactive exercises and evolving, multi-semester class projects. It will also demonstrate how projects written in HTML can be transferred to CD-ROM, thus circumventing the need for standalone multimedia products.These CD-ROMs can also make class Web materials available to students when they do not have access to the Internet.

Introduction
Rhodes College has an enrollment of approximately 1500 students. The student body is largely residential. All dormitory rooms are wired and computer labs are well-equipped and easily available. Rhodes classes are small, averaging fewer than 12 students per class. The music department at Rhodes College offers a number of music history courses designed for both the major and the non-major. Among these are courses in the History of Opera, Nationalism in Music, Music in Eastern Europe and Russia, and a survey of music history with enrollment limited to music majors in and minors. In 1995, I created class web pages for each of these classes. At first, I used these pages to post copies of the syllabus, general class information, and copies of student writing. In subsequent semesters I added daily assignments sheets, book lists, listening lists, maps, timelines, and individual student projects. It became apparent very early that the class web page did not become obsolete at the end of the semester. Rather it took on a life of its own and served as a work in progress to be continued by new students each semester.

Community Projects
Whenever possible I try to connect the subject matter in the classroom to its application in the outside world. Rhodes College is fortunate to have a close working relationship with Opera Memphis. In the fall of 1995, we began a joint project that has proven to be valuable to both institutions. I administer the Opera Memphis web site (http://gray.music.rhodes.edu/operahtmls/opera.html) on my server. In turn, Opera Memphis allows the History of Opera students be closely involved with its productions. Our first project was an online documentary of the building of a production of Rigoletto. It included basic information about the opera, interviews with singers, business managers, board members, and other opera personnel, an article by the local music critic, and student reviews of the performance. It was illustrated with rehearsal pictures taken by a class member. One particularly dedicated student went to rehearsals every night for two weeks so she could actually be in the production. The result was that the students had a sense of personal involvement with the opera and a much fuller appreciation for the problems faced by local arts organizations.

In the fall of 1997 the class produced The Butterfly Project subsequent to the Opera Memphis production of Madama Butterfly. This project was similar to the first one but focused more on the history of the opera, its composer, and the singers who have performed it over the years. With the help of JavaScript this project was able to introduce more interactivity by including several online quizzes. The URL for The Butterfly Project is: http://gray.music.rhodes.edu/musichtmls/bf.html

Another project that tied a class web page to activity in the community was a presentation about St. John Orthodox Church. In the Music in Eastern Europe and Russia course students listen to music from the early Orthodox tradition in Russia. Happily, there is a Russian Orthodox congregation within three blocks of the college. In the spring of 1996 the class attended a Vesper service. Three class members later interviewed the priest, scanned pictures of the icons in the sanctuary, and extracted sound clips of chant for inclusion on the page. The URL for this project is linked off of the main class page at: http://gray.music.rhodes.edu/musichtmls/music120.html

Both of these projects have the advantage of directly connecting class subject matter with the community. In both cases, the students work has been of demonstrable value to the organization.

Online Quizzes
Because Rhodes classes are small extensive online testing is a low priority at this time. However, short answer quizzes do help students review for tests. At first, I used Digital Chisel software to create quizzes with multiple choice, matching, and fill in the blank questions. Students accessed from a campus fileserver. Course evaluations showed that student reaction to these quizzes was overwhelmingly positive.

The next step was to create quizzes online so anyone on the Internet could use them, not just students with access to the Rhodes webserver. I created these online quizzes in JavaScript because it could be incorporated into the HTML code without requiring the use of a separate application. These quizzes contain hint windows which appear when a wrong answer is entered. The student 's accumulated points are reported after each answer. An example is the Music after 1870: Part 1 Quiz at: http://gray.music.rhodes.edu/musichtmls/MHTests/19th1.html

Student Projects
One of the most attractive features of the class web page is the opportunity it gives students to design and publish their own projects. In a time when it is important to consider some alternatives to the traditional lecture format in class, these individual web projects provide a new and intriguing kind of class activity. Some of these projects are particularly good examples of student originality.

Sound Dictionary of Russian Musical Terms
One of the things that is intimidating to student in music classes is the pronunciation of quite a number of foreign names and terms. In the fall of 1997, a student in the Nationalism in Music Class created a list of frequently used names and terms. She had friend who was a Russian exchange student who was will to make the sound files of the correct pronunciations to be attached to the dictionary entries. In the following semester two students in the Musical Heritage of Eastern Europe and Russia class used the dictionary as a starting place and added more terms and sound clips as well as annotations and graphics. In this way, the resource the product of two classes and students again have the realization that their class work does not exist in a vacuum.

A Tour of the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation
The first subject covered at the beginning of the Musical Heritage of Eastern Europe and Russia course is the musical tradition of the Orthodox church. One of the member of the class in the spring of 1998 was a member of a local congregation. We took the entire class to visit the sanctuary and meet a retired priest who explained many facets of Orthodoxy. The student summarized his address. Later she and another student went back to take pictures to illustrate the text. She wanted to take a "virtual" tour of the sanctuary so we used freeware available from http://quicktime.apple.com to create Virtual Reality files from pictures of the sanctuary and embed these into her paper.

The Trans-Siberian Railroad Journery
A student in the spring of 1998 entered the class shortly after having taken a journey across Russia on the train. During his trip he took extensive notes, made pictures and recorded interviews with people he met along the way. Some of his recordings included music that he encountered in the far reaches of Siberia. He designed a project that begins with a map of Russia containing an animated line tracing his route. At each stage the reader can link to his narration, to sound clips, to pictures and to his translation of the Russian interviews.

CD-ROM
In an effort to make digital class materials ever easier to access we have begun the process of using CD-ROMs to record the content of class web pages. These will enable students to have class materials available when they are not at a networked computer. Creating CD-ROMs is now relatively inexpensive. One $5 disk can contain 650MB of information. This provides a relatively large palette on which to work. The CD-ROM should contain the following:

1. A copy of Netscape or other browser
2. A folder containing all the HTML and related files
3. Any necessary helper applications or plug-ins

Netscape does not have to be connected to the Internet to read the HTML files on the CD-ROM. Obviously, the browser on the isolated CD-ROM cannot connect to any external links that may exist on the pages. However, this limitation does not take away from the chief purpose of the disk which is to store information that has been created for a specific class.

Another use of the CD-ROM technology is to house large student multimedia projects. Music projects are particularly suited to this treatment. A carefully produced CD-ROM can serve as a kind of portfolio of the student's work. A Rhodes senior, a double major in Classics and Music created a project dealing with the use of Classical literature in Baroque opera. In the fall of 1997, he wrote a 40-page paper in the traditional format. During the following semester he put the text into HTML and enhanced it with pictures, sound files, translations of the text from the original Greek, and additional annotations to text. During the course of the year he created a chorus of sixteen singers who performed some of the choruses from the selected operas. We made DAT recordings of these selections and attached them to his paper. In this way, the original paper came to life.

Conclusion
One wonderful part of the class web page experience is the way new and exciting ideas come, frequently unbeckoned, from class members and the outside world. Each semester has eventually included a project that I did not even know was possible at the beginning of the semester. Obviously, both students and professors relish the experience following, "Wouldn't it great if we create Project X!. Hmmm. OK, let's figure out how to get it done." This atmosphere has created a sense of community and team work that was never possible in the lecture-only format. Another gratifying development is the sense of creating projects that are immediately of use to others around the world and that will continue to grow and thrive long after the final exam is taken.

2/18/98