Riffing on course redesign: Leveraging pedagogy for teaching music online

Abstract

In this article, I riff on redesigning music education for online delivery from the perspective of an ethnomusicologist and teacher working as an educational developer during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia. I explore how the affordances and limitations of remote learning and online technologies impacted the pedagogical approaches I use to design music courses in tertiary education. Issues such as the applicability of curriculum to students’ working life and active learning have become pertinent to teaching and learning scholarship over the last two decades. Over the last year, these issues were placed under further scrutiny, and calls have accelerated for re-examining strategies that build foundational skills and embrace more active learning design. For music teaching, this poses a unique opportunity to make courses more relevant to our students and create improved social outcomes for music education. However, adapting courses also presents a significant challenge in converting pedagogy to be sustainable in the current tertiary education sector. I reflect on educational developments that can enhance university music teaching through the benefits of technology and pedagogy that improve student learning. © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2021