Finnish Classroom Teacher Students' Experiences of an Online Music Course During The COVID pandemic

Abstract

When studying music, skills are often practised with a teacher, face-to-face, in a classroom. What are the experiences of classroom teacher trainees when music teaching becomes asynchronous, i.e., an individually completed online course? This question, among other things, was explored at a Finnish University's Teacher Education Department in autumn 2020, resulting in the production of a two-credit online music course on the Moodle learning environment. It was implemented for the first time during the summer term in 2021. The students’ experiences with the functionality of the e-learning module were analysed through data-driven content analysis. The study represents an intensive case study using students' (n=6) learning diaries as data.

According to the results, the structure of the course and the materials created on the online platform were considered successful. It provided meaningful experiences of skill development, self-efficacy and the joy of learning. The e-learning course shaped students' perceptions of lifelong learning and their reflections also resulted in music pedagogical skills that strengthened their professional competence. Increasing the number of interactive tasks and developing statistics to monitor task performance were identified as areas for improvement. A common characteristic of the students was their motivation to study online and their ability to work in a self-directed way.