The Writers Gateway

Last weekend, we had an interesting online session for the members of Instructional Designers Community of India. During the session, Abhijit Patronobis of Monad Interactive demonstrated an e-learning module on music called Anandadhara. It was a very engaging session and it was interesting to see how music was taught to people using an asynchronous blended learning approach way back in 2003 when e-learning technology was not so well known in India.

About Anandadhara

Anandadhara was a training program on Rabindra Sangeet. This is Indian music, specifically bengali music. The objective of the training program was to teach songs of Rabindranath Tagore. Anandadhara was designed in such a way that people could learn Tagore’s songs at their own convinience with the assistance of experts.

As Abhijit says, “Most Bengali know about 50 to 200 rabindra sangeet (without even ‘learning’ them formally). Almost every Bengali in the age group of 30+ love singing Rabindra sangeet for the sheer pleasure of it, only a handful of them would learn though. There are various reasons, they either dont want to learn or they dont have the time to learn.  Thats because we need to prioritize our needs. So  someone who studies in a college or works full time, will not find a teacher available at that hour when he finishes his studies/work (although he may have an interest to learn and there may be plenty of teachers around).

Anandadhara gave  people a chance to learn at their own flexible pace, under the guidance of the best teachers, any time, without having to go anywhere. and that too without having to buy instruments and learning to play them. They could perform any where without any live accompanist. These are some of the benefits that made us popular. The features like listening and looping through lines, the practice mode, the audio clips for pronunciations, the info for explaining the song — these are rich features that one does not get in a face to face class these days. Why? because the teacher does not have the time (and also the capabilities to explain).”

Anandadhara Training Approach

The training approach used was as follows:

• The learner downloads the e-learning module  onto their system.
• The learner listens and practices the songs on their own.
• The learner then records the song in his/own voice and sends the song in mp3 format via e-mail to the teacher.
• The teacher gives feedback and suggestions in mp3 format and sends it to the learner via e-mail.

This way people across the globe could be a part of this training program on music.

Here is a snapshot of the e-learning module on Rabindra Sangeet:

You can download the actual e-learning module here. You can also download the recording of the session on Anandadhara here.

My Thoughts

Today technology has advanced and there are a variety of ways in which you can design and deliver your training. So what options do you have today to deliver training on music:

1. Synchronous virtual classrooms: Using web conferencing tools like Webex, Skype and Adobe Connect, teachers can connect with the learner real time on the internet and conduct music classes.
2. Immersive Internet : In a 3D immersive online virtual environment as found in Second Life,  you can form a live band and the experience of  learning and playing music could be very similar to what you would find in real life.

What other technology options can you think of to teach music online? One other question that comes to my mind now is can online training can be applied to visual arts such as painting and drawing?

Please share your thoughts and views in the comments section.