This is the final discussion post for Mu 101 (Spring 2020). Usually the end of a course means taking a comprehensive exam to demonstrate what you’ve learned, but there are many ways besides taking an exam to show what you know. That’s what I’m asking you to do in this discussion, although in a different format than you may have done previously (I am still Dr. J., after all).

First, let’s recap

Since we switched to distance learning, here’s what has been assigned:

Participating in online discussions

Reading already listed on the syllabus

  • Cage “Lecture on Nothing”
  • Cook “The economics and business of music”
  • Forney 33-35, 150-155, 162-166, 276-281
  • Forney (2017) 167-169
  • Nettl 3-18
  • Titon 18-30
  • Yudkin 115-126, 139-144, 159-170, 213-218, 224-226, 245-253

Writing

Peer critique sessions

We’ve had two of these: Mar 16-22 and Apr 6-19. We’ll do the final one next week with everyone’s Writing Portfolios

Create exam questions

Based on everything you’ve done since March 16, imagine you wanted to make sure students in Mu 101 got something meaningful from this distance learning experience. In the comments below, I want to you pose questions that you think would assess what other students have learned in the past month-ish of distance learning. Does that sound like a challenging thing to do? It is! Here are a couple of framing questions to ask yourself to get started:

What matters? Of all of the activities you did for Mu 101 during our distance learning phase, which were the most important in terms of helping you learn? What did you learn by completing them? (Notice that I didn’t ask what facts you learned — instead I asked about the process of doing so!)

What was confusing or hard to learn? If we were going to take a traditional exam in Mu 101, what would you hope I wouldn’t ask on an exam?

What was unique or special? What happened in this distance learning class that could have only happened with this specific group of people participating? What did you learn directly from your classmates?

What was missing? What did you want to learn about that you didn’t get a chance to?

Answer those exam questions / Make them better!

If a classmate poses a question that really gets you thinking, try to answer it! There aren’t any points involved, so feel free to give a question a try, reword it so it makes more sense for you, or show why it might not be an effective exam question.

Final thoughts

When I teach the final class of the semester in person, I always tell my students a few things, and while this is a less personable format I do want to share them with all of you, too.

I hope that I have ruined your ears. I hope that you cannot listen to music in the same way you did before you stepped into our classroom in January. I hope that you have more of an understanding now of how musical sounds are made, how people create musical ideas, how other people listen to and think about music. I hope that even when you come across music you do not like that you can empathize with other people who do, that you can understand what they do like about it and see the value in their position.

I hope that you continue to listen broadly to the world around you. There is so much music out there, right now in this instant and across all of human history. I hope that we’ve touched upon enough musical names and ideas that you can go out and find more music online or in a concert hall in the future.

I hope that your sense of the world has changed — that the world is bigger than you thought, but that you also feel like you have the tools to make sense of new ideas, people, places, and ways of thinking.

I wish you the best in whatever comes next for you, in terms of your education at QCC and beyond, your careers, and your lives. music.drjones@gmail.com is forever, and I’m there (and this website is here) for anything that you might need — and I love to hear good news from my (former) students.

Stay well, be kind, and listen deeply.

-Dr. J.

64 thoughts on “Writing an exam for Mu 101 (Online discussion Apr 27-May 3)”

  2. Despite having taken music courses before, the content that was provided in this music course was still novel to me. Things like melodic contour or homophony and polyphony were perhaps just simply forgotten by me over the years, or they may have been entirely new to me altogether. I think it was most exciting that we got to see the professor play an instrument for us. Live performances comprise some of the best parts about music.

    I think I enjoyed this semester the live performance the most. What do you guys think? Did you enjoy the live performance from the professor? Which parts of the course did you have the most fun with?

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Hi Cardi! The live performance from the professor is definitely one to remember. I really enjoyed this semester.

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    2. Hey Cardi. Professor Jones’s performance was two thumbs up. The concert experience for writing number 4 was the most fun for me, but sadly not able to attend one. Overall the class was enjoyable.

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      1. The performance was sick and new to me because it was so intimate, You can’t attend one psychically Jennifer but you can attend one by just watching one. It reminds the topic of Musicking, on how it doesn’t matter if you don’t attend one or do attend one because you are contributing somehow, someway no matter what.

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    3. Good evening Cardi, my favorite part of the course (prior to online distancing) was the group activities we got to do together as a class. I think if it wasn’t for Dr Jones putting us in groups and doing different fun activities, the class dynamic would of been boring, and just another class you have to pass. I actually enjoyed getting to know my classmates, as well participating in discussions relevant to background, social status, culture and debunking stereotypes formed on the basis of genres of music. I especially enjoyed getting to listen to different music that came from many centuries and discussing how the music was affected by the time period.

      Liked by 1 person

    4. I agree, the professors performance was so much more intimate. There was a small group of us listening to the performance, unlike when you are in a concert. Where sometimes the music can be drowned out by the screams of the fans or you are so far away from the stage that you are hearing the music from speakers. I have never heard a flute in such close proximity, it was great!

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    5. Hey Cardi I think the best moments this semester before online classes was all of our group work. Every activity we did so unique and different I loved our group activities

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    6. Hey Cardi! I agree I enjoyed these things as well, this was my first time taking a music course, so it was a very nice experience!

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    7. My favorite part of the course would have to be the online discussions. While I don’t really enjoy interacting with other people, it was interesting reading the various articles relating to music. One of the articles in particular I enjoyed was the voyager one from last week. I was honestly never aware that NASA sent that golden record into space, so that was very fascinating to me.

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    8. Hi Cardi,

      Dr.J performance was definitely enjoyable. I enjoyed it and it was different to see a professor show off something they can do. Don’t see professors opening up about themselves, that’s like rarely.

      Like

  3. Good evening guys! since this is creating exam questions, here are a few questions I have come up with that you guys can try to answer ( you can answer one, or all)

    1) Which of the online discussion we have done so far did you enjoy the most, and why?
    2) what is the best advice you have gotten concerning a piece of writing from a peer critique?
    3) when recommending someone to music 101 what is one crucial advice you would give them?

    Liked by 2 people

    1. 1. The online discussion I enjoyed the most was the first one “music in the brain” it was very interesting to me how powerful music is. I even made a 6 minutes speech in my speech class about this topic due this online discussion.

      Liked by 1 person

    2. I recommend staying on top of everything through the use of to-do lists. It’s important to remember to respond to peoples’ comments every week!

      Liked by 2 people

    3. An online discussion I really enjoyed was the voyager because I’ve read about it and I got to read what my classmates thought about it.
      One crucial advice i would give them is be open. By that I mean be open to new ideas and to enjoy the class!

      Liked by 1 person

    4. ! the online discussion that I enjoyed the most was music and violence. I find it fascinating how music develops over time with war and with that anti-war music being made.

      Liked by 1 person

    5. Hey Widnie for your first question I think my favorite discussion was when we learned about remixes in music and what it truly means I love remixes and I finally got to know the true meaning.

      Liked by 1 person

  4. 3) when recommending someone to music 101 what is one crucial advice you would give them?
    TALK, CONTRIBUTE, GET OVER YOURSELF. Overall what I’m saying is just be a part of the class in someway and don’t be afraid to give your two cents in

    Liked by 4 people

  5. Hi, professor. I am very satisfaction for this semester .In this class I learned a lot about music.Weekly online discussions are very useful to me. Even if there is no teacher face-to-face, I can still learn something in the distance course. The only problem is that I ca n’t exchange views and discussions face-to-face with my classmates.

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  6. This class was not what I expected, and I didn’t have any expectations. I didn’t know what we would be doing in class. Would we listening to music and writing an interpretation or would we be reading about musicians and their contributions to music. I was unsure of what would take place. I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome of class. I enjoyed the class discussions, where we were separated into groups and collectively as a group had to come up with answers to our dilemmas and/or situations. My only conflict was peer critique. I wasn’t sure how I would feel about reading someones work and then having to critique it.

    How did everyone feel about reading other peoples work and critiquing what they read?

    Liked by 1 person

    1. yea I didn’t really feel good about critiquing other peoples work but some criticism helps someone become a better writer

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    2. I actually loved it! critiquing other peoples work for me helped me learn a lot about how to style and form some of my other writing pieces for music 101. Actually so many people gave me great ideas on how to improve my work, and the advice gave me insight on how I can improve my vocabulary, and even say things differently. It’s very easy to write a paper just for the sake of writing it, but when you truly seek actual criticism on your work to maybe become a better writer, critique from felloe classmates is A1 !

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  7. I really enjoyed this class, I was expecting to learn just about the boring stuff of music but I actually learned a lot more about music and I could listen too it differently now. also what was your favorite lesson guys? mine had to be voyager 2020 because I listened to all these music clips from different eras

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  8. Here is a couple of framing question to ask yourself to get started: A few that I have answered.
    And a couple of exam questions I`ve come up with.

    What matters？

    Out of all the activities we did during our distance learning, I would definitely say the critiques from the peer critique we had were important, because it made me realize the error of my writing, as well the good of it.

    Question: What did you gain from the critiques from the peer critiques?

    What was confusing or hard to learn?

    If we were going to take a traditional exam, I would hope not to write a brief explanation of why the correct answer is correct and the incorrect ones aren’t.

    Question: What did you not expect to learn in Music 101?

    What was unique or special?

    Honestly, it was pretty special to receive critiques from classmates. I`ve only received critiques from professors, but never from a student, I mean multiple students so that was quite different. And for the uniqueness of this distance learning, it would probably be not seeing my fellow classmates, breathing it the same air, but still, we were able to interact with one another through online discussions and peer critiques.

    Question: Was the peer critiques fairly new to you or have you done something similar?

    Like

    1. What did you not expect to learn from music 101?
      anything other than music I absolutely did not expect would be part of the curriculum. as another fellow classmate stated, I thought we where going to listen to music, maybe play some instruments, write on or two papers for the class and that was it. I actually did not expect to learn as much as I did either. Learning about how music affects all parts of history as well as present times is fascinating. If my eyes where never opened before they are now!

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    2. Hi Jennifer,
      The peer critique was actually new to me. Even though I didn’t submit anything for peer critique I liked being able to give my opinion and helping others improve their writing.

      Liked by 1 person

  9. What matters?
    The peers discussion is one of the things I considered most important for this distance learning class. We got the opportunity to engage with our classmates trough the writings and the feedbacks. The comments from my peers were very helpful. I guess I found this part of the class as a way to communicate more with each other Instead of just having emails back and forth with our professors like most online classes do. Dr. J have always finds new ways for us to engage with each other (Online discussions, the in-class discussion and the peers discussion) and I think that’s great because specifically now that we are isolated because of Covid19 we need somehow that human interaction.
    What was hard to learn?
    The class content was not very difficult but I would say it was a lot to read and the one thing i was confused about was how can i differentiate the sound between very similar instruments, like flute and the oboe, the violin and the viola.
    What was unique or special?
    I think the comments on the peers discussions gave me a lot of confidence about myself and my writing. English in not my first language but i think I’ve been improving my reading, writing and speaking skills every semester. However, whether i think I’m improving or not it is so such nicer and valuable when classmates comment something like… hey i think you’re doing great, happy to hear how much you have gained in just four years or good work on the writing!! All of thses comments meant a lot to me and I learned from each of them how I can get better at my writings and grammar. So Thank you Classmates!!
    What was missing?
    I think we were doing great in our in person classes, i miss the social interaction we couldn’t have for the past month and a half and I think we could have learn more about how to distinguish sounds and instruments if we were able to finish our semester normally.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. i agree on what really matters. The peers discussion is one of the things I consider the most.When receiving feed backs on writing everyone did everything in a respectful way to make sure I made my paper better.

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  10. Hello everyone! I honestly believed that this class was amazing compared to a lot of the ones I have taken before. Too bad we had to switch to distance learning because of the Corona virus. All the activities we did in class were very interesting and interactive. Out of all the things we have learned in Mu 101, I believe that the topic about musicologist was the most important. I may not know too much about music because of majoring in CS but I believe that for those people who want to pursue music should understand the basic thought processes of typical musicologists and what they look for. Maybe the exam could have question that give you a scenario where you are a musicologist and you are listening to a piece of music.

    Liked by 1 person

  11. 1.) You have entered a contest found on the back of a cereal box and won. The prize is, one day of hanging out with your favorite musical artist. Given your knowledge of music based on everything learned in MU101, how would you now describe your favorite piece of music by that artist to them compared to what you knew before taking MU101?

    2.) How has your constructive criticism on other students writing help you become a better writer?

    3.) Where is the best place to conduct the soundscape experiment? (please explain why the answer you chose is correct and why the others are incorrect) 10 points.
    A. Bedroom
    B. Busy intersection
    C. Anywhere
    D. Park

    4.) How has learning about music impact your life given the current situation happening outside our doors? Please explain.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Constructive criticism helped me to become a better writer because when people gave me advice and tips it helped me formulate new ideas to incorporate into my writing. Learning about music impacts my life given the current situation because now that I am indoors all the time I have way more free time and I have more opportunities to listen to music an I can just lay in my bed and put my speaker on blast.

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  12. 1 Has the way you listened to music changed? If it did, how?
    2 Has music made life easier due to the current situation? If so, how?
    (That’d be very interesting.)
    3. Did you learn anything about yourself that you didn’t before in this class?
    I did. I realized that listening to sad and soulful music isn’t as normal as I thought it was.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. 3 . Did you learn anything about yourself that you didn’t before in this class? yes I did learn something about myself and it is that you should really learn to extend your mind and think deeper.

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    2. 1. Yes it did. After attending this course, I become more alert on the structure, dynamics, and the instruments being used in the music.
      2. Current situation as in the pandemic? Music can make time go by fast, and a lot of people are trying to kill some time being quarantined at home.
      3. The thing that I learned about myself after attending this class was that I realized that I shouldn’t take anything for granted. For example, the life I have now was created by my past experiences. I like that part of it even though I didn’t like my past very much.

      Liked by 1 person

    3. lol to number 3. But to answer #2, music has actually made life easier since quarantine. I feel better when I’m listening to my fave songs, and I can relax and unwind from stress. It’s honestly really therapeutic for me, especially because I’ve had high anxiety since this virus set in.

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  13. I really enjoyed this class. Even though its alot of reading, i still was able to learn alot. I was expecting to learn just about the boring stuff but much more came with it. I would recommend Dr. Alice because she is very dedicated. My favorite activity in class was the Suzuki Method. I enjoyed how we all got into groups and made a performance. Everyone was getting along and enjoying each other creations Which activity did you guys enjoy in class before COVID came and why ?

    Liked by 2 people

    1. I enjoyed the last activity we did in class before distance learning, when we acted out the music critiques, the most. It was pretty funny watching everyone add their own take and humor to the music critiques we read.

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  14. This class isn’t like many of my other classes at all.
    I’ve never Been in a music class at all before neither have I had a teacher perform in front of me which I thought was cool. Personally I feel as if this class was a good learning experience as we learned about classical music and modern day music and the comparisons and slight differences in artists music from then and now . My favorite class that I’ve attended was the class where the combination of Kesha, The weekend , Beethoven , and etc was played and we got to realize how similar these flows were between these artists .

    1. If your favorite artist created an Instagram post asking you to give feedback on his latest song how would you do it based off of the things we learned in this class ?
    2.which peer critique from one of your peers made you feel more confident about your writing as it continued to grow overtime ?
    3 many artists have released new music While we are told to stay at home who’s recent album was your favorite so far? did you hear any Instruments played in class on any of these songs ? And if so which ones did you hear ?

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  15. I’ve enjoyed this class even over distant learning, it isn’t like other classes. The assignments let you be creative and speak on your opinions. Before COVID, class was handles on but at the same time it wasn’t. The group activities and making the class listen for certain tones and voices in songs keep me intrigued.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. i can agree with you being in Dr J class was really different compare to my others the group activities were really fun to do

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  16. Hey guys! We’ve been ask to create a questions so here are some.
    1. Coming into this class, did you expect to change how you felt about classical music? Did change your perspective of it?
    2. With the writing 1, Do you now trying to really focus more on what you are hearing around you or while your listening to music?
    3. If one of your friends are not sure if they should attend this class, What would you say about it to help them change their minds?

    Liked by 1 person

  17. Hi Everyone!!! This class has definitely been an enjoyable one. The various online discussions expanded my knowledge vividly. There were lots of enjoyable moments to take away from this class, one of the most memorable one being Dr. J playing the flute for the class. Also, Some of the questions I have are:
    -What has distance learning made clear to you about the impact of the environment on one’s ability to complete tasks ?
    -How has taking a theoretical approach to learning music changed your experience with music ?

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  18. Questions: which blog post was the one that interested you the most?
    What was the biggest challenge in completing the assignments?
    From the writings posted from your classmates what personally stood out to you?
    Which specific assignments actually helped you stay engaged in the class and understand the information?

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  20. I have enjoyed this class way more than I thought I would. my favorite discussion had to be musicking I really loved it although every discussion post I enjoyed sharing out my opinions and listening to how everyone else viewed it. the writing that stood out the most was Paula’s writing assignment on her going from a certain language to a next which was relatable because my parents had to adapt to the American way of life quickly and it was interesting reading her view on it. when I first signed up for this class I never knew or quite understood all music came with, and I’m happy I now know so much more and learned and experienced this class.

    Liked by 1 person

  21. 1, how did you guys feel from going from class to online ?
    2. how was this class different from your other ones ?
    3. what effect did this pandemic have on your learning ?
    4, do you view music differently now ?

    Liked by 1 person

    1. 1. how did you guys feel from going from class to online ?
      At first I thought that it would be a little bit difficult because I’m more of a in person learner.

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  22. Going into this class I wouldn’t think that this class would be much fun but after being in this class I would say that it is probably one of the classes I really enjoy the most. it was really fun doing those in-class group work its really sad how we cant be with one another for the last day of class. But it was a great pleasure to meet you guy and take you Dr Jones for teaching this class

    Liked by 1 person

  23. Wow the semester is almost over. This has been down the weirdest semester i have ever done in three years. The best experience i had in class was definitely in person group activities in class before the lock down. They were an intriguing way to learn in class and had me interested in participate in class. Like our last group work were we read reviews and had to act them out, that was an experience i haven’t even done in Elementary, Middle and even High school let alone College. My questions would be…
    1. How was your online experience?
    2. Do you prefer online or in person learning?
    3. Whats one activity you miss in Dr. Jones class?
    I also wanted to thank everyone for a wonderful experience and wish everyone well.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Question #1, my online experience has been rocky. however I have been learning to cope with it. I had to change a lot of my strategies when doing schoolwork and how I manage my day. Although I actually hate taking online classes, it gives me time when completing work and having a busy schedule.

      Liked by 1 person

    2. I definitely prefer in person classes. I struggle so much with online classes it is sad. My online experience was ok but definitely would have loved being in class more. I miss listening to music and going over different aspects of the songs.

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  24. I cannot believe this semester is coming into an end. This is by far the most odd semester I ever had and probably will have for the rest of my life. A few questions that I have is:
    1) What was your favorite online discussion?
    2) What was your favorite group activity we did in the classroom
    3) If you guys had one thing to change about this semester what would you change?

    Stay safe everyone!!

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  25. Here are some questions.
    1. Who pays the best in music streams?
    2. What do musicians make most of their money off of?
    3. What is an example of an ethos?

    Liked by 1 person

  26. 1. How can music be used for violence?
    2. How can certain music make you time travel?
    3. What kind of people can “musicking” be applied to?
    4. What have you realized about yourself when writing your writing portfolio?
    5. What do you consider music?
    6. List your favorite instruments in the brass, percussion, string, woodwind, and keyboard family. Why are they your favorite?
    7. How can pandemics affect music?
    8. What are the benefits of music?
    9. How can music be a bad influence?

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  27. here are a few questions I have:
    1. How did music from other time periods differ from the music we currently listen to?
    2. Identify 3 different brass instruments played in a band.
    3. Why are homophobic textures more popular in music today, as opposed to polyphonic textures?
    4. What did the pandemic do to change your vies on current music?
    5. With all of the past online discussions we’ve done, how has it changed your opinion on different types of music?
    6. What are some of the careers someone can have that is related to music?
    7. What is one important piece of information that you’re taking away from this class?

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  28. Hey guys! I really enjoyed taking this mu 101 class, I really learned about who I am as a writer! This class has deepen my understanding of music, it’s not just for enjoyment.Like was mentioned in one of our online discussions, people use music to convey their emotions and to make a statements!

    One question I would ask is, what challenges did you have to succumb to while taking this class during this pandemic?

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  29. I’ve taken music classes before in high school but I’d say this class was for me the most enjoyable. The interesting concepts we learned as well as Dr.J’s teaching did help to make this class a memorable one. This was also the relaxed class I took this semester, helping to balance out the rest of the major courses I was taking a well. It’s a shame that we had to switch to distance learning because of the pandemic but I did enjoy the few weeks that we did have physical class. A question I’d pose is did this class help you to not only listen to music differently but to also help you perceive the entire soundscape differently as well? If so, what did you start noticing in the soundscape that you may have not noticed or neglected before?

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  30. This was a very interesting semester and the most stressful one. Came across some very troubling obstacles but I over came them but with that being said……

    1.What matters?

    Truthfully speaking, these discussions, assigned readings mattered but the peer critique mattered the most. I felt like I was still kind of connected to my classmates despite having to learn everything from a distance. The peer critique has taught me that constructive criticism is always good. Without peer critique how would I know to improve my writing?

    2. What was confusing or hard to learn?

    Traditional exam? There was nothing traditional about it. The exam was the most confusing exam ever. I never in my life had to explain why an answer was right or wrong for any take home test. Ive never been so frustrated when taking an exam especially a take home exam.

    3. What was unique or special?

    The most unique thing was not being graded on an assignment other than receiving credit for it and then getting feed back from the professor so you could improve it if you would like to revise it. Another thing I found unique about this course is the way how Dr. Jones structured it. It was different to know that each week we had to write a discussion post but it didn’t always have to focus on specific topics mentioned. It was allowed that we express our feelings and/or emotions in these posts, as long as we can tie it into the the topic. What I also found unique was the soundscape and other assignments. Again, we were allowed to kind of just express ourselves while adhering to guidance questions rather than a straight cut – question and answer assignment I feel like college is just about a grade, it’s based on quantity over quality. I remember Dr.J stating that she prefers quality writing over quantity and that will forever stick with me. I wish other professors were like that. Don’t see many professors caring or even giving a damn in this generation.

    4.What was missing?

    I missed class on Monday’s. Yes I did dread a 6pm class right after a 9-5 job but having interaction with other students, you don’t really get that in other classes. Some professors can be so boring reading everything off a power point instead of making it fun and social. Like some interaction is nice. I just wish we could have learned more about the history and listen to music we would never thought of ever listening to. It would have been nice if we spent one class time at a performance as a class. Also touching and experiencing instruments. Also watching Dr.J perform for us more.

    Couple Questions I have are:

    1. Is there anything you didn’t like at all about this course?
    2.If you were Dr.Jones, what would you have done differently in this class?
    3. Were peer critique a good way for you to revise your writing?
    4. Did the discussions help you to be more opened to express your ideas, thoughts comments etc?

    Like

  31. .I enjoyed this course a lot more than I thought I would. Dr J was able to teach me so much information about music and at the same time make it fun. The fact that we were able to make a class playlist made the atmosphere more welcoming. I would definitely suggest her for anyone interested in a music class.

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  32. A couple questions I would make for a Mus 101 exam are: 1. What is the oldest instrument known to man? 2. What makes music music? 3. Can music be used for negative purposes? 4. How does music connect people?

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  33. Hello.
    the face to face class was already a challenge to me since i had to learn all these new things about music and after it became an online class, it became even harder. i had to learn things on my on instead of seeing my classmates view on it.
    the exam was challenging. you had to pick and answer and then explain why its right but what if you made an good guess. how can you explain that?
    the class overall was a process, the weekly reading really helped me view music a different way and how things effect it in a way that i never thought.
    what was challenging for you guys??

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  34. I enjoyed my time in this class, even though most of it was online which sucked because I loved our in class meetings. Here goes some of my questions. 1) Throughout the class we learned about different time periods and their music. What type of music did you enjoy the most? and from what time period was it? 2) If you could choose a time period to live in, what would it be? would you resonate with their music taste? 3) What did you learn about music during this epidemic?

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