I took FPA104 by distance ed this past semester. The course involves 3 online (take-home) quizzes(20%), an exam (40%), 2 assignments (15%), and weekly tutorials that you must submit by the end of the week (25%).
In terms of effort required, I think it really depends on the amount of musical knowledge you bring in to the course. I have a pretty extensive knowledge of music theory , so none of the concepts were new to me, and I found the assignments and tests quite reasonable. However, when i looked on the message board for the course, I found that students without much experience found the course challenging. Also, it seemed like getting help was a bit of an effort, as the TA only has specific times for students to ask questions.
I found feedback on my assignments and tests was pretty much non-existent, though I did well on all my assignments so perhaps I have a biased view... The tutorials were definitely the most time consuming part for me, and involve recording you singing solfege pitches and tapping to rhythms. If you are opposed to singing and clapping out rhythms, this course is definitely not for you... There was also no help figuring out these rhythms, so if you cannot learn independently, then I would not recommend.
So, I would say that if you have some knowledge of music theory and don't mind putting in the effort to learn and complete the assignments, you will be rewarded with a good grade (A+). However, if you don't have much knowledge of music theory, I wouldn't recommend this course for distance ed.
Comments
I took FPA104 by distance ed this past semester. The course involves 3 online (take-home) quizzes(20%), an exam (40%), 2 assignments (15%), and weekly tutorials that you must submit by the end of the week (25%).
In terms of effort required, I think it really depends on the amount of musical knowledge you bring in to the course. I have a pretty extensive knowledge of music theory , so none of the concepts were new to me, and I found the assignments and tests quite reasonable. However, when i looked on the message board for the course, I found that students without much experience found the course challenging. Also, it seemed like getting help was a bit of an effort, as the TA only has specific times for students to ask questions.
I found feedback on my assignments and tests was pretty much non-existent, though I did well on all my assignments so perhaps I have a biased view... The tutorials were definitely the most time consuming part for me, and involve recording you singing solfege pitches and tapping to rhythms. If you are opposed to singing and clapping out rhythms, this course is definitely not for you... There was also no help figuring out these rhythms, so if you cannot learn independently, then I would not recommend.
So, I would say that if you have some knowledge of music theory and don't mind putting in the effort to learn and complete the assignments, you will be rewarded with a good grade (A+). However, if you don't have much knowledge of music theory, I wouldn't recommend this course for distance ed.
Feel free to ask me any other questions!
Chris
I decided not to take the course