Orientation to Online Education
The first section, Mindset and Philosophy, is organized into two chapters orienting readers on aspects of online education, philosophy, and mindset. The first of these chapters is a discussion of online education and its similarities and differences when compared to traditional face-to-face courses. An overview of various degrees of partially and fully online course modalities is presented alongside a tour of common learning spaces within online learning management systems. Methods for transferring live, face-to-face music appreciation classes into online courses are included. Because the population of online undergraduate students typically includes many adult learners ages 25 and older, a foundational introduction to andragogy is provided. The second chapter in this section introduces teaching philosophy and ways in which music appreciation instructors might develop a philosophy for teaching the course online that can withstand various inherent challenges. Both chapters provide a broad view that can be helpful to those new to online education or who seek clarity about the purposes and goals of teaching music appreciation.