Since the second day of the semester, Cambridge has been hit by record snowfalls -- the snowiest month in the city's history. Last Monday's classes were cancelled by snow, and this coming Monday is Presidents' Day. Since sections for Music 2 meet on Mondays and Fridays, this means that our students are missing literally half of their instruction for our current unit, on the basics of the major/minor system.
Professor Osnat Netzer and I had an idea - we decided to produce a series of short videos that would help students to review some of the content that had to be glossed over in our severely reduced instructional time. With the help of my colleagues at the Derek Bok Center, we managed to produce these in under 48 hours, from brainstorming, to demo, to recording and editing, to finished product.
The videos are all collected on a Vimeo Channel, entitled "Music 2: The Snowstorm Sessions." I think that collectively, they do a nice job of replacing the missed classes. The short format is both by necessity and design: short-form videos are exponentially similar to produce, and no one really wants to watch an entire 50-minute lecture in one sitting at their computer. I wouldn't say that this approach is really "flipping the classroom," but it's something along those lines - students review some information outside of class so that they'll be better prepared for our next sessions. The videos also serve as a resource for them as they complete an extensive homework assignment, due a week from today.