TEACHx 2024

While analytical tools have been available for some time to measure student participation in online courses, they primarily represent data visually. Learning designers have few other tools to show faculty developers how design changes impact student engagement. New approaches to enhancing course analysis are needed if learning designers and faculty are to leverage data to assist in course design. As a learning designer and faculty member at Northwestern, I work with faculty to create and revise online courses. The goal is to increase student engagement and ultimately have students retain knowledge and demonstrate essential skills. In exploring ways to analyze and redesign courses to cover this range of needs, I have called upon a set of tools that allow us to hear data through a sonic online learning event (SOLE) rather than the more common visual lens. Data points on an XY graph are converted to an interpretive musical score, where the meter sets the duration of weekly modules along the X axis, and harmonic values (major, minor, augmented, and diminished chords) represent directionality in the online engagement on the Y axis. By converting course data into an interpretive representation of online course engagement and participation using sound, we can reveal the voices of online learners as they engage and disengage in their courses. In this session, I will demonstrate the process of creating SOLEs and how courses sound before and after designer and faculty revisions. The more student engagement and participation, the richer the sound of the course becomes.