Chapter 5 – Digital technologies and practices for the online teaching of practical skills in performing arts disciplines within UK conservatoires

This chapter focuses on the technologies used to facilitate the delivery of online teaching and assessment in practical performing arts courses, within the UK Conservatoire sector. The contributions of learning technologists and academics articulate some significant pedagogic and technological practices. The chapter also provides details on how these practices have been successfully applied, as well as suggesting future directions for digital learning and technology in this discipline space. It is anticipated that these might prove useful for the wider sector to reflect upon and for each reader to consider in relation to their own technological adoption, practice and evolution.

To begin though, it is necessary to articulate the specialist nature of the conservatoire as an institution and how this differs from the wider higher education sector.

Defining the conservatoire

An examination of reference sources on teaching, learning and assessment in Higher Education reveals their generalist nature. Bale and Seabrook (2021), Marshall (2019), Race (2019) and Scales (2017) all make no mention of the specialist practices employed within conservatoire providers.

Conservatoires UK (2021), the organisation that represents the collective views of UK conservatoires, articulates the distinction between universities teaching performing arts and the conservatoire approach to performing arts as, ‘if your interests are focused on a practical discipline […] dance, acting, instrumental or vocal performance, a conservatoire is likely to be your best option. If your prime interest in music or theatre […] is more academic, with a focus on […] history, analysis, criticism, harmony and counterpoint, and the philosophy and psychology of the performing arts, a university course may suit you better. All these disciplines are also taught at conservatoires, but as you would expect, the emphasis is more on practical and vocational performance with academic courses providing an important underpinning.’

This is expanded upon within UCAS (2021), ‘In a conservatoire education, individual development is paramount: one-to-one and small-group teaching is the focal point of the experience. […] Programmes are delivered by respected mentors; whether in weekly lessons with principal teachers, group projects […] or in seminars, workshops or master-classes with international figures.’

Technologies used for teaching and assessment within conservatoires

Learning technologies are commonly used for teaching and assessment purposes within conservatoires, though there is variation regarding the products that have been adopted. This echoes wider higher education sector practice.

A summary of the most commonly used platforms:

• Virtual Learning Environments (VLE) / Learning Management Systems (LMS) – Moodle, Canvas, Blackboard Ultra, Brightspace
• ePortfolio platforms – Canvas Portfolio, Mahara, PebblePad
• Lecture capture – Echo360, Teams / Office365, Panopto, Planet eStream
• Video streaming and off-air recording – Panopto, Planet eStream, Kaltura
• Webinar platforms – Blackboard Collaborate, MS Teams, Zoom
• Online submission of formative and summative assessments – LMS and ePortfolio platforms
• Specialist software – Sibelius (for music notation), nkoda (digital sheet music app)
• Other platforms – Padlet (for collaborative brainstorming)
• Staff and student owned technologies – laptops, mobile phones, video cameras, microphones, tablets

Summary of practice at Guildhall School of Music & Drama

Guildhall School was ranked first in the 2023 Arts, Drama and Music league table published by the Complete University Guide, moving up from second place the previous year. This league table is based on data from the National Student Survey (NSS), Research Excellence Framework (REF) and the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA). As a central part of the School’s Teaching and Learning Enhancement Strategy, Moodle is used to support blended student learning at all academic levels from Junior Guildhall to doctoral research.

Instances of Moodle modules are set up annually with their contents reviewed and updated by academic staff. The Music and Production Arts Departments use Moodle as a resource repository, a place to post assessment briefs, grading criteria and as the portal for student submissions. Like the wider higher education sector, the Guildhall School moved to online synchronous teaching in response to the pandemic, though some online teaching was taking place prior to this. With the move back to campus, every programme and module has retained the provision of online resources, online assessment submissions and feedback. Synchronous teaching, facilitated via Microsoft Teams or Zoom according to the preference of each department and their requirements for document sharing and collaborative working, has continued across all programmes and levels where its use is appropriate.

The Guildhall School’s only fully online course, a Post-Graduate Certificate in Performance Teaching, uses a number of Moodle sites to give students access to online discussion boards, anonymised examples of past student work, a growing library of in-house produced webinar recordings and links to Zoom and Padlet for synchronous sessions.

Multimedia format assignments are submitted via Moodle to Mahara ePortfolio for grading. There is a range of approaches to grading assignments and providing feedback to students. Online feedback is provided as comments upon performances (which students submit as videos of a live event), script annotations or uploaded feedback files in Moodle which students can later download. Performance Arts also use Moodle quizzes to assess student learning on health and safety practices. A pilot of Turnitin Feedback Studio, via an integration with Moodle, is shortly commencing within selected Music modules to explore providing audio feedback to students and to strengthen academic integrity across the Guildhall School.

It should be noted that with appropriate guidance and support provided by the learning technologist, supplemented by assistive technologies such as Blackboard Ally, both blended and online learning can be an inclusive and accessible experience for all students.

Recordings of student performances and masterclasses are captured in performance spaces across the Guildhall School and the Barbican Centre using Planet eStream, which is managed by the Recordings and AV Department. During the pandemic, by using eStream, it was possible for musicians to rehearse and perform orchestral repertoire whilst socially distanced across multiple spaces simultaneously, whilst watching streamed feeds of a conductor and their distributed colleagues, or in collaboration with professional musicians from the London Symphony Orchestra. This ground-breaking installation and use of recording technologies resulted in the receipt of three industry standard awards. Guildhall School of Music & Drama (2021) provides further details about this initiative. Performances were also recorded and made available via Moodle and streamed via the Guildhall School website for the public to view.

Practice at other conservatoires and universities

According to Royal College of Music (2021), at the outset of the pandemic, ‘Little were any of us to know how we would suddenly need to be completely reliant on digital in order to learn, teach and communicate. The challenge was to move online with existing systems, and in many cases completely rethink how we worked.’ This view has been echoed across the sector.

To enable the gathering of insights regarding practice within other conservatoires, I convened an online forum, called ‘Inside the Digital Conservatoire – what’s going on?’, via Zoom on 6 December 2021. This forum was attended by 13 learning technologists and academics representing 12 UK-based conservatoires and universities. Three additional interviews were recorded with colleagues from other conservatoires prior to the online forum. An indicative representation of the views expressed follows below.

Regarding the technologies used, Zoom and Teams are commonly used for mediating one-to-one and group teaching. Learning Management Systems, such as Moodle, are not universally used by all conservatoires and university departments teaching performing arts, as some LMS platforms do not incorporate the functionality to enable synchronous one-to-one and group teaching sessions. When asked in the NSS and elsewhere, students often report that effective use of Moodle or similar technologies offers them the benefit of having an organised journey through their learning and assessment, with links to curated resources, reading lists, assignment briefs and links to other institutional platforms.

The Royal College of Music (2021) reports that, ‘Statistics bear out just how important digital access has been for students over the last year. The Learning Management System has seen a 95% increase in views year-on-year, with users’ time on the site increasing by 45%.’ Comparing this against practice levels at the Guildhall School, comparable increases in use were seen or exceeded, particularly when the collective use of Moodle and other online systems (e.g., Teams, Zoom, etc.) is taken into account. Whichever technology is used, reliability, functionality and accessibility have all become key factors in enabling and supporting the student experience as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

One institution reported using Teams as their learning resource repository and staff to student messaging communication platform. The institution has also deployed Zoom within Teams for teaching: ‘the conferencing aspect of Teams is great for conferences, but not good for music. It tries to be too clever in getting rid of noises or sounds, so you get clipped bits of voice or instruments suppressed. Zoom is more versatile.’ This is confirmed by a piano tutor at another university, ‘It took a bit of playing around with the settings, but once that was refined it was more or less fine.’

He described his approach to hybrid teaching (where some students attended together on site and some attended remotely via technology): ‘You could actually do a hybrid session with just two laptops, with one facing you as a teacher. The students who are logging on won’t see their classmates and you want them to feel part of the class and not marginalised. Another laptop faces the students in the room, logged in with microphone and speakers muted. I offered face-to-face classes or a hybrid alternative; they all opted to stay online. There are two reasons: when they play to the class they’re playing on the instrument they always practise on. The other interesting thing just happened spontaneously: when one student was being workshopped on a passage, with the score on the screen, the other students were on mute and they were trying out the passages with that particular fingering. I think they’ve been doing that quite a lot, actually!’

Another forum participant focused on the possibilities offered by new technological spaces as places for performance teaching. Her experience showed that ‘Some cameras [installed in teaching spaces] defaulted to following the person; that’s not good if you’re doing drama or dance where there are others in the room. If you’re demonstrating flamenco dance you can focus on something. If you record things, you can focus on a particular movement; that’s much better than looking at it live [where] it’s up to the person where they want to focus on.’ Another interviewee suggested that conservatoires and universities will need to invest heavily in technology-enabled multi-disciplinary spaces to accommodate these disciplines adequately in the future.

Speculations on the future

One online forum participant offered the view that: ‘Reviewing what we do as an institution now, digital is a big strand of it.’ Another participant agreed, ‘Digital is written into every single strategy now.’

An interviewee offered an opinion regarding the future use of learning technologies:

‘We’re hedging our bets on what might happen due to COVID. We’re getting feedback from staff and students on what worked well and what didn’t. We’ll see then what we can continue on with. This almost brilliantly coincides with what has been the biggest acceleration in digital learning for our institution and all others too.’

Another learning technologist offered a more positive vision for the future:

‘There is much more interest in wholly online courses because academics can now see how it would work. Online suits certain disciplines better, composition for example. One-to-one tuition has worked better virtually via shared screens to show work in progress. That’s exciting to see the vision of where we could go, instead of me saying, “we could do this with technology”, but everyone just carries on as before.’

This readiness to engage is shown by another participant, ‘Next term we’ll pilot hybrid teaching for opera performance, the students physically with a pianist in London and I will join them online remotely from Portugal. Other places have done it, but for us it’s an innovation.’

If collaboration is to be taken to an international level, then this can be mediated and delivered digitally. The Royal College of Music, the Manhattan School of Music, the Royal Danish Academy of Music, and the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna launched the Global Conservatoire in 2021-22. According to Global Conservatoire (2021), this will formally explore collaborative possibilities by drawing ‘on its partners’ wide-ranging background and extensive collaboration in distance learning. By consolidating its partners’ collective experience in the digital realm […], the Global Conservatoire becomes a ground-breaking flagship program that transcends borders, connecting students […] into what will eventually become a virtual, transnational academic hub’. Whilst formally established transnational collaborations between higher education institutions are not unknown across the wider sector, for performing arts conservatoires this approach is relatively new.

Asked specifically what is needed to support innovative teaching approaches, the response was clear: ‘If we want to prepare those in creative industries for precarious work cultures, we have to start teaching and learning differently. We’ve got to actually model change, with the risks but with a supportive mindset. The world has changed and we have to connect and engage differently. We have to be more creative than we’ve ever been before. Largely, the technology’s there to enable it now.’

To conclude, one viewpoint from the online forum resonates as a key message: ‘Instead of mourning what we have lost in teaching [from the time before Covid-19], let’s celebrate what we gained from these digital environments and what we can do better than we did in-person. There’s a lot – for example, focusing on details of diction for singing [in various languages] – hand-held technology means we can get closer. Of course, acting for camera is better on camera than if we weren’t on camera, et cetera. We need to do online what we can do well.’

Whatever the future, learning technologists and educational developers will need to be versed in more than platform functionality and pedagogies. Having a nuanced approach to collaborating with people in all settings and the ability to flexibly support colleagues by pivoting training or professional development as needed will also be key requirements.

Reflections and recommendations for educational developers

Reflecting on the practices described in this chapter and how this could be applied within the wider university sector, collaboration is an inescapable factor. This could be interpreted as collaboration between academic and professional services staff, or enabling different technologies to integrate effectively to meet the demands of academic delivery. Just as the musicians in an orchestra play a score following hours of practice to hone the nuances in their interpretation under the considered direction of a conductor; universities, conservatoires, and the academic departments within them need to establish and follow a strategic direction for the adoption of learning technologies. A direction that prioritises teaching, assessment and feedback in a cohesive manner which improves the student experience.

As conservatoires form a small part of the higher education sector, there is a risk of these institutions having an insular approach to the adoption of learning technologies. It is perhaps another obvious reflection, but conservatoires should extend communications between themselves and others to remain aware of technologies and practices adopted within the wider sector, and then make their own institutional assessment of their suitability to local context.

If the experience of supporting the development of online or blended learning during Covid-19 made anything clear, it was that academics can (and will) adopt new (or previously under-used) technologies for teaching and assessment effectively at speed. This is particularly the case if they are given appropriate training and guidance in its use. Employing a holistic approach whereby technology upskilling is integrated and delivered alongside educational development interventions, rather than separate from them, has been shown to be particularly effective in a variety of educational settings. Ideally educational developers will work across their institution, or in collaboration with peers at partner institutions when required. Collaborative partners and stakeholder peers, whether in refining existing practice or enabling innovative practices regarding the use of technologies, may include senior management, teaching and learning leads, learning technologists, IT and AV departments, and academics. Explorations around how physical and online spaces are used for teaching and assessment, along with the different technologies that can merge or enhance them to influence pedagogic practice; will continue to be an area of joint concern for educational developers, learning technologists and academics that has wider implications upon institutional planning, resourcing and estate management. Active reflection upon innovative practice should be built into institutional processes so that lessons learned are captured to feed into other projects or practices where applicable. An integrated approach brings the potential for efficient use of time and effort, effectively meeting the demands of academic staff.

Many learning technologists are former lecturers, teachers, and assessors, or those who contribute to and support the delivery of Advance HE accredited programmes within their institutions. In smaller specialist institutions such as conservatoires they often take on the role of an educational developer, or contribute to institutional teaching and learning development initiatives, as often, there is not a separate designated educational developer in post.

It is important to recognise that the skillset and experience of learning technologists is often wider than the role title or job description may suggest. Their expertise often goes beyond rolling out institutionally adopted technologies or knowledge of platform functionality and supporting use by students and academics. That, however, is the remit for another publication.

References

Bale, R. and Seabrook, M. (2021). Introduction to University Teaching. Sage Publications.

Conservatoires UK. (2021). Frequently asked questions. Conservatoires UK. https://conservatoiresuk.ac.uk/conservatoires-explained/frequently-asked-questions/

Global Conservatoire. (2021). About us. Global Conservatoire. https://globalconservatoire.com/about/

Guildhall School of Music & Drama. (2021). Guildhall School’s Recording and AV team wins three awards for installation of ground-breaking technology during pandemic. https://www.gsmd.ac.uk/guildhall-schools-recording-and-av-team-wins-three-awards-for-installation-of-ground-breaking

Marshall, S. (Ed.) (2019). A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education: Enhancing Academic Practice (5th ed.). Routledge.

Race, P. (2019). The Lecturer’s Toolkit: A Practical Guide to Assessment, Learning and Teaching (5th ed.). Routledge.

Royal College of Music. (2021). Going digital: a new era of learning and performance. Royal College of Music. https://www.rcm.ac.uk/upbeat/articles/goingdigital.aspx

Scales, P. (2017). An Introduction to Learning and Teaching in Higher Education: Supporting Fellowship. Open University Press.

UCAS. (2021). The conservatoire experience. UCAS. https://www.ucas.com/conservatoires/studying-conservatoire/conservatoire-experience