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Posted 11-5-98
Case Western Reserve University's music students currently must visit the music library to listen to recordings and access related resources, but two grants will help make these materials available via the Internet for use in classroom teaching and residence hall studying.
The Department of Music is using a grant from the Hewlett Foundation to revamp a course for non-majors. When two sections of the enhanced course debut this spring, instructors will be able to present digitized musical scores in a multimedia classroom in Harkness Chapel, and enrolled students can review these materials at their leisure via a World Wide Web browser.
Rob Dunn, associate professor of music, is leading the course redesign, drawing on his training specialty of teaching music to non-majors. He will teach one section of the new course, and doctoral candidate Henry Orazi will lead the other.
A grant from IBM will furnish the $500,000 server needed to store the digitized musical recordings and make them available through the Web. The award is part of $2.1 million in Internet2 grants which IBM recently awarded to CWRU and two other universities nationwide.
The Hewlett grant is also providing the funds to wire Harkness with a fiber-optic network, install multimedia equipment in the Harkness classroom, and purchase the faculty workstation that will control the multimedia equipment.
In the revamped course, the online musical resources "will be like a textbook," said Ross Duffin, the Fynette H. Kulas Professor and chair of music. "It's the central resource for the course," he added.
In a situation where not everybody can read music, as is likely the case in an Intro to Music I class, it's essential that the musical examples be presented aurally rather than printed in music notation," Duffin said. "It's not possible to do that with a conventional textbook."
Sending time-sensitive and content-rich transmissions such as musical clips through the Web requires more advanced technology than the Internet typically needs or offers, according to Raymond Neff, vice president for information services.
The original Internet was designed for survivability after catastrophes, following a "best efforts" delivery plan, Neff said. This approach seeks to ensure that information be delivered at all, rather than that it get there quickly.
However, network transmissions of musical scores require "quality of service" delivery, in which an application negotiates with the network to provide the amount of bandwidth needed as it's needed.
Ethernet, the older CWRUnet system, can only handle "best efforts" deliveries, Neff said. ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) technology, on which the Internet2 is based, allows "quality of service" deliveries.
The new IBM server, designed for multimedia uses, will rely on this Internet2 environment. "ATM enables us to use digital audio streaming in a way that isn't possible in other places," Duffin said.
"This is leading edge," Neff added. "No one else is doing this on a campuswide basis."
Web sites that offer digital audio generally download the audio clip to the user's computer and play it from there, or use compressed audio files that are of low quality, Duffin said. This will not be necessary with the music department's new system, which will play audio recordings directly from the server, and at a quality comparable to playing a CD in a home stereo system.
In addition to making the digital audio recordings available in class, students will also benefit from having greater and more convenient access to these resources. With about 100 total students enrolling in the three sections of the class each semester, it strains the audio library to have so many students visit the music library for listening assignments.
"It simply is not enough access to the materials for as many students as we're trying to enable to get through that course," Duffin said.
Under the new system, students can avoid battling for audio library resources, instead reviewing materials at their leisure from a residence hall or anywhere else on campus that offers ATM network access. Due in part to copyright restrictions, Duffin expects the system to be restricted to students enrolled in the non-majors course each semester.
The music department has reacted enthusiastically to the new multimedia room and electronic resources, according to Duffin. "We're really excited about this project," he said. "Other music faculty are already asking if they can use the facility next semester while we test the pilot course."
The project might also help other departments gain insight on new ways of incorporating high-tech resources into instructional activities.
"I don't think the full potential of the network in teaching has been utilized," Duffin said. "This solution could have implications for other departments across the college."
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