Hi, My name is Tom Deibel and I’ll be your instructor for this Music Appreciation Course. During the next 7 weeks we are going to explore music from a lot of different styles, cultures and time periods.

Some of this music will probably sound strange to you, perhaps old fashioned, even boring. My goal in this class is to expose you to as many different styles of music that I can; and hope that you will gain an appreciation of all types of music. I expect you to listen to all music with an open mind. You may not end up adding a lot of the music you study in the course to your itunes playlist, but I hope you will at least give all music a chance.

When you first enter the course, you will be in the ‘lessons and assignments’ section of the course. Here you will find 7 units of study. Each Unit consists of lessons (content) and assignments.

To go to the unit lessons, click on the link that says ‘click here for lessons’. You will then see a list of the 3-5 lessons that make up the unit. You can skip around, but I would suggest viewing the lessons in order. Once in a lesson, you will see a navigation bar at the top of the screen that will take you to the different lessons and assignments of the unit.

In the lesson itself, you will find text, images, links, audio, video and sometimes interactive material. All audio will be in mp3 format. All videos are streamed from schooltube.com. If schooltube is blocked or un-available there is always an alternative link provided that links to the video file on the course website. You must be able to listen to mp3s and watch the videos to take this course.

In the course information lesson there are 2 important documents that you need to be aware of: the course welcome letter and the course syllabus.

The welcome letter (which should have received as an email from me already) contains information about how to contact me - my desk and cell phone numbers and email address. I prefer to  communicate through email, but feel free to call me at any time. Please leave a detailed message if you get my voice mail. I have a ‘day job’ and don’t work on the course from 8-4:30 on weekdays, but I check the course every afternoon and every morning.  If you email me, I should reply within 12 hours.

Also in the welcome letter you will see the grading method for this class. This course is graded on a total point basis (not averaging). Each assignment has a set amount of points associated with it. Each assignment point is worth 1/10 of a grade point. To pass the class you must have earned at least 700 points. If you earn 1000 points you will have a 100 average - an A+.

Another import document in the course information lesson is the course syllabus. This document contains a list of the course Units and the lessons and assignments for each Unit.  Next to each assignment is the point total for that assignment.  Assignments include discussion board posts, blogs, quizzes, reports and other activities. The first time you submit any new type of assignment there will be a video that you can watch to see how to submit that assignment. In addition, each assignment will have a scoring rubric. You need to check the scoring rubric before you start the assignment so you know what  I am expecting. Check the rubric again before you submit the assignment to make sure you will not lose any points because you left something out.

The course syllabus also contains a suggested time line to let you know when you should be studying that Unit.  There are no late penalties for falling behind this suggested schedule, but if you stay on this schedule you will not be rushing around at the end of the course trying to get everything done. You can always work ahead of schedule.

My job as an instructor is to answer any questions that you may have about the music and information presented to you in the class, but more importantly my job is to help you pass the course and earn your credit. I promise that as long as you are working on the class I will continue to work with you to help you finish. If you ever have any problems, concerns or questions about the course please contact me and let me know.

Now it’s time to go ahead and continue with the course! Good Luck.