Use of Interactive Digital Course Materials: A Research in the Field of Music Education

Abstract

This study emphasizes the importance of the design and use of interactive course materials in music education and suggests the use of such material as a form of improving learning processes. The study discusses how technology can be used to support student-centered learning by revealing the importance of educational technology and the role of technology in education. In the study where the sequential explanatory model, which is a mixed method, was used, quantitative and qualitative data collection methods were combined. While quantitative data was obtained through student opinions and achievement tests, qualitative data was collected through student interviews. An attitude scale and an achievement test were applied to the learning material, which are measurement tools. 30 high school students were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. While the experimental group was provided with materials in accordance with e-learning principles, the control group was taught using the traditional method. The resulting findings include data obtained from statistical analyzes and interviews. Through measurement tools, it was determined how the participants reacted to e-learning course materials within the scope of music education. In analytical studies, analysis of variance was applied to control the change in group achievements. Although the pretest results were similar, it was determined that there was a significant difference between the experimental group and the control group in the posttest. The result in question shows that the experimental group made more progress compared to the control group. The evaluations of the students in the experimental group regarding the digital material give a result similar to the median score. In other words, it appears that they liked and adopted the material at an average level. These results show that the experimental group achieved more success than the control group and liked the digital material moderately. In semi-structured interviews, open-ended questions prepared in parallel with the quantitative analysis were asked to the focus group interview participants. Participants pointed out the difficulties in asking questions to teachers as negative aspects of digital material, and also stated that digital material has some boring aspects. The fact that the participants accept that digital materials have a place in education, as well as emphasizing the dominant qualities of face-to-face learning, clearly coincides with the issues that emerged as mainstream views in previous studies in the relevant literature.