Just jump in already!

Just jump in?  What if the water is cold?  What if the water is shallow?  What if nobody else wants me to jump in?  What if there are already people in the water that don't want me there?  What if, what if, what if....

I am almost ready to monetize one course.  How does one put a price on a course that has taken thousands of hours to develop, taxed my intellectual capacity like no other task, and left me wondering if it is good enough to charge for at all?  I want to be compensated for my hard work, but I have to keep the values of the school in mind as well.  The original vision was to create low cost, accessible education in the field, and I have to keep telling myself that.  How do I be fair to the many who will sign up and pay for the course with their hard earned money, and who have trusted me to provide them with their money's worth in education for a subject that is admittedly difficult to both teach and learn, at the same time, paying me for two specialized skills that I'm highly proficient at.  I bring 25 years of experience in piano technology, and an M.Ed. degree that I received with distinction and a 4.0 GPA.  It's only fair that I be given something, correct?

Do I charge a large amount with the anticipation that I may not get enough learners, or do I offer students the courses at a lower amount that will attract a larger audience and provide me with a similar revenue that fewer students at a higher tuition would provide?

To do any of this, I need the support of the piano technology community of which I'm a part.  They are the key to spreading the word about this program and encouraging anybody who may ask them about education in this field to look at this school closely.

I'm already prepared for the skeptics.  To keep with the "jump in" analogy, these will be the ones who try to drown me after I've jumped in. There are many who believe online education is a joke, or that this subject cannot possibly be taught online.  There will be those who offer established education in a different format that they believe is the best and won't be throwing me a life preserver anytime soon.

Admittedly, online learning is definitely different that a face to face environment, but if the last year and a half has taught us anything, sometimes it is necessary.  It has its ups and downs, to be sure.  What are the ups of my program?  Lower tuition fees, study at your own pace, no need to relocate or quit your job, work with a mentor who may be considering retiring, the list goes on.  Naysayers will say, even with little to no experience with this method of learning, that it can't possibly work.  They're right, in the sense that it may not work for everyone, but it will work for some people.  Those are the ones I'm trying to focus on, and they are the reason I offer the foundations course for free.  No cost, no obligation introduction to both the field, and the method of learning.  A student might say that neither the field or the method work for them.  They've sacrificed nothing to find that out, which gives this program a huge advantage over any others that are offered, be they correspondence, other distant learning schools, or face-to-face programs.  That is the one ingredient that I hope draws more people in to the program.

So if potential students are willing to test the waters, I have to make them a safe place to swim, without any fear of financial or physical repercussions.

To do that, I must jump in and show them, hey, the water in is pretty nice once you get used to it.  What are you waiting for?

What if I Get Hit By A Bus?

Yep, that topic.  What if I get hit by a bus?

I'm only asking this recently.  As I've started to continue building my program due to increased interest, especially from colleagues, I've been trying to position myself for when someone may take over administration of the course too.  For now it is just me, but you never know....

For example, every graphic I created, every video, every sound file, were all residing in my free Dropbox file.  I don't pay for extra space or anything like that, but what happens to all that stuff if I'm gone?

So, for the past two weeks I have been combing through everything I've created thus far, looking for references in all the work I've done so far for any mention of the word dropbox, and changing it to the same area where the course material resides.  It will be much easier to do it now, than after I'm gone, because, every single file in my dropbox will eventually disappear, I'm assuming, which means any students, teachers or mentors that are currently involved with the program will suddenly have a bunch of pages of course material with huge blank boxes where a graphic should be, no link to any audio or video files, when the course material says it should be there.

When I say this task of finding all references to dropbox is a gargantuan task, I'm not exaggerating.  There are 10 courses, Each course has anywhere from 5-10 "Topics" .  Each topic has at least 5 subtopics or books, each book has several pages, most of which are content rich with images and graphics I've either created myself or found on the internet and use with permission or credit to the artist who created them.

So let's do the math. 10 courses X average 7 topics, X 5 subtopics, X 5 pages per subtopic - 1750 places to look, each place could have anywhere from 3-7 content items (pics, audio, video, tables, screenshots), all of which still reside in my dropbox, but now also reside at learnpianotechnology.com.  Luckily Moodle has a great way to make files like that available to us in editing, and it took several hours to physically transfer or upload all of this rich content to a different server.  

But it is done.  

I hope......

Now excuse me while I go run in front of, oh, (clears throat) I mean, "for" the bus.  

Don't want to rush the inevitable....

M.O.O.N. spells moon

 Let me explain the title.  Most people from my generation would recognize the title.  MOON spells moon. From the iconic tv series The Stand, a Stephen King novel, one of the characters used to say this all the time if he was asked to remember something.  He was presented as someone with lower ability than most.  A loveable character, but simple.  Who else but King could pair a character like him with another one that couldn't speak or hear, and could only communicate by writing things down.  The character I'm referring to, of course, couldn't read, and could seemingly only spell one word. M.O.O.N. spells moon.

Why tell you this?

I'm using M.O.O.D.L.E. to develop this online course.  It is an excellent free, open source piece of Learning Management software, a marvel really, developed, supported, and enhanced by members of the community that uses it.  Because it is open source, it can be modified by the user themselves, customized to match any existing framework.  Again, it is amazing.

But today, I was ready to pull my hair out.  Unfortunately, while doing some editing and course work, I inadvertently flipped a certain feature off, which made editing a real breeze.  Suddenly, it just wasn't there anymore and I didn't know how to get it back.  The MOODLE community has forums where all users can communicate with one another, and documentation up the ying yang to help you with anything.  It is so complex that there are specific individuals who moderate forums that they have played a part in developing, or have used extensively, and are willing and able to share their expertise.  The documentation is expertly created and easy to navigate.  They even have a tracker site, that lets you search to see if your problem has occurred before, and what release, if any, a solution might be a part of.  It would certainly look to most like they've thought of everything.

Except today. M.O.O.....D.L.E. spells MOODLE.  Kept saying that.  All day.  The problems with looking for a solution to a problem with MOODLE, are that 1) you have to know exactly what search criteria to enter, and that it has to be phrased exactly the same as it would be in a forum or in the documentation.  I tried so many combinations of words, but couldn't find the answer in the documentation.

So instead, I tried entering the issue in a specific forum that dealt with the particular aspect of MOODLE I was experiencing troubles with.  Only problem was, nobody has posted anything in it since 2019.  I went to bed last night, hoping I would wake up and someone would have seen my question (complete with relevant screen shots, and a clear explanation of the problem).

Well of course, my little worried head couldn't sleep so I had to get up and check the forum.  The same anticipation one has waiting to see if what they posted on Facebook or Twitter would get a like or a retweet was hanging over me as I nervously checked my computer.  I quick sign on to the forums, and...nothing.  I panicked a bit, but then reminded myself, that the answer could come from anywhere in the world, someone from a completely different time zone.

So, what to do?  Wait a few more hours to see if anyone or even a bunch of people have some sort of brilliant solution?  Try to find the answer somewhere else?  I took option 2.  I posted the same question on a "General Help" forum, the kind of forum where you're told to post stuff if you don't know where else to post it.  Within 15 minutes, I got a reply.  He came up with a bunch of possible reasons for my problem, which I immediately tried.  None of them changed a thing.  One of them even scared me!  It basically said, don't do this because if you do it's really hard to get it back.  Yikes! Did this situation apply to me? Luckily his subsequent replies to my posts, which all said, basically, "Tried that but still have the problem", were pretty swift.  It was almost like we were communicating live it was that quick.  How lucky was I to be talking to somone who regularly hung out in this forum and thought he could help me.

And then, the conversation came to an end, I think because he ran out of ideas.  As I was typing my final response, and thank you for trying post, a little light went off inside me.  What if it is this?  The answer had been right in front of me.  In other forum posts I had found, even in the documentation.  Right there in front of me.  Could this be it?  I literally clicked on one little settings icon, changed one variable and VOILA!  Everything was back the way it was supposed to be. Relief isn't even a strong enough word to describe what I felt at that moment.

In the spirit of giving back and paying it forward, I let the guy who was helping me know what I had done, and I could almost hear him smacking his virtual forehead.  Literally right in front of both of us at the same time.  

So for the first time in 24 hours, I'm back doing things the way I've been doing them all along.  All is good in MOODLE world.  

M.O.O.D.L.E. spells Moodle........

Coping with COVID...

Well, it's been a while since I've been here.  A lot of major and life changing things have happened to me since my last blog post.  I lost both my parents after lengthy illnesses, two dear friends, one to cancer, another to a sudden heart attack.  But the news isn't all bad!  I got married 2 years ago to a wonderful man on the quiet beaches of the Gulf in Florida with only the sun, the sand and the waves as our witnesses.  We eloped and shocked everybody when they found out.

Of course, everyone's life has world wide has changed, and everyone has a story to tell.

Here's mine:

At the time of the first signs that something bad was coming, my hubby and I were at our home in Florida, and decided to head home after a month of being there and hanging out with our many friends.  The first lockdown happened mid-March, and after that, I got no calls for any type of service.  For a self-employed person to feel as if they've been fired, well, you get the point.

Not only was I fired from my own company, the sudden loss of income and something to do to feel like I was making a contribution to society disappeared as well.  My hubby and I were going to be building a home in Northeastern Ontario.  It was to be like a cottage, where we could go during warm summer months, visit with family who all live close by, and just get away from it all.  We lived in a beautiful condo in Toronto, where I was going to continue living so I could still work during the week.  Hubby was up north working on the house, which, at this point, was in a semi-completed state.

Just before the lockdown, we had returned from Florida.  Hubby went up north, I had a few tuning appointments to do, so I would join him once my schedule cleared.  I went up to see him for what was supposed to be the weekend.  I only packed 3 days worth of clothes because the plan was for me to go back to Toronto to work.

But, you know what they say about the best laid plans....

The first lockdown happened in Ontario.  Everything was closed except for grocery stores, gas stations and hospitals.  The same was true up north.  I had people cancelling appointments out of fear of catching the virus.  I was leary of going into anyone's home, almost a necessity in this line of work.  Both my hubby and I are seniors, and with no vaccine available, I was kind of relieved that I didn't have to work and put himself and myself at risk.

I remember thinking at the time, this will be resolved by May or June.  So we decided to take advantage of this sudden increased spare time that I found myself with, and dive deep into the build of our home up north.  We did our kitchen, bathrooms, drywall, painting and flooring as we had all the materials purchased before COVID,  It almost seemed like a blessing in disguise.  Almost...

We had planned to take a trip to Florida in April, and another one in June with 2 of our granddaughters right after they had finished school.  Both ideas were squashed as the Canada US land border were immediately closed.  Today as I write this, Canada is allowing US citizens in with proof of vaccination, but the US isn't allowing Canadians in just yet.  

The small town we live in up north has only 4200 residents, so it is quiet by most people's definition at the best of times.  It became like a ghost town, no cars, no traffic, no neighbourly chats, nothing.

It then became apparent that without my income, and no end in sight that things were ever going to be different, we made the difficult and heartbreaking decision to sell our home in Toronto.  Even our agent really didn't know how to price it for us, as this was an unprecedented situation for both of us and would be for any potential buyer.  We moved everything out of the house because I didn't want anyone touching our stuff, while at the same time, we knew it would likely sell faster with furniture in it.  Turns out, our agent picked the right amount because the place sold in 2 days for 99% of the asking price.  I then took up permanent residence in our partly constructed home, which is the kind of situation I don't advise anyone to do.  Living in a construction zone is, how shall I say it, difficult.

Summer became fall, and gradually parts of Ontario businesses were starting to open up.  I made myself available on a limited basis, as I had really missed work.  To work, I stayed an an airbnb, crammed as many appointments as I could, then would return up north for a few weeks, then book more appointments, go down to the GTA, work, then come home.  I did this for several months.

Fast forward to winter, December, my busiest month each year, and the province announced another lockdown for early January.  So I did what I could in December, and called as many people as I could to schedule times with them.  Got an airbnb, again, and returned home on the 23rd of December.

So we were locked down for about 2 months, then the government decided to try reopen everything, with certain restrictions.  So I went back to work in  March.  Then another lockdown this time in early April that lasted until late June, early July.

There is the threat of a wave of the virus with the Delta variant that could mean another shutdown is hanging in the air.  

We both got our 2 shots of the Pfizer vaccine, and the numbers in our area up north, continued to be low. It was certainly the safest place to be, and most residents of our sleepy little town were co-operative with restrictions, people were friendly and kind, and business almost seemed normal.

So here I go again, returning to work at the end of this month, with a slew of appointments in the GTA, scheduled for August - October, not knowing whether I'll actually make it there if there is another lockdown.

To top everything else off, we haven't been to our home in Florida since Feb 2020.  There has been some damage done to our home which we would have been able to fix if we had been there.  There was a tornado that ripped through our community and apparently our roof was on the verge of flying off.  We have water breaching our ceilings, our hot water heater is leaking, and the northern face of our home is covered in green stuff that is only getting worse with humidity. And with the current state of affairs in Florida (135,000 new covid cases last week), we're almost afraid to go down there.  It's like a death trap.

So why tell you this? Well, you can see I've had an overabundance of free time on my hand, so I decided to use this time to continue developing the program.  Let me tell you it is so much harder than anyone can imagine.  I create most of the images and the videos, and am trying to do it in a very structured manner and keep the interest levels high. This is something I couldn't have considered doing if I was still driving to the GTA to work.  I'd be too exhausted.

And there is now a sudden increase in interest in the course, as I, just today, posted my intention on a facebook group for women technicians to make others aware of the program, as there are none like it anywhere.  So far, I've received incredibly strong and helpful support from everyone.  Turns out, I'm not the only one who sees the need for the course, but I may be the only one who is addressing that need with a viable alternative for learning the craft.

Stay tuned.....sorry.....I can't help myself...

Loss of a Mentor

Once again, I am mourning a significant loss.  My dearest friend, who also happened to be my piano technology teacher, mentor and role model for almost 20 years, passed away peacefully after a courageous battle with brain cancer.

He was probably the most generous person I have ever known.  He was never too busy to help me out, and often performed many of the services he was so well known for at a much lower cost than his competitors did.  He was always there when I needed him, and even though he has only been gone for about a month, there have been many occasions when I wanted to pick up the phone and call him to ask him something, only to be snapped back to the reality that I can no longer do that.

He was deeply respected in the piano technology business because he was kind, honest, and a true gentleman, and clearly wasn't doing any of his skillful work for the money.  It was simply for the love of the job.

To honour him, and his wife and grown children, I will be carrying on his legacy.  He was excited about this program I am developing, and wanted to help out in any way he could without any compensation.

So I'm doing something I have known all along.  This course is not something I'm doing strictly for the money.  It is a love of the job, and the excitement of creating something I can be proud of, and helping others who may be looking for a change in their lives but can't afford expensive education.

Rest in peace John.  I hope I am making you proud.

Free Course!

After careful consideration and on the advice of a very wise educator who has supported me extensively throughout this exciting process, I've made the difficult but necessary decision to offer PT101 for free.  Yes, you read correctly, FREE.

Why am I doing this?  There are many reasons: 

1. Online education isn't for everyone.  Having a sneak preview of a course without any cost will help potential learners decide if it is something they can work at successfully.
2. As I've stated on many occasions to anyone who asks about my job, it has very little to do with music.  I have to test that theory somehow, and what better way to do it than to open the course up to people interested in learning this who come from a variety of backgrounds.  Some will be very musically inclined, others not so much.
3. PT101 doesn't require the use of a "beater" piano the way the other courses do.
4. A mentor isn't required either.
5. No expensive piano tools are required.  If any tools are needed, they will be ones that the learner will probably already have.
6. I can get helpful and constructive feedback about how effectively I've designed and developed the course.  This will help me fine tune and hone the remaining courses so that the program will rival its traditional setting counterparts.
7. I've had many questions regarding the cost for each course, and since it's still under development I can't give an exact figure.  The courses will all be priced individually and will include the necessary tools required for completion.
8. Knowing there are people waiting patiently for me to finish the remaining courses in the program will help keep me motivated.  I expect to have PT102 (Piano Tuning Theory and Practice), and PT109 (Assessments) completed in the next two months. I'm sticking to my promise in a previous post to do a "lesson a day", and in some cases, I'm doing two.  So progress is slow but steady!

Now, don't get me wrong, I know this is necessary but it still hurts!  It has probably taken me close to 1000 hours to develop each course and I expect the others to take at least that much time to do.  It is the hardest thing I've ever undertaken but know that in the end the rewards will more than make up for it, and I'm not just talking about financial rewards.

10 more minutes of self-pity and I'll be back at it. :)

A Lesson a Day

Sounds like something my doctor would say, right?  Nope, those words are coming from me to me.  As a self-employed person, I know how important it is to keep telling yourself to work.  You have to be the boss, the employee, and basically anything else the business needs.

That list includes motivator.  As I chug along creating lessons, images, videos and everything else that will be seen once this program goes live, I'm still working full-time as a technician, and sometimes at the end of the day I'm just dog tired, and don't feel like picking up a different kind of work.  Before starting this, I had no idea how much work went into designing, developing and implementing a program like this.  It is a daunting task if I look at the "big" picture and the sum of its parts.

But, there has been great interest in this program I'm developing.  I'm getting comments from people around the globe that "this is just what they are looking for", or "I'm really interested, please keep me posted".  

On top of that, I'm creating this program to take me into my later years once I've retired from piano tuning.  It's already taking its toll on my body, and I'm not even retirement age yet.  The program will help me stay involved and will allow me to do what I love:  teaching about something I'm most passionate about.  So I have many reasons to want to develop and put some time into the program every day.  Plus, I've promised that the program will be ready September 2014, one year from today.

Thus, this program development is my "apple".  I may not eat an apple everyday, but I pledge to myself, and to those who may be following my progress or have expressed an interest in the program, to do a lesson a day.  There are about 200 lessons to develop, but looking at them one at a time is a realistic and attainable goal.

Off to eat my "apple" for the day. :)

One down, nine to go

Ok, never thought this day would come, but I am actually finished the first course, PT101 - Foundations of Piano Technology in the Piano Technology Program!  What an incredible amount of work it was, but totally worth it.  I now know how difficult it is to create test questions, to make course content meaningful to someone who doesn't know it the way I do, to create graphics, videos and audio files.  My hat goes off to people who do this all the time, course designers, teachers, multi-media file produces and graphic artists.  

Each course can take thousands of hours to create, and be completed in 10 hours.  However, now that I have figured out the logical organization of each course and the way it is displayed (the stuff that makes it pretty), I can now focus on strictly content for the remaining courses.  Nine to be exact.  It's a daunting task, but one I feel ready for.

Next up:  PT102, the Tuning Theory and Practice Course.  This will take me back to the days when I was ready to give up on everything, because I just couldn't grasp the content. My challenge will be to up the ante a bit, make it a bit clearer to the students enrolled in the program than it was made to me when I was learning.

Onwards and upwards, as they say. :)

A people business

I'm writing today about the true nature of the business of being a piano technician. If you  think its only about fixing pianos, you'd be mistaken.  It is much more about the people that own them, in fact, it is about 90% of the business.

I decided to write this article because, in the last year, I have lost three clients, two to cancer, one to natural causes.  These were three incredibly talented musicians, and remarkable charitable people, whom I came to view as much more than clients.  I saw them as friends.  They were what we in the trade would call a "rare" breed, in that they kept their pianos tuned regularly, so I had a chance to know them well. Their passing has left a hole in my life that can never be filled.

For those of you considering piano technology as well, I cannot stress strongly enough the importance of a good "pianoside" manner.  I was lucky enough to be welcomed into my client's homes, but to be offered tea, biscuits, stimulating conversation, laughter, sometimes even lunch, and the joy and appreciation they expressed after I had completed my work made it all the more rewarding.

I said goodbye to one client two weeks ago.  Having never met her family, I had to introduce myself and who I was.  I was swarmed by her children and their spouses, her grandchildren, and her friends.  All of them said I had saved her life.  What did they mean by that?

A few years ago, I was having my workshop renovated.  The poor guy doing it told me if I brought another piano into my shop, he'd walk off the job (I'm sure he was just kidding, but you get my drift), because he was constantly having to move them around as he did his work.  At the same time, I had the opportunity to get a Canadian Heintzman piano for a good price.  My client had just moved into a nursing home and had to surrender a 7 foot grand.  It was difficult enough for her to have to go into a home like that, but to have no piano to play?  That would have killed her.  So I got this brilliant idea.  Send the piano to her, tell her that she could use it until, as I put it to her "you no longer need it".  There was a quiet understanding of what I meant by that, but the words were never spoken.  It stayed there for 6 years, until I got the call a few weeks ago from her daughter that she "no longer needed it".

This is the type of moment that no schooling can prepare you for.  All along I felt she was doing me a favour, when in fact, she and everybody else saw things differently!

While I will miss her terribly, it turns out her work may not be done yet.  One of the staff members of the home contacted me about purchasing the piano  You see, my client had been teaching her how to play piano, for free, just for something to do.  While this staff member was contemplating whether to purchase the piano, she told me she got a sign that it had to be hers.  My client had always told this staff member how much she loved the little yellow bird, finches, and saw them all the time at the beautiful garden at the home.  The staff member, who was on vacation when she learned of my client's passing, was sitting in her backyard, and what landed on her picnic table?  A yellow finch.  She knew it was meant to be, and I agreed that my client would be tickled pink to know that two people she liked and respected would now be coming together over the instrument she played and loved.

There are so many priceless moments in this job, which is why I love it so much.

The "Helpless" Desk

What I thought was a simple task turned out to be a two day affair. No thanks in part to the so called help desk at my hosting provider.

Naturally when someone pays for hosting (as I do), you would think that technical support would be superior. After the last two days, I'm wondering if the people who receive these tickets actually read what is in there.

It all started when I decided to move both the site and the moodle component of the program to a separate server. Easy, right?

WRONG!!

Here are a few snippets from our conversation:

Me: I'll need moodle 2.4.3+ found here http://download.moodle.org/ installed under this new add on domain.
Them: You can install a new moodle into new folder or sub domain name, you may choose where you want to install it into.
Me:Would you be able to install moodle 2.4.3+ under public_html/learnpianotechnology.com? Here's the link http://download.moodle.org/download.php/stable24/moodle-latest-24.zip.
Them: http://www.learnpianotechnology.com/ and http://moodle.learnpianotechnology.com/ are online.
Me: Would it be possible to have moodle installed under public_html/learnpianotechnology.com? I would like to be able to see my moodle site when I enter moodle.learnpianotechnology.com. Right now all I see is the same thing that is at www.learnpianotechnology.com. I would like version 2.4.3+, available here :http://download.moodle.org/download.php/stable24/moodle-latest-24.zip (3rd time I ask, still not done)
Them:We have installed Moodle for you into /home/barbhall/public_html/learnpianotechnology.com as requested.
Me:Thanks for doing that, but we still have a problem. When I type learnpianotechnology.com or www.learnpianotechnolog.com I want to see the website. learnpianotechnology.com - I see my moodle sitewww.learnpianotechnology.com - I get an error message from moodle: I just checked on the control panel and see that it was installed under learnpianotechnology.com, not under learnpianotechnology.com/moodle. Would that explain the problem?
Them: (and this was the final straw for me) Sir, you did ask us to install moodle on the domain learnpianotechnology.com which is what has been done !
Me:Actually, I'm not a sir, I'm a ma'am! Yes, I realize that is what has been done, and perhaps it was my mistake not to create a moodle folder for the installation. I have now done that and would like moodle to be installed under that new folder, because leaving it the way it is means I can't access my website (not the moodle site), as I mentioned in an earlier reply.Sorry to be a pain, but I need the latest install of moodle reinstalled in the moodle folder.

And it went on and on like that all day until about 11 pm last night. What a hassle. 

Aside from calling me a sir (even though I signed each post with my name (Barb), each one of their responses ended with "Please let us know if there is anything further we can do for you." My response: try reading the posts properly!!!! Arghhhh!

Back at it at last!!

First off, let me apologize to anyone following this blog with questions about this program. My life seriously got in the way of any progress I could have made. I finished my Master's Degree in Education, which, at the end was a tremendous amount of work that gave me zero spare time.

I had a friend's teenage daughter living with me for six months last year, and can now fully appreciate any single parent, especially one with teenagers. I loved having her here and gave all I could to her.

On top of that, my mom passed away after a lengthy illness, and I've spent the last few months cleaning up her estate.

I jumped back into the program development, only to discover that the version of "moodle" (the learning management software I'm using), had undergone several upgrades, which had completely passed me by. In an attempt to upgrade, much of the data I'd entered disappeared, but luckily I did have hard copies of the course material. On top of that, many of the administrative functions I needed to create course material disappeared, and the solution to the problem seemed really complicated. So I then made the decision to do a clean install of the new version of moodle, and am slowly populating the course material with everything I'd saved on my computer.

But now I'm going full-steam ahead. Will be doing more as the summer months approach when I'm not so busy. I promise :=)

So embarrassing..but good to know

What a day it was. I was at a customer's house this morning for a tuning. As so often happens, she inquired about becoming a piano technician. When I mentioned the course I'm developing to her, I directed her to the course website, where she could view a sample of the course.

First of all, and perhaps a sign of what was to come, the userid/password combination that I supplied didn't work. Somehow, that id had been deleted, so I signed into my administrator account and created a userid.

Then she signed in, and was able to bring up the sample course, but, yikes, none of the images displayed in the course topics! She was using Internet Explorer, and I'd only viewed the course in Firefox and Safari to this point.

Once I got home, I investigated it further. While I was able to sign in and view images on IE, it only worked when I signed in as an administrator. The images didn't display at all when a "student" signed in.

A quick search on the moodle site (http://moodle.org) led me to the solution. I didn't understand what the setting meant, but it entailed disabling a setting in the http settings. Once I did that, it worked fine.

I'm going to need testers with different browsers, versions, and platforms to view not only the course material, but hear audio, and view videos that make up the program. This is unlikely to be the first such occurrence of some technical glitch.

I'm learning as I go.

So many platforms to worry about....

I have been making good progress on the development of the program, but because I am including so many different types of media, I have to be aware of all the different platforms that are out there. I don't know what everyone will be using, but the task of making sure they are available on most is a daunting one.

I had used the JW player before for other projects, but revisited it when I discovered it had been retooled to work in html 5 (which one needs for iphone, ipad, etc.). It really works very well because it automatically detects what video it should display and the result is a clean, cool looking editor with no annoying "Oops" text I'd been receiving when trying to embed a flv video and viewing it on my iphone. It also automatically defaults to "download this video", if it can't be viewed in a flash editor or html 5. Very cool

I think, and I say that with caution, I've finally figured it out, so now I know the best format to create it in, and what encoded values work best. Time will tell if my choice is the best for the greatest number of users.

Beauty of Online Education

Well, development of the course is continuing, and what I like the best about this type of delivery method is that it isn't static.

Just the other day, I had the opportunity to tune a piano known as an "Aliquot" strung piano, something I had never heard of or done before. Luckily the name "Aliquot" was inside the piano, and even more luckily I had my smart phone with me and was able to google how to tune a piano strung like this.

It took me to good old Wikipedia, which had a photo that matched exactly what I was seeing, and I was able to proceed to the tuning.

Naturally this is something that I wanted to include in the course that I hadn't previously considered in the original design. What I needed was a short tutorial on tuning pianos like this. Even though this type of stringing is rare, and are proprietary to English piano manufacturer "Bluthner", I thought they should be discussed in my course.

I reflect on how hard this might have been to include if any other format of delivery had been used. Even though this type of discovery is the first time this has happened, I'm pretty sure it won't be the last. I always marvel, even though I've been doing this type of work for 15 years now, at how much I learn every day about servicing pianos, and how much I look forward to sharing my knowledge with future piano technology students.

Hard to put into words...

Not that I'm unusually surprised by this, but in an online learning program, like the one I'm developing in piano technology, everything has to be put on paper. Unlike a traditional face to face program, where the discussion can go in a number of directions, and a class leader can start with a set list of topics to cover and let discussions flow if they wish, an online instructional designer must carefully consider what possible direction, or what possible questions a student might have.

So it involves thinking of the bigger picture and presenting it in a clear and concise matter. The finest detail must be considered and presented to the learner. It is definitely easier to think on the fly than it is to write ti all down.

So I predict a few extra grey hairs, but it will be worth it in the end.

First Course Done

Well, the first course is done, and I'm almost completed desgining the outline for the remaining nine courses. I've approached this process much like I've done for many of my Master's Degree assignments - start with a "wireframe" and build on the rest. This will assure some sort of continuity amongst the courses. I can't wait to finish them, but patience will be required for the rest of the process.

The weather is pretty fine here, and I will more than likely be developing many of the course's resources poolside. Don't worry, I won't let the sun fry my brain, I'll be needing it!

iOS!

I finally figured out how to make the media content in the course (specifically videos and audio files) viewable by any browser. Moodle has a great plug in that frames the media very nicely, and its skinnable too, and I was able to view the content on my computer and on my iPhone. Flash didn't work, as us i(anything) owners know, so I created everything in MP4, and it worked.

Back to slide show problems, I couldn't let it go, so I went back to using a powerpoint presentation. The problem is that if I load these presentations to slideshare or google docs (both great services), the slide transitions are lost and each slide only displays for three seconds, and at the moment there is no way to modify that. That was why I originally opted out of using that method. Then I had a "genius" moment as I lay in bed thinking about it and got around the too fast problem by inserting duplicate slides into the presentation. So if I wanted to display a slide for 6 seconds, rather than 3, I just had the same slide twice in succession. There is no transition capability yet in either service, so that's a blessing really, because my site visitors aren't aware of the duplicate slide. To them it looks like one that plays for 6 seconds, when it is really 2 that play for 3 seconds each.

OK, enough patting myself on the back, its back to work.

Slideshow Troubles

Yikes, I'm about ready to pull my hair out!  It has taken me almost two days to figure out how to embed a slideshow in the program website.  Tried picasa by google, but there is a known issue that clicking on the play button takes my visitors away from the site instead of playing the slideshow.  Not what I want!! The slideshow plays perfectly once, but there's no autoloop feature, and the problems are apparent if the user wants to play it again.  I can't specify the interval between slides, though, and it's a little too fast. No word from google when that will be resolved, and it's a known issue that's been outstanding since March 2010!  Can't wait for them to fix it, and this has been an exercise in patience.

So I've resorted to creating an html slideshow and used iframe to embed it in the site.  It looks good, but the user must advance the frames manually.  Still better than the google option though, because at least the visitor has ample time to read each slide.

Back to the drawing board I go, and onward to developing the course material.  The push is on to promote the site and the course on social networking.  I've established some great connections on Twitter, Facebook continues to lag behind.

Getting started!

Well, development is quickly underway.  First was the website and trying to create a portal full of information about the programs that will be offered.  I've decided to create a link to a sample course, to give prospective students a small taste of what is to come.  I've almost finished the first course, and will be taking the summer off school to complete both programs.  Whew!  It will be a lot of work.  In the meantime I'm trying to establish a presence in the social networking sphere on facebook, twitter and linked in.  So far, I'm having more success with twitter.  Can't get anyone to "like" the facebook page. Suggestions?