Music Teachers' Use of Online Video Platforms (OVPs) in Lesson Design and Instruction

New technological developments and the popularity of the internet have changed the ways that people learn, listen to, make and teach music. Many music teachers now use a variety of digital tools to enhance their students' learning in the classroom. However, the use of technology in music education, and particularly videos, is still an under-researched area. This paper reports on an exploratory investigation of music teachers' use of online video platforms (OVP) such as YouTube, Vimeo, Panopto, and Dailymotion in lesson design and instruction. Through an online survey with 21 American music teachers, we gauged: (1) the frequency of use of videos in lesson design and teaching, (2) types of videos used by teachers, (3) the qualities of videos that teachers used, and (4) whether there were differences in video usage between grade levels and modalities of their music class. Findings suggested that music teachers frequently used OVPs both when planning and instructing their lessons, believing that such uses would make their lessons more engaging. Implications for music education are outlined at the end of the report.