Member Article

Music students face their greatest critics

Overcoming internet plagiarism is a real issue for today’s lecturers, but Newcastle University has found a novel way of ensuring the next generation of musicians are ‘the real deal’. The university’s International Centre for Music Studies is the first in the UK to host a dedicated online community site (the Hub) where students anonymously post their work in progress for critique and feedback.

Will Edmondes, music lecturer and programme director for the Masters in Music course, said: “Before this was set up, a few students had tried to pass off music downloaded from the internet as their own. “However, it was very difficult to actually prove it, as it’s not as easy to show plagiarism in music as it is for written work, but now we can clearly see their ideas evolve over time.

One particular composition module for students is taught almost entirely online via the Hub, which allows music students to share compositions and techniques as well as providing a forum for discussion and constructive criticism.

Even Dr Edmondes doesn’t know the identity of the online composers, who use pseudonyms to showcase their work. Marks are given to the online names and later translated into their ‘real life’ identities by a PhD student who monitors the site.

“Putting music up on the internet for everyone to hear encourages risk-taking, and even those who are reluctant at first soon come out of their shells. “It has also brought out a competitive streak in many of our students and the standard of work has risen noticeably as a result.”

For more information about the site, visit http://icmus.ath.cx.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .