Literacy Loops and Online Groups: Promoting Writing Skills in Large Undergraduate Music Classes

This article describes online group assignment sequences that were carried out in a large undergraduate music course, “Turning Points in Western Music.” These assignment sequences were developed to build on students’ high levels of digital literacy, using their enthusiasm and skill in online interactions in order to promote their writing skills. The assignment sequences involved online student-student discussions assisted by e-moderators, and sequenced online writing tasks based on existing best practice models in online learning. The benefits of this practice, from both the student and teacher perspective, are discussed, and some guidelines as well as suggested further developments are provided.