Brandon Stover

Posted November 02, 2016 20:59

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I would like to see the ability for students to be able to save takes between practice sessions. They currently have the useless ability to delete a take (why does this mater... they only submit one assignment anyways). I understand some students like to get rid of the bad and only keep their top scores, but to not be able to keep them from practice session to practice session hurts their ability to make improvement over time. As a teacher I want to encourage students to work gradually over time and grow their skills, not try to master everything in one sitting. .

Students should not be punished for walking away from the music for a time and coming back to it later. In fact, they should be encouraged to do so when things are getting frustrating or they just need a break. Instead I get submissions of poor quality because students are just trying to get the best they can in one sitting. 

14 comments

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  Trevor Shiffermiller November 11, 2016 22:34

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  I completely agree with this.  This does go along with my comment that we should have automatic submission of assignments.  Students have the ability to do an assignment from the time it opens until the due date.  The best version is automatically updated to the teachers gradebook.  When the student goes back again to work on it they are able to get back into the assignment and if they do better the new version is then uploaded automatically.

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  Chad Craw September 04, 2017 21:14

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  If it is still this way-- I agree completely!

  And this also ties in with allowing the assignments to be resubmitted.  Give teachers the option to choose how many "do overs" a student gets and until when.

  As it is, if I'm doing chair auditions based partially on smartmusic scores, kids will work on the audition early and get a decent score, but then they have to play a game: do I submit a pretty good score now, or try again later and hope to get a better score?  Most will just say "good enough" and submit.  That is not the attitude I want to foster.

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  Dan Connolly September 18, 2017 14:34

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  I agree.  This was a feature of the Classic SmartMusic, and I was actually surprised when students told me they lost all their previous takes on their first assignment and had to start again.

  For all of my classes, I typically make assignments due one week after they have been assigned so they can practice throughout the week and submit their best take on the due date.  I agree that it's better for the students to see their improvement over time and it is beneficial for them to practice in short sessions frequently rather than trying to cram a longer sessions without being able to take a break.  In addition, especially as students get older they have more and more commitments within and outside of school, and so I like to be able to give them a due date a week later and they can schedule their practice sessions when it works into their schedules.  For some students, that's 15-30 minutes right after they get home.  For some students, that's 30-60 minutes every other evening.  Now that students don't have the ability to save and submit their takes later, I'm concerned that they will just hand in the first take they get, and then basically the whole point of paying for and using SmartMusic is no longer present.

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  John Blank September 21, 2017 19:24

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  Yes, absolutely. The fact that it doesn't encourages students to just submit something that's "good enough" instead of sleeping on it and coming back the next day to see if they can beat their previous score. Since they are going to lose their work, they just submit it and the practicing ends. Super important feature change. Smartmusic project managers, please bump this up the list ASAP. 

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  Dan Connolly September 21, 2017 19:36

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  Glad to see others want this changed as well.  Just a reminder that votes determine the priority for requests, so be sure to bump up the vote on the thread and all the comments to make it more visible.

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  Asa Burk September 21, 2017 22:08

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  This just makes sense since NSM is now browser based and in the cloud as opposed to being tied to one device.

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  Edwin Serrano September 26, 2017 21:35

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  This needs to be fixed.  Students should be able to not only save takes between devices, they at least should be able to save takes on the same device!!!

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  Dan Connolly September 27, 2017 11:48

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  I understand that moving a browser-based platform means that not everything can function the exact same way, but that doesn't mean that it's an impossible task.  Even though takes can't be saved to one device, saving takes on a cloud-based server is certainly an option, and would mean that students could access them across devices through their account.  I'm sure MakeMusic might not want to invest in a server, but isn't this why we pay subscription fees?

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  Dan Connolly January 26, 2018 13:48

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  I wanted to renew my plea based on a complaint I received from a student this week.  After practicing for nearly an hour, the app glitched and she was forced to close it.  When she opened the app again to see that all of her takes were deleted, she felt defeated.

  Now, this is my top student in any class (of any year, for that matter).  When we first started using SmartMusic (Classic) every assignment she would turn in would be scored at 100%, and I figured she was just naturally talented and got the music faster than the other students.  Then I noticed that she also spent at least twice as much time as I required for the assignments (and often, triple or quadruple the time).  I was right, she is talented, but she also spends extra time working on phrasing, tone, articulations, etc.  So, this is a student who is willing to put in extra time for the sake of the feeling of accomplishment.  But last week, when she put in her extra time only to see her work disappear before her eyes, that's just wrong.  Please fix this issue.

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  Michael Holden October 05, 2018 15:28

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  I've requested this, too! Not having this feature actually strongly discourages me from even using New SmartMusic for the purposes of assessment. Until this feature is added, I will only use it as a practice tool, not an assessment tool.

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  Aaron Sikora October 11, 2018 02:03

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  Please make it a priority for student to be able to save a few takes between sessions, even just their top three scores, many of my students feel like they are starting over each time they log in, many students are submitting lower scores because they are unsure if they will score higher tomorrow instead of working up to their best work before the due date

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  Debbie Enstrom October 17, 2018 21:21

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  Student frustration, parent frustration and teacher frustration is building.  PLEASE find a way for students to save their top scores (even their top 3 would be nice!).  Students are sending in sub-par assignments in fear of losing their top score and then are not able to revisit that assignment at a later date to retry for a better result.  We are not teaching them, then, that practice makes perfect, but rather settle for the best you can do on that certain day and then give up on trying to improve. As a former Classic Smartmusic user I'm disappointed that students are feeling panicked to send in desperation marks instead of being able to continue trying.  

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  ruth willenborg November 19, 2018 13:31

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  I'm almost speechless that the new Smartmusic doesn't allow for high scores to be saved.  We have a shared computer at home.  I rebooted - not realizing my son would loose all his work.  There went his backup 98 as he planned to keep working later in the evening to try to get his 100.  I feel terrible, but there is nothing I can do about except plead with you to please add this feature back we used to rely on.  He may have to miss his extracurricular activities tonight just to get his score back.  This design is not fair to the kids or the parents, or our exceptional band director who I know is/will be dealing with frustrated kids (and parents)  

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  ruth willenborg November 21, 2018 00:48

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  As Daniel pointed out above, being web based does not preclude saving takes across log-out.   There are many different technologies available (and have been available for over 20 years) that provide for persistent storage for web-based applications.  A web-based design should even allow the user to go to different computers without losing their data (think google docs, google mail, etc).  In addition, there are now client-side capabilities to persist data across browser sessions.  Client-side storage may be the easier path for SmartMusic to get something done quickly - it shouldn't require additional servers.  IndexedDB can be used for client size storage as it is available in all modern browsers and allows for storing of significant amounts of data.