Presenting iSCORE: Free Online Music Instruction Tool

On the morning of Tuesday, January 10, a small group of leading Canadian musical educators gathered at The Royal Conservatory to launch iSCORE, a free online music instruction tool.

The result of over a decade of research involving musicians, studio teachers, and students of all ages from across Canada, iSCORE was developed by The Conservatory, together with Concordia University and Queen’s University. It is the first bilingual online module designed specifically to support music study and instruction.

“This innovative teaching tool, developed by leading educators and researchers, fills a need in the music education community,” says Angela Elster, Vice President Academic, The Royal Conservatory. “iSCORE helps facilitate communications between music teachers and students, regardless of distance or time, ensuring a thorough online learning and evaluation process.”

iSCORE supports music-making with a wide range of features:

• A personalized homepage enabling students to establish goals and priorities;
• An embedded recorder and online portfolio allowing students to record and save practices and performances;
• Curated links to composition and sequencing tools;
• An internal messaging system and calendar to plan and schedule lessons and rehearsals;
• Interactive and personalized plans, reflection forms, and feedback from teachers.

"The beauty of iSCORE is in its potential to transform student learning," says Dr. Rena Upitis, Professor of Arts Education, Queen's University. "By engaging students through the digital technologies and social media that are so important to them, iSCORE also engages them in what really matters most: learning."

For more information on iSCORE, please visit iscore.rcmusic.ca.

The project partners thank the Department of Canadian Heritage, TELUS, and the Matthews Family for their generous and visionary support.