viaAcademies Launches Online Instrumental Music Academy

The expanding catalog of K-12 online courses now includes musical instrument instruction.

Danville, PA (PRWEB) November 7, 2009 -- Enrollments of K-12 students in online courses are on the rise along with the number of available course offerings. Now students can take instrumental music online through viaAcademies, a convenient, flexible and affordable online, instrumental music academy.

“Performing music opens a child’s mind to new possibilities, strengthens them physically and builds their drive to succeed,” says Mark Burke, Founder and CEO of viaAcademies. “We believe every child should have the opportunity to learn to play an instrument but there are many barriers. Finding the right teacher and a convenient time for lessons can be difficult and expensive. We’ve chosen a blend of technology and traditional, apprentice-style music instruction to create our program.”

Students access their classes by logging into the viaAcademies’ online system, learning to play their instrument through demonstration videos, written lessons, built in quizzes, online tests and live sessions with their online teachers. Students learn to assemble their instruments and make their first sounds, then move on to live, webcam lessons with a viaAcademies teacher. Students practice their playing assignments and submit them to their teacher for comments using a program called SmartMusic, a leading computer-based music practice and assessment tool.

Initial classes include Flute, Clarinet, Saxophone, Trumpet, Trombone and Mallet Percussion. These courses are designed for beginners or students who have played for 1-2 years but need extra help. French Horn, Baritone and Snare Drum courses will be available in the spring of 2010. More advanced courses are planned for the fall of the same year. viaAcademies courses can be used by homeschoolers and virtual school students. Students involved in private or public school programs can also enroll as a supplement to their school program.    

“We were delighted to learn that SmartMusic had been chosen as a key component in viaAcademies' virtual school,” stated Ron Raup, CEO of MakeMusic, creators of SmartMusic. “Our mission is to develop and market solutions that transform how music is composed, taught, learned, and performed. viaAcademies' approach of combining online instructional content, demonstration videos, practice assignments, assessments and support from live teachers is clearly transformative and closely aligned with our mission. The combination of SmartMusic and viaAcademies provides a wonderful solution to the complex needs of the homeschool and virtual school communities, and indeed all students who desire to improve.”

The viaAcademies’ online system allows students and parents to track student progress. “Accountability in Instrumental Music is generally lacking. Students take lessons, often with no record of their level of understanding or performance mastery. Our goal was to change that by partnering with an organization that could host our educational content and provide our desired level of assessment and performance tracking. IQity.net met our needs perfectly,” says Burke.

“Here at IQity, we are very excited for viaAcademies, and for Mark Burke, their founder. It's wonderful to see music education reaching more people through the internet. It's also exciting for us, as e-learning pioneers and advocates, to see our product being used outside of a traditional K-12 environment. This venture shows that e-learning is a viable alternative to nearly any type of educational situation,” says Thomas Crawford, iQITY.

About viaAcademies:

viaAcademies was founded by Mark T. Burke and Dr. William S. Ciabattari in January 2009 as a division of viaEdTechnologies, LLC., Danville PA. viaAcademies is a Greater Susquehanna Keystone Innovation Zone member. Additional information about our offerings, enrollment options, staff and teachers can be found on our website at www.viaAcademies.com.

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