Given the rapidity of digital innovation, one might assume that a five-year-old text concerning educational technology would be in danger of obsolescence. Not so for Judith Bowman’s Online Learning in Music, which can stake a claim for continued relevance on at least two counts. First, academic practice tends to lag somewhat behind technological development: early adopters notwithstanding, old habits die hard, and institutional uptake and support for new initiatives can move at a glacial pace. (Perusal of conversations on, say, the mailing list for the Association of Learning Technology, www.alt.ac.uk, reinforce such an impression.) Simply put, there will, doubtlessly, exist a sizeable potential readership for whom online and blended learning remains unfamiliar terrain, and who would benefit greatly from an introductory text. Second, Bowman casts the book not as a ‘how-to-manual’ but as an elaboration of ‘a scholarship of online teaching and learning in music in higher education’ (p. vii). Accordingly, digital technologies and platforms tend to be mentioned in passing, as illustrative examples only; the underlying pedagogical principles are the focus, not the necessary hardware and software. The question thus becomes one not of obsolescence but of usefulness: to what extent might such a scholarship of online teaching and learning be of use to its readers? The answer depends very much on the readership in question.

The book is organised into three parts, the first of which offers an overview of the field. The opening chapter provides a potted history of online learning, and a series of definitions (pp. 4–7; useful for navigating audits and regulatory frameworks, particularly from a US perspective). From here, we move to ‘Quality Assurance’ (Chapter 2): how do we know that online learning offers at least as educationally robust as face-to-face delivery? Bowman’s summary of the literature acknowledges that there are very few studies and surveys that single out music as a discipline, and so the conclusions derived are necessarily generalist, focused on staff (often high-ranking) rather than student perceptions of educational value (the lack of student voice throughout the book is something of an omission), and come out (inevitably) in support of online learning as a mode of delivery. The third chapter turns to specific studies of online learning in a musical context. This is a slim field, as Bowman observes, and the threads she teases out are correspondingly provisional: constructivist approaches, collaborative activities and desktop videoconferencing are all viable in a musical context (p. 49). Taken as a whole, these three chapters make for a useful, if sweeping, introduction to online learning for those new to the area, offering both a guide to terminology as well as certain assurances around quality control. Given the focus of the literature under review (dissenting voices are not included), I have my doubts that this section could convert sceptics; the material here seems very much geared towards those willing to explore online learning, rather than those for whom stronger advocacy might be required.

Part II is entitled ‘Theoretical and Pedagogical Frameworks’. In Chapter 4, Bowman introduces the TPACK (technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge) framework (Mishra & Koehler, Reference Mishra and Koelher2006) and L. Dee Fink’s ‘design for significant learning’ (Reference Fink2013). Alternative models are not surveyed, and so critical arguments for why the TPACK framework and the design for significant learning are most suitable for online learning remain unstated. Bowman’s primary contribution is the mapping of correspondences between the two models in the conclusion to the chapter. A suggestion that learning activity types (and musical learning activity types; see Harris & Hofer, Reference Harris and Hofer2009; Bauer, Harris & Hofer, Reference Bauer, Harris and Hofer2012) might be integrated within TPACK offers intriguing lines of development that could have been expanded further. Chapter 5 begins to explore specific issues around distance learning such as transactional distance. Once again, the bulk of the content of the chapter is devoted to bringing together a variety of pre-existing theories and frameworks (Garrison’s model of ‘community of inquiry’ (Reference Garrison2011), looms large in the background). There are efforts here to offer examples of how the frameworks might apply to music education. For instance, ‘In online music learning, [learner/content] interaction might be achieved through the use of written or recorded lectures prepared by the instructor’ (p. 86). This is so vague that the omission of the word ‘music’ would change nothing.

There are more concerted efforts to discuss music education in the final section, ‘Teaching and Learning in the Online Classroom’. The first two chapters (6 and 7) cover fully online and blended courses respectively; Chapter 8 considers teaching and learning (not least the role of the educator as ‘director of learning’, pp. 148–50); Chapter 9 suggests best practices; and Chapter 10 casts the net into the future to predict trends. There is an inconsistency of tone at the start of this section (pp. 111–113), shifting between first-person plural and second person – at times prescriptive (‘We need to rethink our existing approaches’) and at other times suggestive (‘If you believe that vital discourse within an online community of learners is at the heart of online learning, then your design efforts will be targeted towards various ways to create and sustain that community’). In what follows, however, Bowman tends towards the suggestive. The main text offers common-sense guidance towards the construction of online and blended learning teaching, which offers much to the neophyte and plenty still for the more experienced; boxed-asides targeted at applying such ideas to music education continue the somewhat generic approach to exemplars noted above: in most cases, the examples could easily be reworked to suit any humanities subject. In the penultimate chapter, Bowman notes that there exists no set of guidelines specific to best practice in online learning in music (p. 179). The opportunity to remedy this situation is avoided: instead, Bowman summarises generic guidelines, offering only a handful of ‘anecdotal examples from the field’ at the end of the chapter in order to bring music into the equation (pp. 198–202).

There are, therefore, considerable questions one might pose about the intended readership of this book. Comparing the title of the book with its contents, we find that the emphasis is most squarely on ‘foundations, frameworks and practices’ connected to ‘online learning’, with ‘in music’ existing at the margins. The primary exception lies in Chapter 3, in which Bowman surveys literature in five subdisciplinary areas: applied music (i.e. performance), music theory, music appreciation, music therapy and, cursorily, music education (pp. 39–49). But even here, the focus is on what the literature has to say about the use of technology in these areas, rather than a reflection on the specific pedagogical challenges these areas pose. The result is that, while musical subdisciplines get further brief mentions in the text that follows, too often ‘music’ is treated as a shorthand that overrides distinctions within the subject area, and the opportunity to advance serious discussion about the challenges and opportunities for ‘online learning in music’ similarly lost.

The value of the book lies, therefore, not in what it tells us about online delivery of music as a discipline, but rather as a useful collation of pedagogical frameworks and models of online and blended practice. Readers interested, say, in using TPACK to help them design an online music module will need to supply their own understanding of the P(edagogical) problems that need to be solved, and with it the T(echnological) means of addressing those problems (and so on). The practical tips found in Part III can then be used to nuance this design and avoid simple mistakes. The lack of close disciplinary engagement means that the book would also appeal to pedagogues working in other fields, though supplementing it with volumes that offer a broader range of frameworks and perspectives (e.g. Beetham & Sharpe, Reference Beetham and Sharpe2013) would counterbalance, say, the narrower focus on TPACK and design for significant learning offered by Bowman.