Interview questions for PPT music video research project

Instructions for interviewers:

Conduct the interview in a quiet place to aid with recording.  Ask for permission to record; if the student says "no," just take the best notes you can.   I would also recommend that you do take notes even if you record, just in case the recording is poor.  Some notes will tell us all we need; we will try to be selective about direct quotations.

Before the interview, read survey results for the student you are going to interview, and look for gaps you want to fill in.  You might even ask direct follow-up questions based on what he/she wrote on the survey.  If the student has answered any of the questions below in considerable detail, consider skipping that question.  Start by trying to make the student feel relaxed and comfortable.  Tell the student that

  1. the interview should take 30 minutes or less,
  2. the interview will be transcribed and shared among the research team. 
  3. he/she can pass on any question
  4. that the research team will invite him/her to respond to our use of the interview before we publish the article. 

Questions for Interviewees:

What did you think or feel when this assignment was introduced?  Were you excited, nervous, neither, a bit of both?  Why?  Were you excited because it wasn't an essay?

How would you rate your overall competency and comfort with computer technologies:  beginner, intermediate, expert?  Please tell me a little bit about your background with computers.

Would you have rated your knowledge of PPT as beginner, intermediate, or expert before the assignment began? How would you rate it now?

Had you worked with electronic music files much?  Downloading, burning, mixing, sharing?  Do you think you will work with electronic music files more now because of this assignment? 

Would you consider yourself an active or passive listener of music?  What is your level of engagement with music?  Are you passionate about it?  A casual listener?  Neither?

Please describe how you started the project: with a song or a concept?  Why did you start where you started?

Did you consider many options, or did you know exactly what you wanted to do right away?  If you considered many options, what were the other options, and why did you settle on your particular song or concept?

Please describe your composing process in as much detail as possible.   In particular, please described how you worked with your song or songs, but also talk about your choice of images, the organization or arrangement you used, the technical problems you encountered (if any), the feedback and help you received along the way. 

Did you work with any models during the process, and if so, how did you use them?  How did they influence your final product?

What was most difficult: composing with a)  music, b) images, c) words, or the combination of elements? 

When you compare the challenges of putting together your content (deciding on a topic / theme, deciding on organization, deciding on a song or songs) with the challenge of working with technology, would you say this assignment

a)      challenged you intellectually

b)     challenged you technically (to develop better skills)

c)      both?

Ask for an elaboration on the answer, and ask the student if they would consider themselves as concrete, hands-on learner or more of abstract, reflective learner.

What, if anything, did you learn about composing with text from composing a video?

Has this assignment given you any ideas for how you might use music or sound in other kinds of compositions?  Future PPTs, websites, videos, even text-based essays?

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