About the Customer
The eAr Academy, founded by Hein Van De Geyn and Rus Nerwich, is a fully digital, online music school offering curriculum-based courses embodying the practical, theoretical, and philosophical elements of learning music.
The eAr Academy also does what centuries-old wisdom previously couldn’t: use tech to help teach, putting it all together in an immersive, innovative, and intriguing way.
The Challenge
The eAr Academy needed a custom software solution to effectively manage its diverse course offerings in a thorough yet thrilling way, allowing students to progress at their own pace in the comfort of their home.
To address these challenges and provide a seamless learning experience, The eAr Academy sought the expertise of Silicon Overdrive, a leading Software Development company, to develop a custom Learning Management System (LMS) that would allow them to upload and manage course content, monitor student progress, provide feedback, and adapt instructional strategies based on individual student needs and preferences.
Students also needed to easily access course materials, track their progress, take notes, and engage during their music studies.
More than anything else, The eAr Academy needed a technical partner who understood the nuances of what they were trying to achieve and could support them through their journey.
The Solution
Collaborating closely with Silicon Overdrive, The eAr Academy embarked on developing a bespoke LMS platform tailored precisely to their unique requirements and subscription model.
How We Built the LMS
Silicon’s developers utilized CodeIgniter, a PHP framework, in conjunction with AWS hosting on EC2 and database services (Amazon RDS) to develop the custom Learning Management System for The eAr Academy. The AWS services ensured a scalable, efficient, and reliable platform tailored to meet the specific needs of the online music school and its students.
AWS Transcoder is used to convert uploaded high-quality videos into multiple files to cater for different devices with different resolutions. The video lessons now allow users to enjoy seamless playback, thereby maintaining a consistent and positive user experience regardless of their internet connection speed.
Amazon CloudFront is used to enhance file caching, video loading and streaming speeds for students. CloudFront dynamically optimizes video formats for each student’s device, ensuring minimal data usage while maximizing performance.
How Students Use the LMS
The eAr Academy’s custom LMS includes an integrated payment system, allowing students to register, log-in, purchase courses by level and be inspired.
The music platform provides students access to multiple features, including music notation tools, reading exercises, a metronome for tempo practice, and the ability to share ideas and collaborate with peers via the “Inspiration” page, where they can save a URL and a thumbnail and title of the video is automatically embedded on the page for later viewing.
The eArspace
The eArspace serves as the central hub for all learning activities within The eAr Academy’s digital platform. It features a personalized inspiration board and eArmarks to help learners track their progress. Most importantly, it serves as the gateway to accessing courses, where all learning resources and materials are housed.
The Playgrounds
The playgrounds cover seven facets of music: Tunes, Etudes, Exercises, Songs, Improvisation, Ear Training, and Theory. A directed learning journey guides learners through these facets in a linear sequence, but they also have the freedom to explore any facet they choose.
Below is an example of a playground featuring the seven facets, where learners can access videos related to each facet:
The Outcome
A fully customized Learning Management System allows The eAr Academy to manage a growing online music school with multiple 3rd party integrations.
The online platform is user friendly, allowing musicians to focus on what they do best with all the resources they need at their fingertips.
Musicians can work through the courses at their own pace and time, making it easier for them to practice and hone their musical talent.
By prioritizing student engagement, personalization, and scalability, The eAr Academy elevated the quality of its music education offerings and positioned itself for continued success in the competitive online education mark
