Who said virtual learning can’t be as fun and interactive as in-person education? Certainly not us.
Since March of 2020, LA Opera Connects has been working hard to keep our learning programs just as fun and interactive from home as they were in the rehearsal rooms of the DCP. Thanks to Curriki, a non-profit organization that focuses on digital educational service, we have reimagined the opera classroom into a virtual and educational wonderland (complete with interactive animations and videos).
An interactive virtual lobby for LA Opera Connects' Saturday Mornings at the Opera Workshops
This partnership was the first of its kind here at LA Opera, which makes us even more excited to share this with students and educators around the city. After all, getting others to learn about and experience the wonderful world of opera is sort of our thing. And with Curriki’s seamless experience on any device, whether it be a tablet or a computer, it makes reaching our mission (and our affiliated teachers’ jobs) that much easier.
"While we have been producing digital lesson plans for teachers for some time, the learning environment drastically changed at the start of the pandemic. Without the physical classroom setting, teachers needed self-guided lessons that students could complete on their own. CurrikiStudio offered the ideal platform for this type of learning because it enabled students to work through lessons on their own, complete in-lesson activities to test their knowledge, and feel a sense of accomplishment,." says Stacy Brightman, VP of LA Opera Connects.
Now you’re probably wondering, what do these interactive lesson plans entail?
With Curriki, LA Opera was able to redesign lesson plans with built-in tools such as quizzes, slides, interactive videos, sound clips, and more, while ensuring that students and teachers never have to jump around to different websites or applications to experience it all.
Our virtual lobby for Saturday Mornings at the Opera, designed off of "The Prospector."
Curriki made it easy to expand our content with multimedia elements. Now, students can hear the musical instruments of the orchestra, watch videos about stage lighting, and complete fun drag-and-drop activities, all within the lessons.
LA Opera Connects has also been able to create virtual experiences for families attending our "Saturday Mornings at the Opera" workshops. Since we couldn't welcome our audiences to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion lobby in person, we created a virtual lobby, filled with animations and themes from the events. Cool right?
This program isn’t limited to just us. Many organizations and schools, including LAO-affiliated LAUSD teachers, have been able to use Curriki with their own students to keep them engaged during these times when—let's be honest—students might not feel as motivated.
Gabriel Serrano, an LAUSD teacher who works with LA Opera, implemented Curriki into his lesson plans with great success.
"The timeline and quiz were easily used and navigated by the majority of the students. Both the students and the teachers gave positive feedback about these two features. The students were able to scroll between the quiz and timeline and use the articles as resources to answer the quiz questions, which is great practice toward the standard of referring to a text for answers. Every student, both online and in-school, was able to complete the assigned worksheet and submit a synopsis summary to Schoology, LAUSD’s online platform," he said.
We’re extraordinarily grateful for this partnership with Curriki and all its done to keep things semi-normal with a unique twist, just how we like it.
Want to take a look at some lesson plan and workshop examples?
Click here to view all of our Curriki lesson plans and workshops.
To learn more about our Connects educational programs, click here.
