When the Office Is “Cursed:” Rethinking Playing Tests to Assess Skills, not Nerves

By V o i c e T h r e a d Guest Post

This is a guest post by VoiceThread Certified Educator, Dr. Kathleen Melago

“I swear I could do it perfectly downstairs in the practice room!” I heard that phrase countless times while teaching woodwind methods classes, as students tried to perform playing test requirements in my office. “It’s like your office is cursed!” they would say as their fingers and embouchures would defy them. If you require students to perform playing assessments, you have probably experienced similar situations where lack of preparation and/or nerves come together to result in an uncomfortable situation for you and the student and a less-than-accurate assessment of their actual skills. This means that you are potentially assessing the student’s ability to navigate nerves rather than their skills.

During the pandemic, when I suddenly had to figure out how I would conduct playing tests when we were all in our own homes, I immediately thought of VoiceThread, which I had been using for years in other classes for its more obvious use as an interactive platform where students could post their thoughts and ideas and provide feedback and extended perspectives to each other. I recalled that VoiceThread had a “comment moderation” feature, where only the instructor could see the students’ comments unless the teacher opened the “eye” to allow others to see them. I discovered that VoiceThread was the perfect tool for playing tests!

I was already used to using VoiceThread in my classes, so I applied what I knew about VoiceThread to this new-to-me use. I set up the VoiceThread so each slide was a different element of the playing test. On the slide, I included the instructions for that element. For example, “On this slide, record exercise #1 of your playing test.” I enabled comment moderation and set the comment options to allow recording video directly in VoiceThread or uploading files and shared the link with the class. Students were able to access the VoiceThread and record their playing tests when it was convenient for them and I was able to assess them when it was convenient for me. 

This became more than a pandemic solution - it became my new normal, even after we returned to in-person classes. As I thought more about what I was assessing, I recognized that what was important was that they could demonstrate the skills of tone, technique, scales, and intonation, not that they could do it one-on-one in a seemingly high-stakes assessment for me. By allowing students as many takes as they needed to record the elements of their playing tests, they could submit what they believed was their best work, rather than being limited to one attempt in my office. 

If they weren’t prepared, rather than trying to restart over and over and having a painful playing test, they could work until they were ready up to the deadline for the assignment. By incorporating opportunities for reflection after playing tests, I hoped to provide impetus for students to engage in self-awareness and exercise agency in self-management for future playing tests. While it might be possible to cram to memorize content like fingerings, it is not possible to cram to learn a skill that requires use of fine muscles for an embouchure. Students began to understand that practicing consistently during the instrument rotation was a way to avoid angst when it came time to record. 

Of course, there were still students who waited until the last minute and struggled, but using VoiceThread ensured that what was being assessed was the students’ current skills on the instruments, not their ability to navigate performance anxiety by performing one-on-one for the teacher with only one attempt. This new process allowed students to have more ownership over their assessment because they could choose when the video was a solid representation of their skills.

For the instructor, this approach also reduced the awkward situations where a student keeps restarting in hopes it will magically be right the next time while the line outside the door grows longer as the assessment schedule falls behind. Rather than scheduling hours of time in the office with buffer-zones of time between each student to allow for a test taking a little longer, assessment time is shored up to the length of time it takes to play each element once. Should the assessor’s attention drift during the assessment, the option to replay is available. Finally, if a student contests their grade, the videos can serve as documentation of their assessment submission, rather than relying on the student’s and instructor’s accounts of what happened during a live assessment.

While there are other ways to have students submit assessments by video, VoiceThread has some specific strengths:

  • Comment moderation
  • All videos in one place for the instructor to review
  • The ability for students upload files from their device or to record directly into VoiceThread, which doesn’t require storage on the device
  • Integration with common LMS, which can support sharing the VoiceThreads and connecting with gradebooks
  • Works on phones and computers
  • Feedback can be provided by text, audio, or video comment right in the platform.

There are a few challenges to navigate:

  • If requiring them to use VoiceThread for the assessments, ensure that each student has access to a device.
  • Some may argue that in “real life,” musicians don’t get multiple chances. It’s important to think of the course goals and whether giving multiple chances is appropriate. Note that VoiceThread can be set to not allow comments to be deleted, which is an option that can be helpful.

I can’t imagine teaching any classes that require playing assessments without VoiceThread now. If you are teaching a class where students need to demonstrate performance skills, I highly recommend incorporating VoiceThread. Start with something small, like the demonstration of one skill, so the students can get used to using the platform. Embed student reflection to help them learn more about how they learn and to see what processes will help them achieve their goals.

About the Author:

Dr. Kathleen Melago is Professor in the Department of Curriculum, Instruction, and Educational Leadership at Slippery Rock University (SRU). From 2009 to 2025, she served as Music Education Program Coordinator in SRU’s Department of Music, where she taught a wide range of music education courses and supervised field experience students and student teachers.