Alisha Nypaver

Alisha Nypaver

  • Boyer College of Music and Dance

    Music Studies

    Assistant Professor

    Programs
    • Music History
Office Location

Presser Hall 307

Phone

215-204-4454

Biography 

  • MM and PhD, music, Temple University
  • BA, music, Edinboro University of Pennsylvania
  • AS, business administration, Edinboro University of Pennsylvania

Alisha Nypaver is a faculty member in the Department of Music Studies at Temple University, specializing in large general education courses, online learning and pedagogy in higher education. Her dissertation explored the convergence of traditional classroom teaching and how music studies are taught on YouTube by surveying professors and interviewing some of the leading YouTube music studies content creators.

Her interest in the chronology of music in Philadelphia led to the creation of a course called "The Sounds of Philadelphia," a Race and Diversity General Education course exploring the lives and careers of musicians, producers and songwriters connected to the Philadelphia region through a sociological lens that centers and contextualizes issues related to diversity, equity, inclusion and power throughout history.

Nypaver's current research projects focus on testing and integrating cutting-edge educational tools in both traditional and online classrooms, teaching digital citizenship and pedagogical practices for music in higher education. Her work in teaching and educational technology has been recognized through her nomination for the Innovative Teaching with Technology Award and as a finalist for the Pearson Excellence in Higher Education for Student Engagement Award.

Past projects include a five-stage immersive listening experience for non-music majors, experiments in writing “un-Googleable” multiple choice questions designed to measure higher-level critical thinking skills, a comparative study of students who were allowed to use various technology tools on a final exam, and an experiment that measured the effects of peer-review on student presentations.

Her interest in global cultures is reflected in her work in developing the online version of the "World Musics and Cultures" course and her service as faculty advisor to several student organizations including the Temple Vietnamese Student Association, the African Diasporan Dance and Drumming group and the Central Asian Student Association. 

In addition to her teaching and new course development work, Nypaver serves as a Quality Matters online course reviewer and is the online coordinator for the Department of General Education at Temple University. She is the current president of the Northeast Chapter of the College Music Society.