Auralisation and Visualisation as Tools for Learning in Acoustics

Abstract

'Auralisation' is listening to physical phenomena. It has been one of the main research areas of Chalmers Room Acoustic Group but in this project, it is used in a rather simplified way as sound examples explaining or demonstrating acoustics. Visualisation, on the other hand, is achieved by displaying physical processes in the form of animation on the computer screen. This report concerns a pedagogical project financed by the Council for the Renewal of Undergraduate Education. The aim of this project was the development of a library containing auralisation and visualisation examples in cooperation with students from our education program 'sound and vibration'. The library is intended for independent use by our students and as demonstrations during the lectures in different courses. The main task of the library is to motivate students to concentrate on understanding and to offer the students alternative ways of looking at 'How acoustics works'. The project aimed to combine both the technical development and the pedagogic approach. It is based on the specific problems we experience in our teaching activities in acoustics. The general goal is to foster student learning by exposing them to different perspectives on the central phenomena we teach, which is one principle of teaching for learning as described by Marton and Booth, and to set the phenomena in their own worlds of experience.