MPTL14 2009 Udine 23‐27 September 2009 A Multimedia-Based Course To Learn Basic Acoustics Through The Internet: Description And Evaluation Arcadi Pejuan, Xavier Bohigas, Xavier Jaén, Cristina Periago, UNIVERSITAT POLITÈCNICA DE CATALUNYA Abstract A course on Basic Acoustics has been implemented as an Internet site with multimedia resources such as Flash animations, video clips, etc. Multimedia resources are particularly suitable for acoustics, due to the special role played by sound. The constructivistic model of learning within the EHEA framework was taken as the most suitable approach. The students’ overall evaluation has been positive, especially as regards the embedded multimedia resources. Furthermore, many comments taken from their evaluations and assignments have helped to correct deficiencies and to improve the course. 1. Introduction The goal of our contribution to the MPTL14 is the presentation of (a) how we organized a course on basic acoustics accessible as an Internet site (Pejuan 2009), and (b) it how has been assessed by its addressees, the engineering students in our technical college. 2. Organization of the course for the Internet The bases for the first part of our goal (organization of the course for the Internet) were the following: (1) Constructivistic model of learning, (2) EHEA format, and (3) Use of multimedia resources. (Of course, these bases are not of absolutely different nature, but rather on the contrary, there are cross-implications between each other!) 2.1. Constructivistic model of learning As for the basis of the course, the constructivistic model was taken as the most suitable approach, especially taking the students’ prior ideas about sound into account, which are far from being the scientifically accepted ones and also far from being consistent with a given mental model of sound. The main prior ideas about the microscopic nature of sound which are not scientifically acceptable are, in short (Periago 2009): a) Sound consists of air particles or molecules travelling from the sound source among the other particles or molecules of the transmitting medium. b) Sound consists of “sound particles” (different from air molecules) travelling among the particles or molecules of the transmitting medium. Therefore, the wave nature of sound had to be emphasized, also at microscopic level. It is most important that students internalize the wave model, because many other misconceptions about sound would change if students would have really internalized and assimilated this model and would apply it in a consistent way to the different properties of sound. Two examples of these “derivative” misconceptions are a presumed dependence between sound intensity and speed of sound and between sound frequency and propagation medium. 2.2. EHEA format The course is the basis for an elective subject on acoustics for distance-learning, given yearly since autumn 2006. (Before, a similar elective subject had been already given since autumn 1997, but as a presential subject and with only few multimedia resources). The main learning goals are: to describe sound mathematically as an oscillatory phenomenon and as a wave, to solve related situations numerically, to identify the sound features and the respective parameters, to know the theoretical background of the performances of musical instruments, and to acquire the basic concepts of architectural acoustics and digital sound processing, both at qualitative and quantitative level. The EHEA (European High Education Area) format is clearly the desired framework for the future teaching and learning, at least in Europe. Therefore, we took this EHEA format for the mentioned