Sonification of numerical data for education

ABSTRACT

Sonification is the use of non-speech audio to convey information. In this article, sonifications are representations of plots aimed at improving the accessibility of teaching materials. The electronic nature of sonifications means that they can be deployed to students via teaching interfaces such as virtual learning environments. We describe a two-phase study that explores sonifications of plots as a teaching tool in the context of distance learning in STEM. The overall objective of these two phases was to begin to assess the suitability of audio versions of graphs as a teaching tool for non-sighted and sighted students. In the first phase the effectiveness of sonifications within a small group of participants who took part in activities like those encountered in a distance learning setting was explored. We found that even though sonifications were new to them, participants were able to use them to gain impressions of the corresponding plots. The second phase deployed sonifications to all students on an Open University (OU) module. Although many of the students who chose to respond did so negatively, some found the sonifications an interesting augmentation of the plot. Overall, we demonstrate that for a subset of students, information in a plot can be communicated using sonifications.

KEYWORDS:

• Accessibility
• sonifications
• mathematics
• audio graphs

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the Open University’s internal funding body, eSTEeM, for their support and funding throughout the two projects. We are also grateful to other staff at the Open University who made the studies possible, in particular Lucinda Simpson, Sophia Braybrooke, Andrew Whitehead and Gloria Baldi.

Finally, we are grateful to the participants of Phase 1, and for the students of Phase 2, who provided us with such valuable feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Karen Vines

Karen Vines is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at The Open University, being involved with module authoring as well as a module team chair. Her eclectic research interests in statistics include the use of sonification to depict data.

Chris Hughes

Chris Hughes is a staff tutor in the School of Mathematics and Statistics. Chris has a strong interest in the accessibility of mathematical content. Previously Chris worked at Portland Community College, in Portland Oregon.

Laura Alexander

Laura Alexander is a Staff Tutor in the School of Physical Sciences at The Open University, and has 15 years of experience of distance STEM teaching as a tutor and module author. She has been involved in the production of various entirely online modules, mainly for first year undergraduates, and is particularly interested in the challenges this presents to learners in STEM subjects.

Carol Calvert

Carol Calvert is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the Open University. Previously Carol was a senior statistician in the Government Statistical Service. Her research interests are in using analytics to improve and focus efforts on student satisfaction and retention.

Chetz Colwell

Chetz Colwell is a senior manager for accessibility of learning and teaching at the Open University. With over 15 years of experience, she leads a team who conduct accessibility testing, and support the embedding of accessibility within modules and qualifications. Chetz also contributes to accessibility-related research projects such as sonification, inclusive STEM practices and an international research network.

Hilary Holmes

Hilary Holmes is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the Open University. Her main interests are improving support for disabled students studying mathematics and widening participation in mathematics.

Claire Kotecki

Claire Kotecki is a Lecturer in the School of Life, Health and Chemical Sciences. She has been involved in the production and presentation of science modules, particularly at level 1. She also has a mix of pedagogic and discipline-focused research.

Kaela Parks

Kaela Parks is the Director of Disability Services at Portland Community College. She has served in leadership roles for professional associations, taught courses at the graduate and undergraduate level, and worked as lead trainer on a federally funded demonstration project related to Universal Design. She was co-editor of the publication titled ‘Beyond the ADA: Proactive Policy and Practice for Higher Education’ and presents on a variety of disability and accessibility related topics.

Victoria Pearson

Victoria Pearson is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Physical Sciences at the Open University, with primary research interests in planetary science. She is Faculty Accessibility Coordinator for science, through which she supports academic teams to consider accessibility of their teaching content. She is a member of a team working to embed inclusive practices in STEM education.