| Background to the project |
| The Music Department at the University of Huddersfield is developing a courseware package designed to improve musicians' aural awareness. This is a three year project funded by HEFCE's Fund for the Development of Teaching and Learning initiative, and is based on Professor George Pratt's book Aural Awareness: Principles and Practice (Oxford University Press, 1998). It draws on two areas of expertise within the Department of Music at Huddersfield: firstly, a team led by Professor Pratt has developed innovatory approaches to the teaching of aural skills, making the study more creative and relevant to real-life musical situations. Secondly, a team led by Professor Michael Clarke has developed interactive computer assisted learning packages for the teaching of sound synthesis - the SYnthia program received the 1994 European Academic Software Award for Humanities. The project has brought together expertise in these two areas to produce a courseware package (which combines software, a lecturer handbook, ideas for practical work, student worksheets and a website). A modular approach has been adopted in the design of the courseware to provide a flexible means to integrate it into existing courses. |
| About the courseware |
| The final package will consist of software, a website, a lecturer handbook and student worksheets, giving a flexible courseware package which can be used either on its own (i.e. students just use the software) or as part of an existing course (e.g. aural training, aural awareness, analysis, musicology etc.) as a support to classwork.
It will contain a number of different listening exercises, which will be accessed through the CD-ROM, website and the worksheets. The full software package will be released on CD-ROM and will contain a variety of exercises and copyright cleared sound recordings supplied by Hyperion, Naxos and EMI. The worksheets will contain practical exercises which will build on ideas introduced in the software for students to explore in class/workshops or during private study. Using the Calma handbook as a reference, the lecturer decides how best to integrate the exercises into their own courses. They could be used in isolation or as part of an existing course to support learning through private study. Typically, the exercises and worksheets either reinforce understanding of issues raised in class or act as preparatory material for forthcoming seminars, tutorials and lectures, with the aim of encouraging students to explore these issues through individual practical work. The website will contain some additional exercises and will act as a database of Calma Editor/Player exercises which can be downloaded and added to as part of a growing resource to support the worldwide academic community. |
Calma courseware structure |