Alumni All-Stars: Jiayue Cecilia Wu
By Amelia Faircloth
The modular synthesizer, a type of electronic musical instrument, can be notoriously inaccessible due to its sheer size and hefty price tag. During the current pandemic, a lack of access to labs has made working with these instruments even more elusive to students.
UC Santa Barbara alumna, Jiayue Cecilia Wu uses a student-centered teaching pedagogy and open-source technology to create more equity for students.
But UC Santa Barbara Media and Arts Technology alumna Jiayue Cecilia Wu, who now teaches at the University of Colorado Denver, is making access to modular synthesizers easier via free software, and she shared her teaching techniques last week with colleagues at her alma mater in California.
In a lecture hosted by UCSB’s Center for Research in Electronic Art Technology, or CREATE, Wu discussed how free online software programs and opting for “student-centered learning” can foster an equitable learning environment, despite the grim backdrop of COVID-19.
A modular synthesizer consists of different components called “modules.” Each module has a different function, ranging from sound creation to sound mixing. During her time as a Ph.D. student at UCSB, Wu took multiple classes on modular synthesis in UCSB’s CREATE lab. It was there that she discovered her passion for sound design.
“I was into the interactivity, the possibility, the unpredictability, and all the good stuff about modular synthesis,” Wu said.
After her graduation from UCSB in 2018, the modular synthesizer became Wu’s primary compositional tool, with pieces of her work going on to be exhibited in museums such as the National Museum of China, the Denver Art Museum, and The Society for Electro-Acoustic Music.
The modular synthesizers in UCSB's Center for Research in Electronic Art Technology provide students with a physical lab space to work. But Jiayue Cecilia Wu notes that some schools do not have access to such spaces.
But as a junior faculty member who had just graduated from a Ph.D. program, Wu recognized that for many teaching institutions, investing in a modular synthesis lab is not always possible.
“At the University of Colorado Denver, we don’t have a lab like at UC Santa Barbara, but I still wanted to continue this pursuit of teaching and research,” Wu said. “What I have been trying to do is to see if there are some substitutes that we could use for teaching.”
As a result, Wu began to explore the online software program known as VCV Rack.
VCV Rack is an open-source virtual modular synthesizer, made to look and sound just like the real thing. The free program allows students who originally would not have access to a lab space the opportunity to explore all the musical possibilities modular synthesizers have to offer, right from home.
After finding a software program that would allow her to teach her class, Wu was faced with another problem: how to teach something as complex as electronic music in a virtual setting during the pandemic.
“Sound design and electronic music are very abstract,” Wu said. “I thought, ‘How can we introduce those concepts by offering them a hands-on experience and lab work so they can actually understand that knowledge through doing it?’”
Wu’s solution was “student-centered learning,” a concept she learned as a graduate student in UCSB’s Certificate in College and University Teaching program.
Student-centered learning is a teaching method that requires instructors to prioritize the needs of students, in addition to the content they are required to teach.
”You first teach the course material by providing them a safe space, then you pivot what you are going to teach the students based on their interests,” Wu said. “You shift your focus, or change your syllabus and course content based on their needs and their pace.”
Throughout fall 2020, Wu held frequent surveys and check-ins with students, where she was able to change course content based on what students said worked and what didn’t.
In her CREATE lecture, UCSB alumna Jiayue Cecilia Wu said a student-center approach to teaching sound design led to record high course evaluations at the University of Colorado Denver.
One way she put student-centered learning to practice, was to use short video tutorials rather than assign required readings.
Each week, students would watch video tutorials on how to use the virtual instrument, rather than be bogged down by reading or assignments.
“Students lose their attention space after five minutes — they are just going to space out — so we tried to make videos that were very short and very informative,” Wu said.
Her approach resonated well with her students earning her course evaluations for the semester that marked a record high for the Denver campus. According to her survey, more than ¾ of her class had no prior experience working with modular synthesizers at the start of the semester, but 95.8% of her students found the course helped improve their understanding of sound design.
Teaching modular synthesis online benefitted not only Wu’s students but Wu herself, as an instructor.
"During the pandemic, [students] feel very isolated, but through this course, they do feel like they belong to a community and they can be here to be safe, learn, and have a good time.” Wu said. “That’s what I feel like I have accomplished the most as a teacher. It is not only to just offer knowledge but also to have a positive impact on my student’s personal life.”
Amelia Faircloth is a fourth-year UC Santa Barbara student majoring in English. She is a Web and Social Media Intern for the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts.