Can sound overcome challenges and boost students creativity?

Some HE institutions restrict students choice of where to work which, in addition to students being in shared non-ideal environs, reduce their personal control over the physical factors of such spaces. This thrusts students into situations where they are required to be creative within challenging environs. Research shows an important role music plays in learning process which is determined by the complexity of task conducted while music played. This paper investigates personal private sound control via headsets, as a key element used by students in inadequate learning environs, to mitigate the perceived deficiencies of such environs; referred to as soundscapes. It analyses the result of an experiment conducted with number of design students from Immam Abdulrahman university (IAU) in Saudi Arabia as a form of Design Charrette. This Charrette was designed to investigate the effect of exposing participants by wearing headset to five different sound conditions on their creativity while completing a design task (Design a tool). The assessment was by a Design Jury with selected Jury members are experts in the field of design to evaluate the work. The result of the experiment showed that sound affects the individuals perception of their performance, possibly more than it affects their actual performance. That effect on perception could lead to better creative performance if utilized in proper way in educational spaces. This will outline plans for further investigation as part of a current PhD research project.