Audio-visual aids are instructional materials. Audio means ‘hearing’ and ‘visual’ means that which we can see. So, every aid that helps make the delivery of knowledge clear and efficient through our visual and auditory senses is called an audio-visual aid. These aids make the learning situation realistic and help us learn better. Audio-visual materials can make the learning experience more concrete and effective.
Audio-visual aids institute training or educational materials directed at both the sense of hearing and seeing, such as films, recordings, and photographs. All of these can be used while giving instructions in the classroom, in the library collection, etc. There are a total of three types of audio-visual aids:
- Purely auditory (eg. tape recorders, microphones, amplifiers, earphones)
- Visual Aids (eg. blackboard, flannel graphs, models, specimens, film strips, posters)
- Combined Audio-visual Aids (eg. sound films, slide tape combination, television, internet)