Effect of a portable sound-booth on teachers’ voice acoustic parameters

Abstract

Background: College professors expose themselves to different vocal demands during teaching. During the COVID-19 pandemic, college professors were exposed to extra working loads associated with working from home, with less-than-optimal acoustic conditions. This is the reason why it was needed to think of easy-to-implement and low-cost solutions for online teaching from home. Objective: To evaluate the effect of an insulating cabin prototype on the voice acoustic parameters of college professors during homeworking. Methodology: Longitudinal study with the participation of 32 (thirty-two) full-time college professors. Participants were asked to fill out a questionnaire before reading a paragraph of around 30 seconds of duration with and without the portable sound booth. A type I sound level meter was used to measure the background noise in professors' teaching environments with and without the cabin prototype. Results: Voice acoustic parameters changed when voice production was performed with the portable sound booth. Therefore, this low-cost solution is a good alternative to prevent vocal effort and vocal fatigue among teachers.