Effects of Virtual Instruction on Educators' Voices During the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Serina Addona, Paul M Evitts
PMID 36243555WHAT IT FOUND
Teachers reported similar vocal discomfort and voice handicap when teaching face-to-face and virtually.
Home air quality, posture, and outside voice use were related to vocal discomfort, so the study did not show virtual teaching worsened voices.
Key findings
01The average number of vocal tract discomfort symptoms was 2.04 for face-to-face teaching and 1.96 for virtual teaching, and the difference was not statistically significant.
02The average voice handicap score was 1.54 for face-to-face teaching and 1.57 for virtual teaching, and the study did not find a significant difference.
03In virtual teaching, air quality, posture, and number of vocal activities were the factors most closely linked to symptom scores and to handicap scores.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
This was a self-report survey, not an objective voice evaluation, so it cannot show whether teachers' voices actually changed. The survey asked participants to report past face-to-face experience and current virtual experience, so timing and recall may differ. Environmental factors were measured only for the home virtual setting, not the school setting, so the two settings were not directly compared on ergonomics. The survey did not evaluate face masks, although the paper notes other studies link mask use to more vocal discomfort. The survey did not collect whether participants had COVID-19 diagnoses, which could independently affect voice. Paired analyses used 215 of 223 respondents, and the high-voice-use subgroup had only 10 participants, so those comparisons are limited. Participants were recruited through a paid online crowdsourcing platform, which may not represent all educators.
Declared interests
A Towson University graduate student association grant paid $580 for participant compensation. The paper states the funder had no role in study design, data collection, analysis, or publication decision.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that virtual teaching is safe for every teacher's voice. The study only compared self-reported symptoms and handicap, did not assess masks, school environment, or objective voice status, and found no significant difference rather than proof of no harm.