RESUMO
Understanding the impact of listening effort (LE) and fatigue has become increasingly crucial in optimizing the learning experience with the growing prevalence of online classrooms as a mode of instruction. The purpose of this study was to investigate the LE, fatigue, and voice quality experienced by students during online and face-to-face class sessions. A total of 110 participants with an average age of 20.76 (range 18-28) comprising first year undergraduate students in Speech and Language Therapy and Audiology programs in Turkey, rated their LE during the 2022-2023 spring semester using the Listening Effort Screening Questionnaire (LESQ) and assessed their fatigue with the Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory (MFI-20). Voice quality of lecturers was assessed using smoothed cepstral peak prominence (CPPS) measurements. Data were collected from both online and face-to-face sessions. The results revealed that participants reported increased LE and fatigue during online sessions compared to face-to-face sessions and the differences were statistically significant. Correlation analysis showed significant relationships (p < 0.05) between audio-video streaming quality and LE-related items in the LESQ, as well as MFI sub-scales and total scores. The findings revealed a relationship between an increased preference for face-to-face classrooms and higher levels of LE and fatigue, emphasizing the significance of these factors in shaping the learning experience. CPPS measurements indicated a dysphonic voice quality during online classroom audio streaming. These findings highlight the challenges of online classes in terms of increased LE, fatigue, and voice quality issues. Understanding these factors is crucial for improving online instruction and student experience.
RESUMO
INTRODUCTION: Online games provide a socializing environment for children aged 8-10 years, but there is a lack of information in the literature about whether children who stutter access online gaming environments as frequently as their non-affected peers and about their interaction habits. This study aimed to investigate the participation frequency of school-age children who do and do not stutter in online games, the speech characteristics during games, and whether they encountered bullying-like behaviors during games. METHODS: A total of 91 children who stutter (F/M = 18/73; age range = 8-13) and 116 children who do not stutter (F/M = 60/56; age range 8-13) participated in this study. Children's participation habits in online, chat-based, multiplayer, games were evaluated with web-based questionnaires. Differences between questionnaire responses were analyzed using the significance test for a difference in two proportions. RESULTS: There was no significant difference between the participation rates of children who do and do not stutter in online games (z = 1.46; p = 0.14), their frequency (p > 0.05) and the time they spent in the game (p > 0.05). It was found that those who stutter preferred to use one-word expressions more than their peers who do not stutter (z = 2.03; p = 0.04), and those who stutter had higher rates of not encountering bullying-like behaviors in online games than those who do not stutter (z = 2.2; p = 0.03). DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION: Children who do and do not stutter show similar participation habits in online, chat-based, multiplayer games with similar frequency, and duration. Speech features that emerge in online games, and whether these games play a role in providing children who stutter a communication environment where the risk of bullying is reduced and fluency is increased may be the subject of future research.
