The Acoustic Environment and University Students’ Satisfaction with the Online Education Method during the COVID-19 Lockdown

Virginia Puyana-Romero (), Angela María Díaz-Márquez, Giuseppe Ciaburro and Ricardo Hernández-Molina
Additional contact information
Virginia Puyana-Romero: Department of Sound and Acoustic Engineering, Universidad de Las Américas, Quito EC170125, Ecuador
Angela María Díaz-Márquez: Place, Environment and Society Research Group, Universidad de Las Américas, Quito EC170125, Ecuador
Giuseppe Ciaburro: Department of Architecture and Industrial Design, Università degli Studi della Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Borgo San Lorenzo, 81031 Aversa, Italy
Ricardo Hernández-Molina: Laboratory of Acoustic Engineering, Universidad de Cádiz, 11510 Puerto Real, Spain

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 20, issue 1, 1-27

Abstract: The acoustic environment has been pointed out as a possible distractor during student activities in the online academic modality; however, it has not been specifically studied, nor has it been studied in relation to parameters frequently used in academic-quality evaluations. The objective of this study is to characterize the acoustic environment and relate it to students’ satisfaction with the online learning modality. For that, three artificial neural networks were calculated, using as target variables the students’ satisfaction and the noise interference with autonomous and synchronous activities, using acoustic variables as predictors. The data were obtained during the COVID-19 lockdown, through an online survey addressed to the students of the Universidad de Las Américas (Quito, Ecuador). Results show that the noise interference with comprehensive reading or with making exams and that the frequency of noises, which made the students lose track of the lesson, were relevant factors for students’ satisfaction. The perceived loudness also had a remarkable influence on engaging in autonomous and synchronous activities. The performance of the models on students’ satisfaction and on the noise interference with autonomous and synchronous activities was satisfactory given that it was built only with acoustic variables, with correlation coefficients of 0.567, 0.853, and 0.865, respectively.

Keywords: online education; indoor acoustic environment; students’ satisfaction; indoor soundscapes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/1/709/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/1/709/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2022:i:1:p:709-:d:1020755

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().