Teaching Acoustics under COVID: Lab in a Box for Experiments at Home

In June 2020 with the advent of COVID emergency plans were put in place to deliver the Masters course in Environmental and Architectural Acoustics totally on-line. This was necessary as although the acoustics laboratory is large, it was deemed to be unsafe for face-to-face teaching due to a complete lack of ventilation in the anechoic and reverberation chambers. Hence, it was necessary to create an alternative. It was decided that a “lab in a box” supported by on-line demonstrations and pre-recorded films would create the best alternative experience for the students. The “lab in a box” allowing the demonstrations to be replicated at home or in the garden. The results showed that the students gained from more independence, increased flexibility in deliver achieving very similar marks. This has opened up the possibility of increasing student numbers by reusing these alternative teaching strategies.