Using audio-mixing software to facilitate remote data collection of conversational interactions

This paper discusses the issues with using open source, audio-mixing technology to facilitate remote data collection of speech samples, which was needed specifically during the COVID-19 pandemic, but will also be beneficial in other contexts, e.g., to save on time and costs associated with travelling. We discuss practical constraints associated with remote data collection using this technology. We also consider issues around ethics, security, and data quality in using technology to record conversational interactions. We provide the example of using common tools such as MS Teams and smartphones and two types of software to conduct interviews to collect speech data as a proof-of-concept and offer further directions for research.

Content

Author and article information

Contributors

Luke Wilsdon

Maria Uther

Darren Chadwick

Chris Fullwood

Conference

Publication date: July 2022

Publication date (Print): July 2022

Pages: 1-6

Affiliations

[0001]University of Wolverhampton

University of Wolverhampton, UK

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/HCI2022.3

SO-VID: 61ce0968-a704-4a60-8590-737b828e0588

License:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: 35th International BCS Human-Computer Interaction Conference

Conference acronym: HCI2022

Conference number: 35

Conference location: Keele, Staffordshire

Conference date: July 11th to 13th, 2022

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: Towards a Human-Centred Digital Society

History

Product

1477-9358 BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/HCI2022.3

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

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Comments

Comment on this article

[1] Audacity Team. 2021. Audacity. (3.01). [Software]. [Accessed 18 March 2022]

[2] Audacity Team. (2022). Windows | Audacity®. Available at: https://www.audacityteam.org/download/windows

[3] Chenneville, T. and Schwartz-Mette, R., 2020. Ethical considerations for psychologists in the time of COVID-19. American Psychologist, 75(5), p.644.

[4] Clifford, P.R. and Maisto, S.A., 2000. Subject reactivity effects and alcohol treatment outcome research. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 61(6), pp.787-793.

[5] Forbes, S., Birkett, H., Evans, L., Chung, H. and Whiteman, J., 2020. Managing employees during the COVID-19 pandemic: Flexible working and the future of work.

[6] Gelinas, L., Morrell, W., White, S.A. and Bierer, B.E., 2021. Navigating the ethics of remote research data collection. Clinical Trials, 18(5), pp.606-614.

[7] Glaser, B.G. and Strauss, A.L., 2017. The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. Routledge.

[8] Gregory, S., Linz, N., König, A., Langel, K., Pullen, H., Luz, S., Harrison, J. and Ritchie, C.W., 2022. Remote data collection speech analysis and prediction of the identification of Alzheimer’s disease biomarkers in people at risk for Alzheimer’s disease dementia: the Speech on the Phone Assessment (SPeAk) prospective observational study protocol. BMJ open, 12(3), p.e052250.

[9] Hacker, J., vom Brocke, J., Handali, J., Otto, M. and Schneider, J., 2020. Virtually in this together–how web-conferencing systems enabled a new virtual togetherness during the COVID-19 crisis. European Journal of Information Systems, 29(5), pp.563-584.

[10] Happyscribe., 2020. Privacy Policy | Happy Scribe. [online] Happy Scribe. Available at: <https://www.happyscribe.com/privacy> [Accessed 17 March 2022].

[11] Howlett, M., 2021. Looking at the ‘field’through a Zoom lens: Methodological reflections on conducting online research during a global pandemic. Qualitative Research, p.1468794120985691.

[12] Identity Theft Resource Center. (2021). ITRC's 2021 Annual Data Breach Report. ITRC. Available at: https://notified.idtheftcenter.org/s/2021-data-breach-report (Accessed: 18 March 2022)

[13] Kvale, S. and Brinkmann, S., 2009. Interviews: Learning the craft of qualitative research interviewing. SAGE Publication Inc. California.

[14] Malterud, K., 2001. The art and science of clinical knowledge: evidence beyond measures and numbers. The Lancet, 358(9279), pp.397-400.

[15] McKenna, B., Myers, M.D. and Newman, M., 2017. Social media in qualitative research: Challenges and recommendations. Information and Organization, 27(2), pp.87-99.

[16] Merrett, F., 2006. Reflections on the Hawthorne effect. Educational Psychology, 26(1), pp.143-146.

[17] Microsoft. (2022a). Set default video permissions - Microsoft Stream. [online] Available at: <https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/stream/default-video-permissions> [Accessed 20 May 2022].

[18] Microsoft. (2022b). Hardware requirements for Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Teams. [online] Docs.microsoft.com. Available at: <https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/hardware-requirements-for-the-teams-app> [Accessed 24 June 2022].

[19] Munsch, A., 2021. Millennial and generation Z digital marketing communication and advertising effectiveness: A qualitative exploration. Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science, 31(1), pp.10-29.

[20] National Cyber Security Centre. (2021). Alert: Further ransomware attacks on the UK education sector by cyber criminals. Online: GCHQ. Available at: https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/files/NCSC-Alert-further-ransomware-attacks-UK-education-sector-20210604.pdf

[21] Nicklin, L.L., Wilsdon, L., Chadwick, D., Rhoden, L., Ormerod, D., Allen, D., Witton, G. and Lloyd, J., 2022. Accelerated HE digitalisation: Exploring staff and student experiences of the COVID-19 rapid online-learning transfer. Education and Information Technologies, pp.1-26.

[22] Poorjam, A.H., Little, M.A., Jensen, J.R. and Christensen, M.G., 2019. Quality control in remote speech data collection. IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Signal Processing, 13(2), pp.236-243.

[23] Riches, S., Elghany, S., Garety, P., Rus-Calafell, M. and Valmaggia, L., 2019. Factors affecting sense of presence in a virtual reality social environment: A qualitative study. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 22(4), pp.288-292.

[24] Taylor, P., Scholarios, D. and Howcroft, D., 2021. Covid-19 and working from home survey: preliminary findings.

[25] Tracy, S.J., 2010. Qualitative quality: Eight “big-tent” criteria for excellent qualitative research. Qualitative inquiry, 16(10), pp.837-851.

[26] University of Wolverhampton. (2022) FEHW Ethics Resources - University of Wolverhampton. Available at: https://www.wlv.ac.uk/research/research-policies-procedures--guidelines/ethics-guidance/fehw-ethics-resources/ (Accessed: 9 February 2022)

[27] VB-Audio. 2021. VoiceMeeter. (1.0.7.8). [Software]. [Accessed 18 March 2022].

[28] VB-Audio. (2022). VB-Audio VoiceMeeter. Available at: https://vb-audio.com/Voicemeeter/

[29] Zhang, C., Jepson, K., Lohfink, G. and Arvaniti, A., 2021. Comparing acoustic analyses of speech data collected remotely. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 149(6), pp.3910-3916.

[30] Zoom. (2022b). Recording meetings locally and to the cloud. Available at: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/360040771752-Recording-meetings-locally-and-to-the-cloud. (Accessed 11 March 2022)

[31] Zoom. (2022a). Security Bulletin. Available at: https://explore.zoom.us/en/trust/security/security-bulletin/. (Accessed

[32] Zoom. (2022c). Zoom system requirements: Windows, macOS, Linux. Available at: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/360040771752-Recording-meetings-locally-and-to-the-cloud. (Accessed 11 March 2022)

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