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. 2022;27(4):5627-5640.
doi: 10.1007/s10639-021-10854-z. Epub 2022 Jan 11.

Impact of digital boards on hand and neck muscle activity during online teaching process

S Shankar  1 , R Naveenkumar  2 , R Nithyaprakash  1 , S Narmatha  1 , R Rithic Sai  1 , M Nandhakumar  1
Affiliations

Impact of digital boards on hand and neck muscle activity during online teaching process

S Shankar et al. Educ Inf Technol (Dordr). 2022.

Abstract

Academicians across the globe due to Covid 19 shifted to online teaching as a mainstream method by replacing the chalk and talk method. The main objective of this study is to find the impact of different sizes of digital boards used for online teaching on muscle activity and muscle fatigue, and then results are compared with conventional writing. Initially, a questionnaire survey is conducted among 100 college professors about the issue they faced while using online teaching methods. Experimental analysis are then conducted using electromyography sensor (sEMG) among ten college professors and their muscle activity on the dominant hand and neck while writing on two commercially available digital boards namely Type 1 (small writing area) and Type 2 (large writing area). Four muscles namely Flexor carpi radialis, Extensor carpi radialis, Biceps brachii, and Sternocleidomastoid (SCM) are chosen for the study. The results are then compared with muscle activity while writing on conventional A4 sheets. Normalized root mean square (RMS) is used to assess the muscle activity and the trend line of MPF value is utilized to assess the muscle fatigue. The results show that SCM muscle has more muscle activation compared to other selected muscles followed by flexor carpi radialis. Subjective analysis is carried out using the Borg scale, which has reported that Type 2 digital board having larger working area was preferred by the participants as it reduces muscle fatigue.

Keywords: Borg scale; Digital board; Muscle activity; Online teaching; RMS; sEMG.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interestThe authors declare that they don’t have any potential conflict of interest in this work.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
a-c Writing in Type A, Type B digital board and A4 sheet respectively
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Placement of Electrodes
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Prevalence of MSD on various body parts
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Muscle activation hand and neck muscles during the writing process
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
a-c MPF plot of Flexor Carpi Radialis msucle
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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