An exploratory study on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on music teacher engagement with Soundtrap

The COVID-19 pandemic caused many changes in music education, including an increased use of Soundtrap, a digital audio workstation (DAW), in classrooms around the world. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on music teacher engagement with Soundtrap. We invited members of a Facebook community of teachers who use Soundtrap to participate in a survey. Of the survey participants (N = 43), most taught grades 6-12 (n = 33). Few participants had previously used Soundtrap in their classrooms before the pandemic (n = 15), but most stated that they would continue using it after (n = 37). Notable emergent themes were a lack of previous experience using DAWs and the need to learn this technology at the onset of the pandemic quickly. Participants also expressed that students' creativity, collaboration and autonomy were integral to a positive student experience. We suggest that teacher preparation programmes may want to include more coursework on teaching DAW skills and pedagogy.