|
|
| advancing learning through IT innovation | |
|
|
 |
ELI Discovery Tool: Guide to PodcastingWelcome to the ELI Discovery Tool: Guide to Podcasting. In each of the tabs below, you'll find information that will help you answer some of the most important questions about how podcasting can be used to enhance student learning at your college or university. The guide is designed for flexible use. You can easily use individual sections or read through the entire guide, depending on your interest or need. All of the guide sections are offered in HTML as well as downloadable and printable formats for your convenience. You can also download a PDF of the complete guide [PDF 894 KB]. Access to the Guide to Podcasting, like other ELI Discovery Tools, is a benefit of your institution's membership. Please feel free to forward it to anyone else at your institution who might find it useful. And we hope you will let us know what you think of the guide—drop us a note at eli@educause.edu. The ELI Discovery Tool: Guide to Podcasting was developed by Elisa Coghlan, David Futey, Julie Little, Cyprien Lomas, Diana Oblinger, and Carie Windham.        What is it?This section of the Guide to Podcasting presents “7 Things You Should Know About Podcasting,” a simple, brief overview of what podcasting is and its potential value in instruction. It provides a snapshot of how podcasting works, its significance and implications for teaching and learning, as well as its limitations and how it may evolve in the future. It is drawn from the ELI 7 Things You Should Know About… series. Download a PDF of this section [PDF 65 KB]. 7 Things You Should Know About PodcastingScenarioJohn had to leave class a bit early last Monday, but he knew he could catch up on all of the missed material by subscribing to his professor’s podcast and downloading the recording to his MP3 player. As he headed for the bus that Wednesday morning, he was confident that he would be as prepared as his friend Joanne. She had stayed through the whole class and reported that there had been an interesting issue during the end-of-class demonstration. Walker, the class clown, had tried to match wits with the instructor’s (again) and had almost won. “Check it out, John!” she said. As John rode the bus, he searched for the “incident” and listened intently. The atmosphere in the lecture hall was electric—and the laughter and banter in the class could be clearly heard through his headphones. By the time he got off the bus, John felt he hadn’t missed too much—the podcast had been nearly as good as being there in person. He also knew that he would now have enough questions for the interview he was conducting later in the day of a visiting wildlife conservationist. Part of the reason she had agreed was John’s promise to share the session with his colleagues—via a podcast. What Is It?“Podcasting” is a term inspired by the Apple Computer Corporation’s iPod—a portable digital audio player that allows users to download music from their computer directly to the device for later listening. The term is no longer specifically related to the iPod but refers to any software and hardware combination that permits automatic downloading of audio files (most commonly in MP3 format) for listening at the user’s convenience. Unlike traditional radio or other Web-based streaming media, podcasts give listeners control over when they hear the recording. Podcasting makes use of the Internet’s Real Simple Syndication (RSS) standard. It differs from broadcasting and Webcasting in the way that content is published and transmitted via the Web. Instead of a central audio stream, podcasting sends audio content directly to an iPod or other MP3 player. Who Is Doing It?Podcasting can involve practically anyone with an Internet connection. With its roots in the blogging world, part of the appeal of podcasting is the ease with which audio content can be created, distributed, and downloaded from the Web. Professional broadcasters and syndicated radio shows are starting to make their content available as podcasts. Amateurs are flocking to podcasting, sharing their content and opinions. Campuses are starting to make content available as podcasts as well. How Does It Work?Podcasting is a unique innovation in content publishing based in large part on its inherent simplicity and ease of use. Users simply connect their portable audio devices to their computer, log on to a podcasting subscription service, and subscribe to that site’s feeds. Audio content is then “pushed” from the original source directly and automatically to the user’s iPod or MP3 player. All of the tools needed to create, modify, and distribute podcasts are within reach of anyone with a reasonably well-configured laptop. The desire to improve the quality of podcasts has resulted in rich Web-based resources outlining principles of sound, equipment recommendations, and shared experiences. Podcasting demonstrates the power of audio over text (listening as opposed to reading), allowing podcast users to listen and learn while they walk, jog, ride the bus, or are otherwise away from their computer screen. Perhaps most significantly, podcast technology empowers users to publish audio content directly and seamlessly onto the Web.
Why Is It Significant?Podcasting allows education to become more portable than ever before. Podcasting cannot replace the classroom, but it provides educators one more way to meet today’s students where they “live”—on the Internet and on audio players. Barriers to adoption and costs are minimal. The tools to implement podcasts are simple and affordable. Podcasting is predicted to soon become a mainstream application, much like video-on-demand recorders (such as TiVo). What Are the Downsides?Users must have sufficient bandwidth to download the podcast. Beyond access, there are potential issues with the format. Podcasting is primarily an audio delivery technology and, as such, has limited usefulness for the hearing impaired. Podcasting is not designed for two-way interaction or audience participation. Podcasters are essentially “sound amateurs” producing and publishing audio feeds. The quality of speakers’ voices, speech patterns, intonations, and other sound effects may not be the same as those of a professional broadcast. Faculty who wish to record their lectures or other instruction for podcasts may need some training, both in handling an audio-only medium and using the technology. Where Is It Going?Podcast enthusiasts see no limit to the potential uses of this technology, particularly in education, and the number of podcast aggregators (sites that collect, categorize, and then make available podcasts for subscribers) is growing. It is possible that specialized higher education–based aggregators will emerge, offering students access to missed lectures, instructions for laboratory experiments, and so forth. Interlacing podcasts with video applications—listening to a podcast while viewing related material on the Web—is another area of experimentation in education. Podcasting is evolving at a rapid rate. New features—categorizing, navigating, and indexing—are being demanded by users. Consequently, designers and producers of podcasts are seeking new ways to add layers of richness to simple audio files—creating audio experiences that are both entertaining and instructive. What Are the Implications for Teaching and Learning?Podcasting allows students to use their technology-based entertainment systems (iPods, MP3 players) for educational experiences. Because students are already familiar with the underlying technology, podcasting broadens educational options in a nonthreatening and easily accessible manner. For example, podcasting allows lectures or other course content to be made available to students if they miss class. Beyond missed lectures, podcasting can provide access to experts through interviews. Podcasting is not limited to content delivered to the student, however; students can create their own podcasts—as a record of activities, a way to collect notes, or a reflection on what they have learned.
What are others doing?Podcasting is already being used at many institutions. This section of the guide presents case studies of podcasting projects at three institutions—Drexel University, Middlebury College, and the University of Washington—as well as brief information about a number of other institutional efforts. Download a PDF of this section [PDF 224 KB]. View HTML:
What do students think?This section of the guide will help you see podcasting from the student perspective. In “Confessions of a Podcast Junkie: A Student Perspective,” graduate student Carie Windham discusses her own involvement with podcasting and also presents the views of several other students she interviewed. Download a PDF of this section [PDF 220 KB]. Confessions of a Podcast Junkie: A Student PerspectiveThis section was written by Carie Windham, Former Undergraduate, North Carolina State University, and Graduate Student, University of Ulster, Northern Ireland. It is also published in EDUCAUSE Review, Vol. 42, No. 3 (May/June 2007). When the Pew Internet & American Life Project released results of a phone survey of U.S. adults in early 2005, I was not one of the more than 22 million adults who owned an iPod or MP3 player. Nor was I one of the more than 6 million people who had downloaded a podcast.1 No, my love affair with podcasting began later, during my graduate studies the next year, in an accidental and serendipitous way. Though I would later spin my story to say that I was on a news-deprived quest for current-events recordings from National Public Radio (NPR), in truth I came to discover the wide world of podcasting through a chance click in the Apple iTunes online store while I was looking for copies of Desperate Housewives episodes.  Used with permission of Jonathan Page. I was studying abroad in Northern Ireland at the time, and the shortened days and frigid nights had left me craving a slice of Sunday nights at home. While trying to navigate the iTunes store, I stumbled across a page of free (!) podcasts that I could download or subscribe to. Suddenly, the women of Wisteria Lane moved to the back burner. After all, they would cost me $1.99. So I started instead with podcasts of my favorite soap operas. Each night, as I climbed into bed, I could plug my headphones into my laptop and drift asleep to the familiar voices of favorite characters on Guiding Light. Later I subscribed to Story of the Day from NPR and to a hodgepodge of political podcasts. I’d listen to them while on breaks from writing term papers or while on long trips on the bus. Since the podcasts were easy on my budget and slightly addictive, I continued to subscribe. By the time I boarded a plane to return home to the United States, I was regularly downloading 12 different podcasts series, including the fictional ramblings of one of the characters on my favorite Wednesday-night television drama. My experience in creating podcasts came through much nobler endeavors. It began with a research project in the working-class neighborhoods of North Belfast and a frustrated conversation over pints in a pub. I was on a research high after an interview with two women of very different political backgrounds. They were friends, brought together by the work of a local nonprofit, and their mutual admiration shone from the lightning-fast banter that they tossed back and forth throughout the interview. It was clear to me that they were a perfect example of a friendship from different sides of the political divide. But my friend at the pub just couldn’t get it. He suggested that their friendship might be contrived, a mere show for my benefit, or that, if real, it didn’t mean as much as I thought. Exasperated, I pulled out my recorder and played the conversation back to him. As their Belfast accents filled up our corner booth, I could see his posture slacken and the battle turn my way. In that moment, I decided that only a podcast could finish telling my story. Over the next months, armed with just an MP3 player and some freeware suggested by a friend, I worked to piece together the story of North Belfast through interviews, conversations, and the sounds of the streets. The result was crude, elementary, and slightly difficult to listen to. But I was hooked. When I came home from my stint abroad, I thought that podcasting was still some little-known page in the iTunes store. But I soon discovered that podcasting was already widespread on U.S. college and university campuses. From the larger, better-known iTunes universities like Stanford and Berkeley to a single professor armed with two $100 camcorders at Bentley College in Massachusetts, early adopters were integrating podcasting into the curriculum, doing everything from recording their lectures to exchanging final papers for radio shows. Knowing my own podcast history, I had to wonder just how quickly the students were jumping on board. Armed with my same recorder—though it was now slightly rougher for the wear—I asked students at colleges and universities across North America about their iPod and MP3 use, their familiarity with podcasting, and just how they saw podcasting as part of the learning experience. Podcasting in the Real World: Student Use (and Misuse) of Podcast TechnologyFor students, the iPod is about convenience. “It’s pretty ubiquitous to see those little white headphones running around,” says Caroline Walker, a student at the University of British Columbia. The iPod is small, it’s mobile, and it stores everything from songs and podcasts to photos and games. “I use my iPod Nano every day outside of class,” says Jared Westfall, a student at Bentley College in Massachusetts. “What I really like about my iPod is it is small and compact, it can be taken anywhere. I love using it as an alternative to listening to the radio while driving. Also, it is nice to have extended features such as listening to podcasts, putting photos on it, using it as a small hard drive and having a contact list.” In fact, the iPod topped the list of the most “in” things on campus in 2006, according to Student Monitor’s Lifestyle & Media Study. Mentioned by 73 percent of students, the tiny technology knocked beer, which had ruled the charts since 1998, to #2 on the list (the Internet bumped beer from the top spot in 1997).2 Not surprisingly, college-age adults make up the largest proportion of iPod-owning adults, according to the 2005 survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. One in five of those aged 18–28 owned an iPod or an MP3 player.3 And yet, though iPods are ubiquitous, podcasts are less so. “I’d never even heard of a podcast before I took [a course that uses podcasting],” says John Vickery, a student at Duke University. Among those who have heard of podcasts, most typically stumble into podcasting by accident or because they’re seeking a very specific type of information. Michael Martinez-Mann, a student at DePaul University, stumbled onto the free podcast page on iTunes after listening to his CD collection “about five times” while doing a data-entry job in downtown Chicago. “I liked that it was free,” he says.
Notes on the Go: Offering Lectures and Class Notes via PodcastingStudents in Randall Dunham’s class in the Executive MBA Program at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have busy lives. Most work, many at full-time jobs. Some have children and spouses and have households to run. “The 40-hour work week is a thing of the past,” says Daun Maier, a student in Dunham’s course. “I’m in a position where I’m working 50 hours a week and trying to fit an education into a lifestyle.”  Used with permission of Jonathan Page. It might not be surprising, therefore, to learn that this class of podcasting newcomers quickly adopted and embraced the use of podcasting to transfer lectures and course material. For one section, the course material was provided entirely via podcast. For other units, class lectures were recorded and offered as downloads, and some supplementary material was provided through podcasts. (For examples, see <http://podcasts.bus.wisc.edu/rdunham/samples/>.) Stephanie Orzechowski had never even picked up an iPod before enrolling in Dunham’s class. “It wasn’t really intuitive for me. I didn’t have one, so I wasn’t really adept at using the little handheld video iPod at first,” she says. “But it didn’t take long. I know how to charge it now and how to download.” She jokes about how her children and a younger classmate had to help her navigate the features. And despite a minor slipup that temporarily shared her son’s playlist with the entire university, she quickly picked up the technology and even grew to love the downloads. “The graphics were big enough that I could see them, and the screen was small enough that I could use it even as a passenger in the car,” she says. “I would listen to it as I was driving.” Orzechowski, Maier, and their classmate Larry Clemen all appreciate the portability and the playback options of the iPod. Like Orzechowski, Clemen listens to his iPod in the car. “The good thing was that you could listen to a section over and over again if you wanted to review it,” Clemen says. “There were a few podcasts that I had to review a couple of times. I could write out what he was saying and listen to what he was saying again.” Reviewing came in handy, they all say, especially during project or exam times. “[With the podcasts], I’ve got more material to go back to if I wanted to review that module,” Clemen says. “Whereas with the rest of the material, I just have some PowerPoint and my own notes.” In Richard Lucic’s class on information technology at Duke University, students receive both their primary class lectures and their supplemental lectures via podcasting. The course explores the infiltration of information technology in society, and each week guest speakers come to the classroom to discuss how technology is changing their workplace, their discipline, or their research. Besides capturing classroom speakers, Lucic listens to “bagillions” of podcasts on the Web throughout the semester to find additional speakers who might offer views in contrast to those of the speakers in class or who might come from the same industry or discipline but offer a different perspective. Each week, the students are asked to listen to both the in-class speakers and the additional downloads. Once a week, during class, they discuss connections between the speakers’ views. “I think it’s really generated a lot of enthusiasm,” Lucic says. “There is definitely a lot more interest in my course than before I started using podcasting. I think they’re more engaged.” Sasha Stein took Lucic’s course last semester and “loved it.” The key, she says, was that the supplemental podcasts were relevant to the course and the course material. Since the digital material was discussed in class, the students placed value on the podcasts, which became an integral part of the course. “If you’re going to use [podcasting], make sure it’s practical. Don’t just give us busy work,” she says. “It’s annoying.” Not only that, the course material was accessible at any time, in any place. Students could listen to the guest lectures while on the bus, at the gym, or in their dorm rooms. Still, Stein never felt the urge to skip class. “It was nice to know that if you missed class, you could record the lectures,” she says. “But the iPod didn’t encourage you to miss class. There’s not a chalkboard that you can see or problems that you can see worked out. I think more people show up in a [podcasting] course because it encourages more interaction.” The idea that students would stop showing up to class is “bogus,” Lucic says. “It’s been exactly the opposite,” he says. “I’ve seen attendance increase, mostly because the podcasting has generated interest and enthusiasm. We’re doing interesting, technology-based things in the course.”
In Their Hands: Students as Podcast CreatorsDuke University Professor Daniel Foster jokes that, these days, he doesn’t hold much hope for student writing. Student podcasts, however, are another story. Two years ago, he introduced podcasting to his “Radio and the Theater of the Mind” class, a course centered on the exploration of old-time radio production (see <http://www.theaterofthemind.com/>). The class culminates when students produce their own piece of podcast radio theater. “I think their [podcast] work is actually better than their writing is,” Foster says. “They do all the acting. They choose the music. They do the sound effects. Their work is very professional-sounding. There are a couple of pieces on the Web site for the class that are really quite good. They can certainly stand up to much of the podcasting that’s out there.” After the class concludes, Foster delivers the class podcasts to the public on a monthly basis. To date, the site has had more than 150,000 visitors. John Vickery took Foster’s course during the first semester it was offered. If he took it again, he says, his only suggestion would be to weed out the rest of the class papers in favor of more podcasts. “It was much more creative. I would never compare [podcasting] to any paper,” says Vickery. “It’s much better than writing a paper. It’s more interesting, much more fun, and much more creative. You get a lot of time to work on it, and it’s more collaborative because you’re working with other people. You’re creating the performance as you go and then continuously working on it.” Creating a podcast didn’t mean less work, he says. There was editing, song selection, rehearsals, and scriptwriting. But it did mean interacting with the material on a much more intimate level. Tiffany Chen also took Foster’s class. “I don’t hate writing papers,” she says, “but I really enjoyed putting time and effort into creating a work that could be given to the public. It puts it on a different level of importance and allows for more creativity since it is in word and sound.” When it came to learning, the students say that the creation of the radio pieces provided a real and viable link to the course material. “We were able to study different methods used in old-time radio—we wrote papers discussing different uses of music, sound effects, and representation of characters—but it was especially useful to put these ideas into practice to truly understand the effort and thought that goes behind it,” Chen says. Throughout the course, students also listened to examples of old-time radio using iPods in class. “Without creating one yourself, I don’t think you understand fully what it was to do a radio show,” Vickery says. “Podcasts were really just another chance for us to do radio theater. You definitely learn a lot more physically doing something and actually seeing what people might have gone through to create radio theater.” Part of that “learning through doing” came from learning the technical skills necessary to capture, record, and transfer their broadcasts. The class used Audacity, a freeware application with “some bugs,” they say, and iPods provided by the university. Many students bought microphones or additional recorders to get better sound. “Even with an iPod, you could get pretty good sound quality,” Vickery says. His group did a rebroadcast of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, and he had problems figuring out how to muffle the audio to create a “phone voice.” “I had no idea how to do that, so I just messed around with the ways you could manipulate sound until I figured it out. It was really cool,” he says. So cool, in fact, that the rest of the class wanted in on the secret. He refused to tell them. Mark Frydenberg, a professor of computer information systems at Bentley College in Massachusetts, says that watching his students experiment with the technology is one of the highlights of his “Introduction to Technology” course. Throughout the semester, he asks students to craft video podcasts, six to 10 minutes long, that recap key lessons from the week. The first group, he says, started by simply reading a script to the class. As the weeks went on, the students discovered new features—screenshots, music editing, PowerPoint slides—and each subsequent podcast incorporated past elements and new ideas. By the end, the students were even tacking on “blooper” reels to get a few laughs. “It was sort of a trial-and-error thing,” says Sean Finnegan, who created his podcast for the class using screenshots. “It wasn’t too difficult. We just recorded the video and edited it on the computer. We played around with it, and it all came out in the end. We could have talked about the information in a lecture, but that’s different from making a podcast because you really have to know the material to be able to explain it to the class.” The students are asked to download their classmates’ work and then comment on the podcasts in a class blog. Jared Westfall, who is currently enrolled in Frydenberg’s class, downloads his peers’ videos when he’s bored and sitting around the dorm. “They are usually funny and reinforce what I have learned in class in a fun way,” he says. “It’s a better experience making it than having to sit in a lecture.” In fact, Frydenberg first introduced the class to podcasting by offering downloads of his lectures online. When he asked the class how many students had been accessing the information, not many raised their hands. “They were just a recording of what he talked about in class,” says Finnegan. “They lasted for a whole hour. They were not as enjoyable as our five-minute segments.” Knowing that his one-hour recordings weren’t fitting the bill, Frydenberg asked students how long they would listen to a podcast. The majority said six to 10 minutes, so he switched the format to allow the students instead to become the instructors, for sessions lasting six to 10 minutes. Besides the entertainment value, Westfall and Finnegan say that the podcasts were especially useful for reviewing material. They used the podcasts as refreshers throughout the semester and during exam time. In addition, creating a segment meant that they had to brush up on their own knowledge of the subject. For Caroline Walker, a student at the University of British Columbia, this “learning through doing” aspect is the true power of student-created podcasts. She serves as a student instructor for an introductory course in anatomy. At first, her faculty advisor asked her to create multimedia supplements for the class. They started with the idea of taking a specimen and creating a video presentation around that specimen and a course objective. After more thought, however, she decided to try podcasting the material. “I was really concerned about accessibility and compatibility,” she says, both for herself and for the students in class. “Podcasts are really easy to make. I already had all the stuff,” she says. “Plus, I like that it’s a free download. If the kids have an iPod, they can walk around and listen to anatomy.” This semester, she’s been taking subjects from the curriculum and recording audio programs that explore the subjects more fully than time allows in the classroom. She might bring in current events from anatomy or talk about the history of a practice. She might veer into comparative anatomy. “It’s all information that the professor wouldn’t go into during class because there’s no spare time,” she says. “I don’t want [the podcasts] to overlap with lectures too much; I still want people to go to the lecture. This is a very relaxed way to get the information to them. They can do it on their own time and download it whenever.” Though her goal was to increase learning for her peers in the anatomy course, she found that creating the material was a boon to her own learning. “As a student creating the podcasts, I had the chance to learn a lot more than I would have taking a course,” she says. “It’s about learning how to teach the material and how to make a narration out of it. You have this intimate knowledge of the material, and now you know how to show the different sides of an issue.”
A Microphone and an Idea: Nonacademic Podcasting on CampusCassandra Romanelli is the first to admit that she doesn’t download podcasts on a regular basis. In fact, she doesn’t even own an MP3 player. “Believe it or not, I am pretty old-school. I prefer my CD player and sometimes even my cassette player,” she says. What she does have, however, is a passion for women’s extreme sports. A mud-wrestler in her spare time and a full-time anthropology student at DePaul University, she began podcasting this semester at the encouragement of her department head, Robert Rotenberg. Her first podcast, an interview with a fellow mud-wrestler, hit the Web in November 2006. “I jumped on board in a heartbeat. I just thought it would be exciting to, first of all, do an independent project and also to meet these cool, tough women,” she says. “I was right!” Romanelli thought her first interview would be a one-shot deal, a single interview with a group of girls. Then, Rotenberg asked her to stay on and do a series of individual interviews throughout the semester. “Leading up to the [first] interview, I was really very nervous. I just kept asking [Dr. Rotenberg] questions over and over. I’m sure he was pretty annoyed with me,” she says. Rotenberg told her that the interview should simply be a conversation and to just let the conversation evolve. Once the recorder was on, Romanelli found the process surprisingly easy. “It just flowed,” she says. “She answered most of the questions that I had. It was just natural.”  Used with permission of Vicky Bridgefort. Romanelli’s podcasts aren’t attached to a particular anthropology course. Yet even though they aren’t for a class, Romanelli says that they connect to her studies. Before the interview, she does secondary research to prepare, and then she formulates her questions. “I’ve taken basic anthropology courses in methodology, and I’m basically doing ethnographic work,” she says. And in the process, she has quickly transformed from podcasting novice to podcasting enthusiast. “I graduate in June, so I said to [Dr. Rotenberg], ‘I can still keep doing this after June, right?’” she jokes. Rotenberg posts Romanelli’s podcasts on the DePaul Podcast Network (http://feeds.feedburner.com/DePaulPodNet). The brainchild of Rotenberg, the network features a variety of student-produced podcasts. The idea was to create a database for students to share research in an audio format. It’s accessible to students and to the outside community. Brian Shevenaugh, Travis Wheeler, and Parang Mehta post a program called Current Events 101, which features the three students talking about politics and hot topics in the news. For Wheeler, the experience has meant fine-tuning his communication skills and digging deep into the news they discuss. “When you know other people are going to be listening to your programs and those people are just as knowledgeable as you, it makes you really know your stuff and do all the research,” Wheeler says. “You can’t just throw stuff out there for fun.” Even though the podcasts aren’t for class credit, Wheeler finds himself doing in-depth research to prepare each week. Even more, he’s had to consider the way the three students are presenting their information, from engaging their listeners to coming off sounding respectable. “It’s something that you learn when you go into politics,” he says. “You have to learn how to gather your thoughts properly, speak properly. We’re really focused now on trying to make the podcasts listenable.” For him, it’s been a learning experience all around. “My co-hosts and I typically have similar views, so I find myself having to play the role of representing the other side or different views,” he says. “It’s forced me to consider other views.” Michael Martinez-Mann was one of the first students on the DePaul Podcast Network. When he came to the university, he already had experience podcasting at his community college. He sat down with Rotenberg, who revealed the plan to launch a student podcast network. Since he was studying anthropology, he decided to start his own anthropology podcast. Since then, his role has evolved from podcasting his own shows to helping students capture and edit their creations. “I appreciate podcasting for what it is—the ability to narrowcast in such a free format,” Martinez-Mann says. “There aren’t any time constraints. Your podcast doesn’t have to be an exact amount of time. You have carte blanche to change the format and grow your show.” He also helps capture audio from guest speakers so that the programs can be broadcast to a wider audience. “It allows the rest of the department or the rest of campus to benefit from that,” he says.  Used with permission of Innovative TechnologyCenter, University of Tennessee. The DePaul Podcast Network is student-produced for students. But colleges and universities across the nation are producing their own, nonacademic podcasts for students to download. At the University of Arizona, students can access financial aid information online in a podcast. At iTunes universities, students can access information from student groups, the athletics department, or even university speakers. Wheeler sees even more possibilities in the future. “There are plenty of things that I think are promising,” he says. “Having students listening to podcasting is just another positive medium to expose them to news, politics, sports, or culture—whatever their interest is.” He says he likes to see students producing podcasts from their studies abroad. “It’s very hard to begin a conversation about your experience abroad,” he says. “I think it would be great if students could podcast from a country, or when they get back, to podcast about their experiences.” Wheeler adds, “The possibilities really are endless.”
If I Were in Charge: Tips for FacultyWhen you ask most students what they think of their iPods, they immediately mention the benefits of mobility and small size. But when you ask them how they might incorporate podcasting into a course, they draw a blank. The most common answer is the most obvious: offering course lectures or instructors’ notes as an audio or video download. The problem for most students is that downloading a course lecture is often their first foray into the technology. The students who have taken courses with podcasting offer concrete advice to faculty who might consider adding the technology to the syllabus:
ConclusionsAs more and more colleges and universities jump on board the podcasting bandwagon, it’s vital that faculty and administrators keep revisiting podcasting, as a tool for teaching and learning, from the student’s perspective. For the students at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, the University of British Columbia, Bentley College, Duke University, and DePaul University, a lack of familiarity with the content or the equipment was not a barrier to success. All the students identified the same benefits to podcasting technology:
For teaching and learning, the students saw concrete benefits to podcasting projects, especially when compared with standard modes of testing, such as writing a paper or doing a class demonstration:
Finally, all the students reported that they enjoyed their classes more because of the inclusion of podcasting, and all hoped that more faculty members would use podcasting in the future. Michael Martinez-Mann said it best when he said of podcasting: “The possibilities are absolutely limitless. If there’s an idea, there’s a way to do it.” Endnotes
How do I get started?If you are considering implementing podcasting at your institution, this section will guide you through initial steps. Download a PDF of this section [PDF 322 KB]. View HTML:
How do I know if it works?If you are planning a podcasting program, it is important to set up mechanisms for measuring its effectiveness from the start. This section of the guide discusses areas you should consider for assessment and highlights some valuable methods. Download a PDF of this section [PDF 94 KB]. Assessment and Evaluation StrategiesAssessments can help you identify what a podcasting project has accomplished, what worked well (and what didn’t), whether there were any unintended consequences, and where to improve. As you design and execute your project, there will be several opportunities for assessing it and its impact on student success. This unit provides some suggestions. Assessing the Overall ProjectFor the project to continue, it must provide value and be supportable. To better understand the project from the faculty and student perspectives, consider using focus groups, observations, surveys, interviews, and faculty reports. Your questions might focus on areas such as the value added, training, support, access to equipment, hosting solution, and so on. Lines of questioning that explore faculty and student experiences might include:
Questions for students might include:
Questions for faculty might include:
In addition to faculty and students, it’s a good idea to include central and departmental IT units in the project assessment. Noticeable increases in help desk calls or network activity may need to be addressed if the project continues or scales up. Some questions to consider include:
Several institutional efforts serve as good examples of podcasting project assessment. During the 2005–2006 academic year, the University of Washington piloted the use of podcasting in several large lecture classes. To evaluate the project, organizers used a two-pronged plan: focus on how students used the podcasts, and capture student and instructor perspectives on the impacts of this technology on teaching and learning. Data collected each semester informed subsequent projects (http://catalyst.washington.edu/research_development/research.html). The Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI) has conducted one of the most comprehensive podcasting projects in legal education. With classroom lecture at the core of legal education’s long oral tradition, the CALI project provided digital recorders for faculty to create classroom lectures or weekly summaries for student use. They used surveys at both the middle and end of the semester to qualitatively assess the student and faculty experience (http://host2.teknoids.net/teksurvey/public/survey.php?name=PodCastingFinal). In 2006, the Duke University iPod Initiative began its third year. The project began with an “experimentation” phase, moved to “extension and transition,” and now is in a “standard support and integration” phase. The current focus is on tracking and monitoring how faculty and students are adopting podcasting and which hosting solutions fill strategic gaps. Duke’s assessment project was conducted at the project and program levels, using focus groups, observations, interviews, student and faculty surveys, and faculty and cross-unit staff feedback sessions. Table 1 outlines Duke’s approach to assessing each phase of technology adoption.1 Table 1. Assessment Criteria for Duke University iPod Initiative
Although Duke is in Phase 3 with audio podcasting, they are entering Phase 1 with video on iPods. Remember that as you prepare an assessment plan, you may have projects in different phases simultaneously.
Measuring the Impact on LearningAs noted in the Decisions to Make unit, technology alone will not improve learning. However, it can support the learning process by making access more convenient and enabling new activities. As you consider what you hope to achieve, also consider how you will assess the impact of podcasts in areas such as
Before you began podcasting, you probably asked a series of questions exploring student technology skills, access to equipment, and comfort with podcasting. You can gain additional information by conducting formative assessments as you go—questions that help you improve the project as it progresses. The simplest approach may be to periodically ask students if they have changes to suggest that could make podcasting more valuable to their learning. Depending on your goals, you may also want to track changes in attitude, understanding, and comfort with podcasting technology. For summative assessment, or end-of-project measures, solicit faculty input on their observations of student learning, asking questions such as these:
Summative assessment is also useful for measuring student experiences such as ease of using podcasts or usefulness/value for learning. A Likert scale may be helpful in gauging differences in student experiences. For example:
Consider using open-ended questions, as well, such as:
In collaboration with institutions interested in assessing the impact of iPods on learning, Carl Berger, University of Michigan, hosts a survey from the fictitious “Digital State University School of Arts and Sciences,”designed to examine how iPods were introduced during the semester and how the use of this new technology impacted teaching and learning. Review this survey as a way of getting started (http://www-personal.umich.edu/~cberger/AssessSampleiPods.html).
Authentic AssessmentIf students are asked to create podcasts, ask them to listen to existing podcasts and think about the qualities of an effective podcast. Contrasting a well-done podcast with one that could be better will help reinforce what constitutes quality work and will set expectations for student projects. Rubrics can define the project assessment criteria for student-created podcasts. Determine the categories you want to assess (such as content, delivery, technical production, technical enhancements, and so on), and then identify the specific criteria for each category along with performance levels (see Table 2). If podcasts were created by teams, be sure to include criteria for measuring the team process. Table 2. Criteria for Determining Effectiveness of Podcasts
Ed-Cast offers a rubric that provides a means for evaluating podcasts, using the dimensions of originality, aesthetic quality, presentation, professionalism, sources/citations, and accessibility, with points assigned to performance levels from inadequate to exceptional (http://ed-cast.org/rubric.aspx). (The Ed-Cast rubric is adapted from “Communicating Visually: New Fluencies for the Academic Community,” a workshop presented by Susan Metros and Joanne Dehoney at the ELI 2006 Annual Meeting.) Alternatively, Rubistar is an online tool that allows you to design your own rubric or alter an existing one (http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php). While the design, implementation, and analysis of assessments takes time, the results will help you improve your project and extend the role podcasting can play in your institution’s teaching and learning landscape. Further Reading
Endnote
Where can I learn more?This section provides a number of helpful podcasting resources, ranging from background information to support considerations. Download a PDF of this section [PDF 130 KB]. General InformationBackground on Podcasting
General Podcasting ExamplesThe following sites offer access to a variety of podcasts, illustrating the ways podcasting can be used for content dissemination:
For higher education examples, see the chapter on examples. Production ConsiderationsBasic Guidelines
ToolsPodcasting software
Capturing and editing
BloggingThe following are some of the blogging software options available:
Hosting ServicesThese are among the free and fee-based podcast hosting services available:
External Resources for Augmenting PodcastsMusic and audio resourcesMusic and other audio samples can be used to enhance the presentation of your podcast. These sites provide free and copyrighted samples.
ImagesImages can be integrated into podcasts to enhance the audio presentation:
Support ConsiderationsFaculty Support
Examples of Podcasting Support Services Provided by InstitutionsThe following links provide examples of services provided by institutions to support podcasting:
Student Readiness
Deciding if Podcasting Is Right for Your Learning Goals
Legal Considerations
How Can I Contribute?Community ContributionsHighlight the efforts and experiences of your own institution—and see those of others—in the ELI Guide to Podcasting blog. You can post examples of your institution's podcasts there as well. Visit the blog for the easy posting instructions and to browse contributions. Page Last Updated: Friday, January 18, 2008
|
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||
 Unless otherwise noted, EDUCAUSE holds the copyright on all materials published by the association, whether in print or electronic form. In certain cases the work remains the intellectual property of the individual author(s) (see Special Circumstances).
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
