Podcasting: Adding Value
Presenters:
Adam Dryden, BSc (hons)
MD Student, Class of 2010
University of Alberta
Jon Hilner, BSc (hons)
MD Student, Class of 2010
University of Alberta
Dr . Sarah Forgie, MD, FRCPC
Associate Professor, Pediatrics
University of Alberta
Before podcasting becomes ubiquitous in our standard pedagogical practice, it is important for experts in eLearning technologies to understand and embrace the limitations and strengths of podcasting and we have important lessons to share. In the Infection, Immunity and Inflammation block of the Medical Program at the University of Alberta, we developed podcasts that were a non-mandatory addition to the lectures. Thus, we sought to create recordings that were useful, succinct and entertaining. Because these were an additional way to address course objectives they represent the true value and potential of podcasting.
Podcasting is one of the eLearning tools that has been discussed frequently amongst eLearning experts and it seems like, very soon, the bandwagon will begin to fill at a rapid rate. At present, there is still much misunderstanding even in this technologically savvy group with respect to what podcasting is, how to distribute it, what to include in it and what to use it for. In developing a series of podcasts for medical students at the University of Alberta, we have gained insight into these questions and we seek to share those lessons.
In the Infection, Immunity and Inflammation block, we developed a series of podcasts specifically dealing with the bacteriology portion of the course. Before we set out to record podcasts, we decided very carefully what we wanted to use the podcasts for. We felt that they would be most useful if they were not simply recording of the lectures, but rather if they were a valuable addition to the lectures. It was not required for students to use the podcasts; it was up to their discretion as to whether they would add to their learning experience, so we wanted to create podcasts that students would seek out and use on their own.
The podcasts that we set out to do fell into two basic categories: weekly review podcasts and musical podcasts. The weekly review podcasts contained a dissemination of the previous week’s lessons on bacteriology and highlighted only the key material covering the course objectives. A large emphasis was placed on having short, succinct recordings that students could use to review a large about of material in a very short time. To this end, our average weekly review podcast was 4 minutes and 40 seconds. The musical podcasts were inspired by a recording that a group of students from the previous year (the 2010 cohort) had done on a topic in cardiology. Lyrics of popular songs were rewritten to particular topics in the block and the songs were recorded. For each topic, they key objectives were isolated and transformed and attempts were made to ensure that each line had relevant content in it. We would like to present some examples of our musical podcasts at the session in the hopes of inspiring others to consider what kind of value they can add to their podcasting projects. I would be quite interested in discussing with the group what kind of ideas they had for injecting creativity into podcasting.
Another rich discussion surrounding podcasting is the delivery methods. Many podcasting experts feel quite strongly that if the recordings are not available via an RSS feed, it is strictly improper to consider them podcasts. In our project, we sought to make access as diverse as possible. Students had a variety of choices to access the podcasts including our curriculum management system (HOMER, which itself has RSS feed-reading capabilities), other RSS aggregators (Outlook, Juice) or even iTunes so that students could instantly update their iPod (or other digital audio player) with the latest podcast. Access was limited to medical students and this presents another major point of discussion related to intellectual property rights (especially considering the nature of the musical recordings).