PoducateMe: Practical Solutions for Podcasting in Education
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Printable copies of the guide are available for purchase and immediate download at
the Internet. Others argue that if a student doesn’t come to class simply because a
lecture is posted online, then there must be something wrong with the class.
Duke’s iPod Experience study revealed that faculty did NOT find that lecture attendance
decreased significantly with recorded lectures. In addition, the University of Washington’s
a podcasting program the university had modeled after Duke’s, also notes a negligible
impact of podcasting on class attendance.
In UW ‘s study, a survey was completed anonymously by 388 of 7,003 students enrolled
in and distributed among 27 courses featuring podcasted lectures. The results of the
study revealed that an overwhelming majority, 79 percent of respondents, indicated that
the availability of podcasts had no impact on their attendance. Five percent reported that
the podcasts made them more likely to attend class, compared with 16 percent who
indicated the opposite.
Some professors have even noted that students are less likely to drop podcasted courses
because the recordings help them to keep up with the material. Additional observed
benefits include increased class enthusiasm (especially when the students are involved in
the project) and stronger student evaluations of courses.
Despite largely positive program studies and observations, it should be noted that there is
also evidence to suggest that podcasting does offer the potential to negatively impact
University of Oregon Associate Professor Mark Thoma’s Economist’s View blog.
Thoma observed a correlation between his posting of class materials online and the
number of students who attend his class—the more information he posted on the Web,
the fewer students showed up to class. Despite this cause and effect relationship, Thoma
is hesitant to dismiss the posting of material altogether. Thoma writes, “I am reluctant to
allow class policy to be dictated by the students who are more interested in obtaining a
piece of paper than learning, so I am rethinking my policy about posting material. I don't
think my classes should be less effective for the best students just because other
students cannot resist the temptation to sleep in on a cold and rainy morning knowing
that lecture materials will be posted ...”
In UW’s study, one surveyed instructor commented, “The MP3 recordings encourage
slackers to cut class. However, giving such students an opportunity to cut is not entirely a
bad thing for the rest of the class. Sometimes only 50% of my students were in
attendance—far lower than without podcasts—but those who were there were truly
present.”
