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Work in Progress - Using Podcasting in Engineering Education. Jennifer A. Polack-Wahl Professor of Computer Science University of Mary Washington japwahl@gmail.com. What is Podcasting?.
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Work in Progress - Using Podcasting in Engineering Education Jennifer A. Polack-Wahl Professor of Computer Science University of Mary Washington japwahl@gmail.com
What is Podcasting? • Podcastingis an audio broadcast that has been converted to an audio file format for playback over the Internet or in a digital music player.
Podcasting • Does not replace the classroom • Gives students a new way to broadcast concepts. • Interaction can occur outside of the classroom.
Why Did I Try Podcasting? I wanted to get the students involved inside and outside of class
What do students think about outside coursework? • Based on an informal survey conducted at the University of Mary Washington, 75% of students who responded do not even open their book • 50% of students look for answers on the Web instead of in course material even if they own the book or have prepared class notes. • More disturbing is that 40% of the students responding say they do not do any assignment that is not graded and believe there is no benefit to pen-and- paper assignments.
Software Engineering Course • The students were broken into 7 teams of 3. • The podcasts were spread out over the semester; approximately one podcast was released every two weeks. • Teams were randomly assigned due dates and each team researched a major failure of a software engineering system/project. • No system failure/project could be repeated. • Instructional Technology Department Presented
Lecture Based Podcast • Best to use on campus studio • 15 to 30 minutes. • Teams spent hour in the studio and an hour of editing. • Audacity to edit their podcast. • One team did not use the studio. • Quality of this podcast was inferior and it was hard to hear in several portions • Each of the podcasts offered good information, and unique introductions and endings.
Results • 100% said they listened • 75% Students Commented on Podcast • 90% Enjoyed Assignment because of technology but found it dry
Information Systems course • 7 groups of 3 and 1 group of 4. • Investigate a major software failure/project, • Lecture from the division of instructional technology. • Randomly assigned groups and the presentations were spread throughout the semester. • The students created a non-graded individual podcast prior to the group assignment.
Results • News talk show with a host, guests, and sometimes call-ins and commercials. • 11⁄2 hours recording and 2 hours editing. • Longer times for recording were due to laughter, excitement, and retakes. • Editing was longer due to the additions of commercials, editing music, editing out laughter, and voice alteration. • 60% of students posted comments • Everyone talked about the different podcasts in class • Students primarily used Audacity, LAME (convert your audio to MP3), iTunes, Media Player and FTP for the assignment.
More engaged than the previous years when a writing project on the same topic was assigned Computer Information System course enjoyed creating and producing the podcast more than the Software Engineering students. Questions?