Perceived Impact of Podcasting

1. Perceived Impact of Podcasting GE Doyle Education Development Unit Faculty of Health Sciences University of Cape Town

2. Introduction • Background • Using technology to support learning • Differences in learning styles  different impact • Lecture attendance • Study Aim • Process? • Impact? Performance? Attendance? • Why? • Language? • How ?

3. Guidelines for creating podcasts • Avoid complex material • Is there a pedagogical reason? • Access • Technical support • Resistance from educators • Difference in delivery • Bandwidth • Disabilities • Quality

4. Podcasting in teaching and learning • Support learning, potentially improve student learning • Assist non mother tongue speakers • A crutch for certain students • Complements slides and notes • Self-critique • Cost effective • Appeals to certain students • Mobile listening

5. Study Setting • Action Research • Portable recorders & Vula (without RSS) • Phase 1 – 2nd years • Phase 2 – 3rd years • Limitations • Time frame – 4 months • No control group

6. Lecturer responses • That is fine / great idea / am happy to have my lectures recorded / a good idea for the majority of students / think it's a great idea and am thinking of introducing it into the clinical years / fine with me • I for one am against this … students will miss lectures … lectures utilize line diagrams … I object to this in principle. Lectures are scheduled, students are notified of their times so they CAN be there • I wish to protest vigorously against the idea of further turning lectures into a commodity • there is a high risk for students to misinterpret the verbal • It is an interactive session • Would not like to participate

7. Pre-survey • Completed by 121 students • 15% did not know • Good idea – no 8% • Concerns raised • Lecture attendance will drop • You still need to make time to listen to it • Lectures should be seen as more valuable • Podcasting would promote laziness • Files might be too big to download and/or take too long to download

8. Pre-Survey - advantages • Re-listen to difficult concepts • Focus on what is said • Make up a lecture missed • Help with exam preparation • It may improve the quality of the lecture if the educator knew it was going to be recorded • Students who missed a lecture do not have to harass others for their notes • It might help those students with hand impairments who cannot write fast enough.

9. Pre-Survey – what to record • The lecturer who is difficult to follow • Lecture slides are not made available • Lectures are complicated and therefore it would be worth listening to them again. • Everything the educator says is valuable • The educator explains issues that are not on his slides / textbook • It’s impossible to write down everything, the educator speaks too fast • The educator could not be heard when the microphone did not work

10. Pre-survey ct • What mobile device do they have • Cellphone – 33% • Other device – 50% (59% ipods) • 100% computer at home or UCT • Where would they listen to it - 86% home • Where would they download it from – 91% UCT

11. Log files • Students who accessed at least 1 podcast – 72% • Students who downloaded all podcasts – 21% • Average days till first access – 5 • Average no of student who accessed each podcast – 73 • Average no of times each podcast downloaded – 85

12. Post Survey n = 157 • Downloaded by – 56% male, 82% English 1st language • 51% downloaded more than 10 • 33% listened to more than 5 • How many used podcasts to make notes – 75% • Quality was acceptable (36%) • Listened to podcast on PC (87%) • Overall value – 87% said valuable/useful/helpful • Podcasting assisted in my learning (74% agree) • Did you ever skip a lecture because of podcasts -13%

14. Perceived value of podcasts • You can listen to them at your own pace • Good for catching up if you were sick • Good for revision • Can listen to the lecture anywhere • Helps clarify concepts not grasped during the lecture • Gives information not written in slides and notes • Helps in consolidating notes • No need to get up in the morning and go to lectures • Allows one to catch points that may have been missed in the lecture • Enables one to revise at one's own pace and leisure • Beneficial for those who may have missed the lectures for various reasons • An alternative method of learning; information is understood better through audio means.

15. Why students didn’t download podcasts • Makes attending and concentrating in lectures unimportant • Time–consuming • No visual aids – makes it hard to grab concepts • Poor sound quality • Takes long for podcasts to be made available on Vula • Can‟t ask a question immediately if you don‟t understand something • People bunk/miss lectures because they have podcasts to fall back on • They are sometimes hard to follow as one does not get to see the educator and therefore miss out on the illustrations • The quality is not so good.

16. What can be done to make the podcast more user-friendly and easier to use and listen to? • Reduction of background noise (majority) “lecturers should carry the microphone on them, and students should keep quiet” • Make them small enough to download from home (dial up, etc?) • Not much – they’re good enough (except “batteries running flat, [and] lecturers forgetting to switch on, etc”) • “Videotape the lectures” • “post the podcasts and lecture notes in the same place and give them the same file name so we know exactly which one goes with which.”

17. Did access to podcasts affect students’ performance? • Was there a differentiation between students who downloaded podcasts and those who did not? • - Was there a differentiation between their marks from the previous year, when they were in 2nd year, and the current year as 3rd year students?