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Unit 1: Why Podcasting for Courses?

From KNILT

Objective: Participants will be able to articulate the benefits of podcasts as a supplement to existing course structures.

  1. Recognize the possibility of collaboration allowed via podcasts in the support of strengthening a community of inquiry.
  2. Recognize the limitations of podcasts specifically in asynchronous course contexts.
  3. Recognize a variety of potential uses for podcasts beyond obvious communication between teacher and student.


How can podcasting strengthen your community of inquiry?

In an online course, the ideal environment that our content and tasks inspire is a community of inquiry from our students. In such a model, instructors work as a guide while allowing students the room to work together to work out a range of objective-based problems. Web 2.0 tools allow instructors a range of additional dynamic content that can bolster students' feeling of engagement. One such tool is podcasting.

Chester et. al (2011) share a host of potential uses for podcasts including the following:

  • face-to-face lectures (audio/ video podcasts)
  • record tutorials
  • delivering short podcasts of core and/or supplementary material
  • providing glossaries of terms
  • as a feedback mechanism for communication between lecturer and student or lecturer and a group of students (p. 236)

I add to this that podcasting (live or pre-recorded) is also a tool that can be used to bridge great distances, allowing guest speakers relevant to course content to speak directly to and with students. Either unto themselves or when combined with layered, group discussion between students, each of these uses allows students a dynamic way to interact with the content of the course, the lecturer, guests to the course, and/or each other.

Using podcasts to re-texture course delivery also undercuts some typical difficulties that students face with online instruction. Gillett-Swan (2017) explains that some of these difficulties include "anxiety associated with using technology; being out of one’s comfort zone; (perception of) inequity in assessment, particularly in “group” assignments; and, the (perceived) inability or difficulty in peer interaction, particularly in presentations" (21).

We will approach each of these issues:

  1. Small podcasts can be lightweight enough that they can be included within an email. Using an initial cast in this way can aid in verbally coaxing and coaching students through the process of logging onto an LMS and locating the rest of the course content. In addition, the audible nature of podcasts provides detail of the lecturer's tone and formality in ways written communication cannot. [anxiety with technology and comfort zone issues]
  2. Because of the additional unspoken characteristics of audible communication (tone, formality, etc.), lecturers can use podcasts to reiterate assessment and evaluative approaches to student work in a second medium to all enrolled students. This doubling-down on these essential components of the course can reassure students that rubrics are universal. Live podcasts can be scheduled with a single student, a group of students, or the class as a whole. [perception of inequity in assessment].
  3. In addition, students can also respond with recorded audio in discussion forums via and LMS such as Blackboard. In this way, if a lecturer has begun the use of podcasting, students can use any device capable of recording audio (including their cellphone) and interact in a similar, audible way. In fact, discussion forums can, in whole or in part, be run, even asynchronously, using audio. [perceived inability or difficulty in peer interaction]

The Limitations of Podcasting

Because online courses are bet suited to asynchronous interactions, it is important to understand what podcasts can be used versus ways that they should not be used. Earlier, it was mentioned that podcasts can include the entire group of students in a course. Technically, this is not factually incorrect; however, this is not feasible when a group of students interacts with the course content at a wide variety of times if not days during a module. Because of this, it is recommended that podcasts be broadcast live for those students that are able to listen while the cast is being produced but to also archive them upon completion for the benefit of those students who could not. Furthermore, as a tool to interact with students, one should favor requiring only small groups to podcast live at a specific, universally agreed day and time.


Complete the following before advancing to the next unit:

  • Planning your podcast cannot be understated. Select a course syllabus or a future lesson plan that you feel would be conducive to the use of podcasting.
  • Create an addendum to the master copy of your syllabus or your lesson plan. In that addendum, identify the way or ways in which you feel podcasting may have a positive effect on the texture of your existing content. Will podcasting be used throughout? As an opportunity to engage with student questions? To bring in a guest speaker?




Continue on to Unit 2: Downloading, Navigating, and Recording in Audacity.
Return to Mini-course Main Page.

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