Presenters:

Alan Hilliard – University of Hertfordshire

Alan Hilliard’s presentation will outline how podcasting has been promoted to staff at the University of Hertfordshire. Currently, more than 200 staff members have incorporated podcasting into their teaching and learning. The presentation will describe some of the choices and decisions that were made in structuring staff development workshops, and outline factors that made the “podcasting campaign” successful. The presentation will also include some examples of how podcasts might be used.

Podcasting at UH Presentation.ppt

Stephen Gomez - University of the West of England

Podcasting is attracting enormous interest in many sectors of education as a means for disseminating media-rich learning materials. Podcasts, however, only offer a uni-directional transmission of information, from producer to consumer. Also, when material is podcasted, the author loses control over the file in terms of its later distribution. We have adapted the podcast approach to support learning insofar as we have developed audio and video pod files. However, these files are available only within a player. This allows us to maintain control over these files in terms of their distribution as well as ensuring that learners see the latest updated version. The player also allows users to organise pod files into playlists depending on their needs.

We feel that though we are not podcasting in its true technical sense, our approach offers several advantages which will be discussed during the presentation and includes tracking student usage of the pod files and feedback interaction between staff and students. The player we have produced will also be demonstrated.

Podcasting for Pedagogic Purposes.ppt

Derek France - University of Chester

Using podcasting to deliver assessment feedback to students

It is widely recognised that the potential for students to learn from the assessment experience is shaped greatly by the content of tutor feedback and student engagement with it (e.g. Pitts, 2005; Mutch, 2003). Technological innovations are providing new opportunities to alter the nature and delivery of assessment feedback and perhaps one possibility is to harness the technology of podcasting, which has the potential to provide enhanced feedback, without necessarily increasing tutor workload. This is not only timely, but provides an opportunity to support wider learner styles.

However, what is the value of using podcasts to distribute assessment feedback? This paper summarises the findings of an on-going research project, to explore how podcasts might be used to provide assessment feedback for students. The experience of implementing digital audio feedback has raised a number of interesting technical and pedagogical issues and questions. For example, what is the most effective and time-efficient procedure for recording and editing podcasts? What is the best mechanism for delivering the podcasts and alerting students to them? The ‘solution’ has been the embedding of feedback commentaries into each student’s E-portfolio accessed via Chester’s bespoke virtual learning environment. This project has also raised some more generic educational questions, not least about the quality of audio feedback and the extent it might be used to supplement or even replace traditional written assessment feedback. As might be expected, the advantages and disadvantages of verbal feedback seem to vary depending on the specific nature, purpose and timing of a given assessment exercise. The project has also offered some useful insights into how students appear to be using this type of feedback. One of the outcomes from this research is to better understand the student learning experience of using podcasts with a view to enhance future teaching and learning strategies.

Podcasting - PPP_08.ppt

References

Mutch, A. (2003). Exploring the practice of feedback to students. Active Learning in Higher Education, 4, 24-38.

Pitts, S. (2005). Testing, testing…How do students use written feedback? Active Learning in Higher Education, 6, 218-229

Showcasing Podcasting