Does podcasting add a personal touch to online courses?
The last few quarters I’ve been working on a project with a couple of faculty to integrate weekly podcasts into their courses. I didn’t want to force faculty to start recording hour-long lectures, so I approached them with making brief (five minutes or less) weekly audio recordings. Rather than mini-lectures, these recordings would highlight what students should have completed during the previous week, what they should be working on for the coming week, and any tips or “gotcha’s” students need to be aware of. We used my serial podcaster and Blackboard to distribute the audio files.
I believed that these audio recordings would make the online course experience a little bit more personal; the recordings could be those little nudges some students need to stay on task. I also wanted another avenue for faculty to communicate expectations about student performance.
When we surveyed students, we learned that not many listened to the audio recordings (about half), and those that did listen to them stopped listening to them after three or four weeks.
Students cited two reasons for not listening or not persisting: download times and utility. Until our pipe was made bigger recently, we had serious issues with download times. It is not clear whether students were listening at home or on campus, but they made it clear that it took too long to download and listen to the recordings. Apparently, even the flash widget in serial podcaster, which is supposed to do pseudo-streaming, was too choppy to listen to.
The most interesting finding was that students did not find the recordings useful. They thought they were going to get some “insider” information on what was going to be on an upcoming test. When they discovered that faculty weren’t giving out the answers or anything beyond what was available on the syllabus, students tuned out.
What now? I have more questions I want to answer about our students. Where are they accessing their online coursework from and what sort of connection do they have? Do they have/use iPods or other portable music players? Are they digital natives?
While I think these audio recordings can add a personal touch to an online course, our students clearly did not find it useful. I have faculty that plan to record mini lectures this quarter. I’ll probably recommend they record an “about me” introduction as well as some value-added content beyond a weekly review/preview.
December 20th, 2007 - 12:07 pm
I teach grad students in a MLS program. I post voice files to accompany all my Bb assignments, as well as post in from time to time just to catch up on things with them. I go into detail about what makes a good assignment, basically saying the same things I would say in a ftf meeting. This is extremely well received. They tell me hearing my voice is reassuring and adds the personal touch otherwise missing from an online course. I get the idea that you are working with younger students, which may be part of the issue. I am not giving away secrets but I am telling them more about what would make a good piece of work. I guess I would say that the value of the content is key. My postings run 3-5 minutes. If they are going to be longer I tend to break them into parts. I am the only person in my department doing this, and they do thank me again and again.
December 20th, 2007 - 1:00 pm
Thanks for the note, Mary Ann. I think age may be a factor, but also the content of the course. One is medical terminology, so it’s basically memorize definitions. Assessment is via objective tests. We will have to look for a way to add value for the students.