Will podcasting my lectures affect student attendance? Research notes.
Posted on February 28, 2008 by Valerie
Filed Under Podcasting, Research, Students, Teaching
At the EDC we are currently in the process of writing three introductory guides to educational podcasting:
- Podcasting of full lectures using screen capture software.
- Assigning student-created podcasts. (projects led by students can take the form of study aids for their classmates, presentations of their final papers, or weekly “teasers” of information for the class to stimulate in-class discussions)
- Podcasting of mini-segments. (Shorter podcast episodes have many possible uses such as to get students prepared and excited for in-class discussion, supplement language learning in between classes for language courses, guest lecturers to supplement classroom learning, or as a kind of instructor-led audio-blog to discuss research and course news)
For the lecture podcasting guide I am writing a section that addresses the question of attendance being affected by podcasting – a very complex and nuanced issue. While podcasts are intended as learning aids to supplement in-person lectures so that students can re-visit things they did not understand or review for examinations, they are also handy for those students who missed the lecture – whether for legitimate or illegitimate reasons. Since we are writing documents in support of lecture podcasting – giving detailed information on why it is beneficial, my research is leaning towards optimism.
Both Duke’s infamous iPod experience study and University of Washington’s in-depth study revealed a negligible effect on attendance with the introduction of lecture podcasting.
University of Texas-Austin finds no drop in attendance with introduction of podcasting.
Jean-Claude Bradley of Drexel CoAS E-Learning has some controversial things to say about the subject:
It seems strange to me almost every article or comment on lecture podcasting assumes that a decreasing attendance is obviously a negative outcome. As educators we should be focusing on education, not counting bodies. If students are doing just as well and not attending class then that tells me that my multimedia channel is effective.
He describes how having the podcasts have allowed him to change the traditional structure of the classroom:
Having an archive of lectures available gives me a lot of added flexibility. This term I have assigned the archived lectures (podcasts and screencasts) and instead of lectures I run workshops during class time. I have the chance to interact one on one with every student who needs help with the specific problems that they have. I can use other modalites such as watch them play games or build molecular models from kits. In other words, I can be a teacher again, instead of a parakeet.
Ways to counter possible drops in attendance:
- In smaller courses you can make attendance mandatory and keep a record of it.
- Increase opportunities for discussion and interactivity.
Victor Edmonds muses, “Putting lectures online frees up faculty to devote more time to other aspects of a course, especially those that make class time more interactive and help students better engage.”
Another piece I found interesting, by Susan Lister, asks students to consider the effectiveness of using podcasts as a replacement for in-person lectures:
- There’s no short cut – Unless a professor’s going to take time to edit their lectures, a two hour class will still take two hours to listen to as a podcast. (Perhaps in the future we will train ourselves to listen faster than normal speech speed, though)
- Learning from a podcast would be an easy task for an auditory learner but what about visual learners – will taking notes from the podcast be enough?
- What if the student has questions or is just not getting it (…)
Other helpful resources in educational podcasting.
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As with all of these initiatives, the devil is in the details. Most classes have a visual component and so a screencast is essential to replacing the lecture experience. Audio only can be useful as an extra resource but it should not displace regular lectures.