A review of podcasting in higher education: Its influence on the traditional lecture

Abstract

<span>This paper examines the possible influence of podcasting on the traditional lecture in higher education. Firstly, it explores some of the benefits and limitations of the lecture as one of the dominant forms of teaching in higher education. The review then moves to explore the emergence of podcasting in education and the purpose of its use, before examining recent relevant literature about podcasting for supporting, enhancing, and indeed replacing the traditional lecture. The review identifies three broad types of use of podcasting: substitutional, supplementary and creative use. Podcasting appears to be most commonly used to provide recordings of past lectures to students for the purposes of review and revision (substitutional use). The second most common use was in providing additional material, often in the form of study guides and summary notes, to broaden and deepen students' understanding (supplementary use). The third and least common use reported in the literature involved the creation of student generated podcasts (creative use). The review examines three key questions: What are the educational uses of podcasting in teaching and learning in higher education? Can podcasting facilitate more flexible and mobile learning? In what ways will podcasting influence the traditional lecture? These questions are discussed in the final section of the paper, with reference to future policies and practices.</span>

Different patterns of university students’ integration of lecture podcasts, learning materials, and lecture attendance in a psychology course

“…Dolnicar (2005) emphasizes that a lecturer can relate learning contents to students' prior knowledge and real-life experiences even ad-hoc in the lecture and make learning more meaningful. Lectures are also helpful in structuring students' view of knowledge in a field (McGarr 2009). …”

“…For the recording of lectures and their distribution over the internet for playback on personal computers or portable media devices the terms podcast lectures (Evans 2008;Pilarski et al 2008), lecture podcasts (Abdous et al 2012;Walls et al 2010;Williams et al 2016), or video podcasts (Kay 2012) are often employed. Typically, the lecturer's presentation is recorded as film, combined with the lecture slides, and broadcasted in video format (McGarr 2009). Students may use personal computers, notebooks, tablets as well as mobile phones or other mobile devices for viewing.…”

Podcasting of health sciences lectures: Benefits for students from a non-English speaking background

“…Although the use of podcasts has been investigated extensively (Lightbody, McCullagh, Weeks & Hutchison, 2006;Duncan-Howell & Lee, 2007;Forbes, 2008;McGarr, 2009;Van Amelsvoort, 2009) their use by the NESB student cohort has not been reported previously. For students whose native language is not English, podcasts are potentially a very useful resource (Read, 2005;O'Bryan & Helgelheimer, 2007).…”

Streaming Video and Podcasting Enhancements in the Post-secondary Classroom

“…Podcasts can be used in the lecture environment to enhance the student experience in a number of ways [1]. There is some discussion in the literature as to the usefulness of podcasting in post-secondary education.…”