IMPALA Informal Mobile Podcasting and Learning Adaptation
The Use of Podcasts for Skills Development
English Language and Communication, Kingston University
Summary
This podcast application was developed within a level one module entitled ‘Introduction to Intercultural Communication’, a core module for students studying an undergraduate programme in English Language and Communication, at Kingston University. The purpose of using podcast was to help students develop study skills through collaborative learning. Six podcasts were developed. These podcasts were 10-minute audio files delivered via Blackboard VLE on a fortnightly basis. Each podcast consisted of a variety of elements: review of key concepts, interviews, conversations and discussion, and other resources by incorporating different voices from the lecturer, tutors, students and student mentors. These podcasts were developed using a combination of formal style (review of key concepts), and informal style (interviews, conversations and discussion). The lecturer is planning to reuse some of these podcasts, and made them available in the Faculty’s Academic Skills Centre for other students to use.
Context
This podcast application was developed for a level one module Introduction to Intercultural Communication within the degree programme in English Language and Communication at Kingston University. Sixty-five students from Journalism, Literature, Creative Writing, French, Drama, Business and Sociology took the module, which embeds academic skills development activities within an introduction to the study of intercultural communication.
The module was delivered in face-to-face lectures and seminars and assessed by portfolio tasks. Five trained student mentors from level three worked with staff to support students’ learning throughout the module.
Challenge & Rationale
One of the purposes of using podcasts was to enhance students understanding of module-related key concepts and issues.
Another purpose was to build a cohort identity as students came from a wide range of disciplinary areas and studied in combination with different subjects. The module itself also had a focus on skills development. The idea of using podcasts was to foster a learning community and facilitate skills development by collaborative learning through discussion and conversation between students, tutors and mentors.
Application
Six podcasts were developed during Semester 1, 2006. These podcasts were 10-minute audio files delivered via Blackboard VLE. Each podcast consisted of a variety of elements: staff summaries of key concepts, interviews with students, discussions and conversations on assessment tasks between students, mentors and tutors, top tips on presentation and research skills given by mentors, and local resources on personal development.
Technology
Audacity was used for scripted introductions, summaries, links etc. The digital recorder used was called Edirol. One of the Faculty e-developers assisted with capturing and editing the audio files and uploading them into Blackboard.
Evaluation
The impact of podcasting on students’ learning was captured through qualitative and quantitative methods. Quantitative data was captured through an end-of-semester questionnaire with thirty-five students at the end of the semester, developed to gather data on students’ pattern of listening to podcasts, such as how many podcasts they listened to, when and where they listened, and reasons for not listening. The data were analyzed using Excel employing descriptive methods.
The qualitative data was captured through two focus groups with eight students during the middle of the semester and personal interviews with six students at the end of the semester. Student interviews, which lasted about an hour, were conducted using a semi-structured interview schedule developed to explore how student learning is supported by podcasts.
Staff experience of developing podcasts was gathered through a personal interview with the lecturer who developed the podcasts. Information gathered included the pedagogical rationale for using podcasts, the development process, and issues encountered.
All interviews with both students and staff were recorded on a digital recorder and transcribed verbatim for analysis to identify key themes and issues. The qualitative data was analyzed using a grounded theory approach offered by Strauss and Corbin (1990).
Benefits
Help students towards assessment tasks
One of the students found that the podcast with tutor’s advice on how to do presentations very useful because she would know exactly what the tutor expected her to do.
“Yes, because I had my presentations to do. I had two presentations to do. And I really need some advice. I really need to know what the tutors expected from me. So I really want some advice I could get, of course by podcasting, listening to it.”
Another student found that one particular podcast in which mentors gave out advice on how to do presentation very useful. He felt that the opinions and experiences from mentors valuable because they had been through the same module before. The particular podcast provided him with “top tips” and helped him to build up confidence in doing the presentation.
“And we had the mentors advising us because they are second year students, so they have been doing presentations, so they knew about it, they have already done it. So they have been advising us how to do presentation.”
“Useful, it cleared up some points. It just helps me to guide myself along a bit, so be more confident.”
Other students found the podcasts in which mentor students discussed how to do portfolio tasks very helpful.
“The third one was really useful because…mentor students, they were talking about the portfolio task, which one you have to write, the assignment, so it’s very useful…and they show you their point of view, so you can have the different or you can have the same…so I find it very useful.”
Enhance collaborative learning
In particular, students highlighted how podcasts based on conversations and discussions between tutors, mentors, and fellow students helped them to learn by drawing together different viewpoints from different parties.
“I didn’t know how to write this portfolio, I didn’t finish. It’s like in progress. So they gave me like a different view about one point, like from both of them, so they might have the same idea as I, and I can compare it, or they’ve got a different one. So it’s more like, you know, you can see the difference.”
“And also the assignment, there was a task in assignment to be done, and I have already done it. When I saw on Blackboard the podcasting about second year students and tutors discussing about this assignment, I just click and listen to it because I wanted to know what the other points I didn’t mention. So that’s why.”
“Also they (mentors) have been discussing a question, so we’ve been given a task or assignment to do on Intercultural Communication itself, so they have been discussing it. And it was quite different from our point of view because we were first year, all first year students, and they are second year students, so their point of view is a bit more elaborated, a bit more contrast to me.”
Listening to dialogue is motivational
Listening to podcasts offers emotional benefit to learning. Many students described their feeling of listening to podcasts as motivational because the informal conversational style makes the podcasts interesting and alive. Therefore it stimulates students’ interest to listen.
“Yeah, that’s it, because listening to podcasts, I think it must be alive. It shouldn’t like a person just reading because otherwise, I don’t think students will be interested in listening to someone just reading. It has to be some kind of debate, conversation, active, alive, and inviting the person, draw the attention of the person, and try to really put that person in the mood to listen to you.”
Revisiting materials
The podcasts with a review of key concepts provide students with an opportunity to go back to lecture materials. This can be particularly useful for students who missed face-to-face lectures for some reason as it helps them to catch up with the key points of the lectures.
“But I found it quite useful because for the first three weeks I was doing History with Journalism rather than English Language. So I joined the course later… So having missed a few lectures, it made a lot easier to sort of download the podcasts, just to get that brief, a review of what I missed, not feel like that I missed a lot…having that podcast is just an extra bit of information you might have missed, they might not be in that paper.”
Being able to listening to key concepts again also helps students to fill in the gaps in their notes.
“If I was in first year, I think it would be useful because when the things done in the lectures you don’t always get everything written down, the lecturer is talking quite quickly, so you don’t have an opportunity to go back and listen to the main points again. And with podcasts, it’s great. It will make you feel probably more secure if I haven’t got everything written down.”
Offering flexibility in learning
Listening to podcasts offers flexibility in student learning. It allows students to learn anytime when it suits them and review the course materials at their own pace. It is totally in students’ control.
“But I found it a solution though, for example because I work so hard, my body sometimes just can’t make it into the class to pay attention. So when I’m ready to devote all my entire attention to a lecture subject, then I find it a solution to sit at home quietly, relaxed and listen to the course material.”
Listening is easier than reading
Listening to podcasts also offers a psychological benefit: listening is easier than reading, as listening is effortless and requires less concentration than reading.
“Listening is easier. It requires less concentration on your part. It just happened, you know. So you may not get all of the points, but you may be more willing to do it. I don’t know, for example, to sit down and read, for example, for Media Cultures is very demanding, you have to be really concentrated. So it’s quite taxing, and audio might not be much as that. It might be easier to do.”
Lessons Learned
A means of involving student contribution
This case-study presents an example of how to build student contribution into the learning process. In this case, student contribution was captured through:
- Planned group interviews with staff and students, and recorded in the Faculty Flexible Learning Centre
- Opportunistic interviews with students
- Student mentors contributing their own recorded material
The informal style appeals to students
The findings indicate that the informal conversational style of the podcasts appealed to students. Students commented that listening to the conversations and discussions between different parties was interesting and engaging. It was an intimate experience having someone talking through their reflections on a topic. In particular, students highlighted how podcasts helped them to learn by drawing together different viewpoints from fellow students, mentors and tutors. This result indicates that podcasts of this kind may help engage students and hold their attention.
Make the embedded values clear to students
The experiences of those who listened to the podcasts have proved to be positive. They perceived the added value of podcasts, and were stimulated to make them a routine part of their learning activities. The questionnaire survey showed that 50% of the students listened to at least one podcast. However, the other 50% of the students did not listen to any of the podcasts. The main reasons for not listening varied: 40% of students reported that they were too busy to listen, 20% of students reported that they did not know about the availability of the podcasts, 20% of students reported that they had technical difficulties in accessing the podcasts, and another 20% of students reported that they did not see the relevance of podcasts for their learning in the module.
Listening to the podcasts was not compulsory, which means if students do not see their value, they will question the point of listening. This indicates that the purposes, values and benefits of listening to podcasts should be made clear to students. In order to do this, the lecturer has two priorities to bear in mind: on the one hand, students’ needs should be investigated and ways to attract their attention and interest identified. On the other hand, the lecturer needs to spend some time introducing students to podcasts. The induction should cover not only the general and technological aspects (where podcasts are located, how students can access them), but also their pedagogical impact on student learning.
Future Work
Future developments will explore in more depth the ways in which new learners identify with the podcast dialogues and student-generated discussions. These insights may be of particular relevance in the design of podcasts to support students from different cultural contexts to learn from each other.
Findings of this study suggest that integrating informal podcasts with the more formal educational setting can successfully facilitate learning by dialogue. The joint production of podcast dialogues can exploit the social and communicative dimensions of student learning. Building on this model, the lecturer is planning a series of informal podcasts with students, mentors, staff and others to be made available in the Faculty’s Academic Skills Centre.
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