IMPALA Informal Mobile Podcasting and Learning Adaptation
From the University of Southampton
Experimenting with podcasts in an online course for international students coming to live and study in the UK
Julie Watson, Manager of academic development, eLanguages, University of Southampton – jw17@soton.ac.uk
eLanguages are a professional, elearning development and research team working alongside the Centre for Language Study within Modern Languages at the University of Southampton. We create online Study Skills and English language courses and resource sets (Toolkits), which contain activity-based, interactive, multimedia-enhanced learning materials.
Arrive UK is an etutored online course designed for international students who are coming to study at a university in the UK or Ireland. It introduces students to a specific institution and the city/region where they will be studying as well as to aspects of British academic culture, helping them prepare for both their academic course and the cultural changes involved in moving to a new country. The toolkit is customisable and has been in use with international students coming to study at the University of Southampton since 2005.
Arrive UK includes online learning materials (developed as learning objects); an e-tutored strand delivered through the use of tools such as discussion board and chat room and, this year, downloadable listening materials in the form of podcasts. The course content covers a range of practical and academic themes such as:
- Dealing with the change in culture
- Managing your money
- Shopping in the UK
- Finding your way around campus
- Student social life
- Assignments and academic writing
- Lectures, listening and note-taking
In the summer of 2006 weekly podcasts were added to the suite of learning materials available in Arrive UK. Podcasts were chosen to serve a number of purposes:
- To enhance the range and register of English language listening practice material available for the students to use in a variety of ways
- To provide increased connectivity between different elements of the course
- To increase the scope for discussion activity, enhancing the etutored dimension delivered through the chat room and discussion board activity
Each podcast was made by a different speaker (university tutor or British native speaker) and presents a 3-5 minute interview or extended monologue, delivered in informal style using a radio-style format. The podcast themes take up many of the topics dealt with in the learning materials, focussing, for example, on travel stories and experiences; tutors’ tips concerning specific academic skills. Examples of podcast content include:
An anecdotal account of an adventure after boarding the wrong train at a London railway station
A tutor’s recommendations on the best way to approach academic reading and note-taking
The etutor set various listening comprehension tasks in relation to the podcasts and these also formed the starting point for a number of the discussion board activities
(e.g. students asked further questions about a podcaster’s travel story or study tips and/or posted their own travel adventures for each other to read and comment on).
Research into the student reaction is still in progress but early indications from student feedback collected so far and analysis of course tracking suggest that the podcasts were highly appreciated and extensively used by students. The podcasts were frequently downloaded, and students reported listening to each several times over both for the listening practice they provided as well as for their entertainment or informational value. Current plans include introducing a podcast strand to all in-sessional academic skill courses being delivered online cross-campus.
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