According to Charles Morgan, head of Second grade math games the Department of Mathematics at Lock Haven University, podcasts can improve students’ learning, whether they choose to study full-time, online or mixed/hybrid.
Podcasts allow teachers to give students material for independent study, thus freeing up class time for discussion and brainstorming.
Podcasts help an instructor stay on schedule for a semester. Your instructor may ask students to study podcasts as part of their homework assignment, thereby placing responsibility for their schedules on the student.
Podcasts give students the confidence to participate in classroom discussions. “The traditional lecture model assumes that a lecturer engages students to discuss material during a lecture or immediately after learning new material. Podcasts, on the other hand, provide students with an opportunity to master basic material in their spare time in a less intimidating environment.
Students can listen to the podcast as many times as they need to learn the material,” Morgan says. “Combining podcasts with commentary allows students to participate in off-campus discussions in a comfortable environment that maintains a certain level of anonymity. Students are more comfortable asking questions in comments to a podcast than in the classroom, and podcasts can be the beginning of an online discussion topic.
Morgan uses the same podcasts in combination with comments to educate face-to-face students and students in online and mixed courses. “For me as a professor, the only difference is who and whose difference that when I teach face-to-face students and hybrid courses, I need less involvement in online discussion and more involvement in real discussion. The online course requires me to participate more diligently in online discussions. Based on participation in podcast discussions, students in both types of classes find podcasts equally valuable,” says Morgan.
Morgan suggests using comments as a starting point for podcasts:
“Students are much more comfortable asking questions in a familiar, anonymous online environment. These questions shed light on the fundamentals of science that students learn. These questions give rise to new themes for my podcasts. The questions help me focus on one main topic in each podcast.
Comments allow me to keep podcasts relevant to my students:
“Discussions in comments make it easier to create podcasts. The instructor can create a podcast that highlights the most important issues for students and can avoid topics that are currently not so important to students.
In terms of podcast content, Morgan prefers to rely on a scientific foundation:
“I choose one question for each podcast, and I discuss the question and the answer or solution for it. Students usually study podcasts alone, so it is better to make the podcast short and easy to understand. A podcast with a complex theme schema or multiple themes may distract a student from himself and not be listened to. If the podcast is too long, the student may simply not see it through to the end at once, lose the thread of the idea, and not understand the topic being discussed.
