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Students like podcasts, say surveys

Monday, April 16, 2007


Podcasting is a hit with students at UW-Madison. In two recent surveys, students overwhelmingly expressed positive opinions about podcasts — multimedia files (audio or visual or both) that students can play back on portable devices such as iPods or on personal computers — saying they are easy to use and enhance the learning experience.

The DoIT survey
graphic of student using ipod at deskResults of the DoIT survey are preliminary, but they indicate widespread and favorable acceptance of podcasting by students, according to Hans Klar of DoIT’s Academic Technology group and author of the draft study report. More than 75% of 548 student respondents said they had used the technology in a course, and 75% of those users said it had enhanced their learning (only three students said podcasting had negative effects on their learning). Eighty-five percent of users said that podcasting was very or somewhat easy to use, and more than 90% agreed that the course podcast allowed them to obtain course materials conveniently.

How do students typically use podcasts? Students listed almost a thousand uses in several categories:

  • Study for exams
  • Review or clarify what happened in class, lecture or discussion
  • Get more practice with the material in the podcast
  • Use as a resource for completing a class assignment
  • Catch up on material I missed in class.

Survey of Psychology students
Caton Roberts, a senior lecturer in the Psychology Dept., posed 29 questions to the 272 students taking his Psychology 202 class during Spring Semester in 2006. Roberts had made podcasts of his lectures available to his students.

Sixty percent said they used the podcasts, and almost 70% of users said the technology improved their learning (28% were unsure, and only 5% saw no improvement). Echoing the DoIT survey, almost all (97%) of those who used podcasts said they were easy or somewhat easy to use.

Roberts had been concerned that the availability of podcasts would diminish attendance at his lectures, but his survey showed that very few students skipped class because they could listen to the podcast instead. Only 8% skipped lecture three or more times in favor of the podcast; 64% never chose the podcast over attending class.

“Many students see podcasts as a tremendous asset to their educational experience,” says Roberts. “Podcasts facilitate and augment learning for many students, although a few use the resource maladaptively and unwittingly slip into patterns of intellectual disengagement. However, my qualitative survey data convinced me that the podcasting truly saved some motivated and engaged students, and perhaps even one such case makes ignoring the detracting elements worthwhile.” Roberts is using podcasting this semester in his Psychology course.