Perceived Impact of Podcasting Gregory Doyle Education Development Unit, Health Sciences University of Cape Town

Introduction Background –Technology to support learning activities –Differences in learning styles  different impact Study looked at: –Process of implementation –Impact – performance & attendance –Why

Study Setting Medical students - PBL Action Research First – 2 nd year students Second – 3 rd year students Portable recorders & LMS (without RSS)

Educators’ responses That is fine / great idea / am happy to have my lectures recorded / a good idea for the majority of students / think it's a great idea and am thinking of introducing it into the clinical years / fine with me I for one am against this / students will miss lectures

Pre-survey concerns (n=121) Lecture attendance will drop You still need to make time to listen Lectures should be seen as more valuable Podcasting would promote laziness

Pre-Survey - advantages Re-listen to difficult concepts (49%) Focus on what is said (14%) Make up a lecture missed (9%) Help with exam preparation It may improve the quality of the lecture

Pre-Survey – what to record Educators who are difficult to follow Lecture slides are not made available Complicated lectures Everything – all the educator says is valuable

Pre-survey ct What mobile device do they have –Cellphone – 33% –Other device – 50% (59% ipods) –100% computer at home or campus Where would they listen to it - 86% home Where would they download it from – 91% campus

Log files Accessed at least 1 podcast – 72% Downloaded all podcasts – 21% Average days till first access – 5 days Who accessed each podcast – 35% Average no each podcast downloaded – 85

Post Survey n = 157 Downloaded by – 56% male, 82% English 51% downloaded more than 10 How many used podcasts to make notes – 75% Listened on PC (87%) Overall value – 87% said valuable/useful/helpful Podcasts assisted in my learning - 74% Did you ever skip a lecture because of podcasts -13%

Impact on performance Did not download PodcastsDownloaded Podcasts % CI

Impact on performance Comparing marks showed small increase Might be unrelated to effect of podcasts Uncertainties related to number of podcasts downloaded vs listened No correlation between marks and number of podcasts downloaded

Perceived value of podcasts You can listen to them at your own pace Good for revision Can listen to the lecture anywhere Helps clarify concepts not grasped during the lecture Helps in consolidating notes No need to get up in the morning and go to lectures

Why students didn’t download podcasts Time–consuming No visual aids – makes it hard to understand concepts Can’t ask a question immediately if you don’t understand something They are sometimes hard to follow as one does not get to see the educator and therefore miss out on the illustrations

Conclusion Introducing new technologies can be difficult Impact on learning hard to evaluate – individual Did not affect lecture attendance significantly Students did listen on mobile devices

Perceived Impact of Podcasting Gregory Doyle Education Development Unit, Health Sciences University of Cape Town