From summer semester 2007 to summer semester 2008 four lectures in different scientific fields of sport science were supported by podcasts at the Department of Sport and Exercise Science at the University of Stuttgart.
The choice for using podcasts was made due to the “shortage” of the semester (e.g. public holidays; cancelling of a lecture-session because of lecturer illness, conference participation or examination involvement) and the endeavour to the innovative use of digital media in a senseful didactic arrangement.
To compensate this shortage of the semester described above and to deal with the content of the contact hours-sessions dropped out, the option of producing a podcast for self-studies, that deals with the content missed, was provided.
Therefore, the clue of this blended learning-arrangement is to use digital media for dealing with the problem of dealing with prescribed amount of content in a prescribed time period, that is shortened by different reasons - not the duplication of each contact hours-lecture-session by recording, using complex, wasteful, costly, and time-consuming media (e.g. post-editing, student assistants) that is often practised by big departments and institutes, but out of reach for small departments (as the Department of Sport and Exercise Science at the University of Stuttgart unfortunately is).
Searching for an opportunity to produce podcasts in a time-, cost-, and effort-reducing way, the choice for a didactic arrangement was made that meets the requirements of sensible use of resources and practicability of implementation:
Selected sessions were not read as a contact hours-session, but provided as online material in the learning management system “Moodle” in the form of podcasts. (Using Moodle is obligatory for lecturers and students at the Department of Sport and Exercise Science at the University of Stuttgart.)
A freeware software and a cheap headset with an integrated microphone were used for recording.
The type of podcasts used is an audio podcast that is enhanced by digital presentation sheets. Students are supposed to print out the sheets and using them as a visual framework while listening to the illustrating words by the lecturer in the audio file.
The podcast use was evaluated with an online questionnaire at the end of the semester. Due to the fact that the current semester is still running evaluation is still in progress.
The whole sample will contain up to ca. 100 students.
Categories asked: previous experiences with podcasts; quality of podcast; learning and usage behavior; preference of the podcast arrangement used in comparison of traditional consultation-hours lectures and materials.
The results so far show that:
- although most of the students have a portable MP3-player, but practically no one is using it for listening to the university podcast on the way, but practically everyone listens to the podcast at home (alone, not in groups)
- most of the students consider this podcast lecture as more exhausting as a consultation-hours lecture, and unfamiliar, but would prefer it instead of a printed script or self-studies through literature
- most of the students consider this podcast lecture as more exhausting as a consultation-hours lecture, and unfamiliar, but would prefer it instead of a printed script or self-studies through literature
- half of the students do not prefer a podcast lecture with a couple of consultation-hours sessions instead of a classic consultation-hours lecturs