IDEA Lab Podcasting initiative
From Wiki Podcasting
The IDEA Lab is pleased to announce a new podcasting initiative! “Podcasting” is a way of providing regular audio files that your students can subscribe to and get automatically downloaded to their computers (or iPods). An easy way to get started with podcasting is to simply record your classroom lectures.
Do you:
- Teach in a large lecture hall (Clow 101, 102, 103, HS 106, 107, 109, N/E 151, 152, and Kolf 161)?
- We will install a podcast-in-a-box computer in your classroom that takes just 2 steps—plug in a flash drive at the beginning of class and remove it at the end. You would have to wear the wireless lavalier mic installed in each of these rooms but the podcast-in-a-box does everything else.
- Teach in a regular classroom?
- We’ll give you an iPod, voice recorder, and a lapel mic. You will have to turn on/off recording in the classroom. After class, in your office you will need to upload the file to your computer, run a simple conversion task, name the file, and upload it to iTunesU, taking about 5 minutes per class session.
- Want to record audio in your office?
- We’ll give you with a high quality headset mic so you can easily record at your own computer using freely available Audacity software.
Anecdotal evidence from instructors who record lectures shows that good students do better (since they can review material that confused them or they missed) and poor students do no worse. Generally speaking, class attendance does not drop simply due to the lectures being available online.
Up to 10 participants for each setup will be selected. You must agree to produce at least 10, and preferably weekly, podcasts during the spring semester, and to encourage your students to take a survey about the podcasts at the end of the semester.
During Interim, you will be provided instruction on how to use your podcasting setup and instructional design assistance if you wish to produce podcasts outside of recording classroom lectures. You will get hands-on assistance during the semester, as well.
We recommend selecting just one class to focus on your first semester of podcasting. If you are interested in more than one of the above setups, please indicate them in order of preference. The iPod can function in all three settings, but is overkill for recording in your office. The lecture hall setup is easiest to use and can be used by multiple instructors.
To apply for the podcasting initiative, contact Nick Dvoracek by December 12, 2007. In your email, please include the following information
- Lecture hall, classroom, or office?
- Course(s) you intend to podcast
- Podcast commitment—what will you do, how often, and how long (such as 3 1-hour lectures per week for 14 weeks except 2 exam days or 1 3-hour lecture 10 weeks or 14 in-office 15-minute introduction to the week’s topics, etc.)
We have set up an FAQ about the Podcasting initiative.
