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This article describes the use of three forms of podcasts in a distance learning setting.  Podcasts created by the instructor that are recorded lectures and also used for specific functions, and podcasts created by an external source.  Some of the positives about the recorded lectures that the students liked were the fact that they could revisit the content easily and as many times as they wanted to make sure they understood it.  Many also liked it as a quick review before taking the exam.  About 75% of the students in the study utilized the podcast in the lecture format.  

Using short podcasts as a lead-in to a lecture to prepare students for lessons can also be beneficial.  Instructors can provide these short podcasts for additional explanations, student feedback, exam prep, interviews with experts, and just to make students active while learning.  The final use is for external podcasts that are readily available and provided by outside sources on TED talks or youtube.  

Results of the study noted the problem of students feeling connectedness and thus motivation to learn when in an independent setting such as distant learning.  They don’t have the sense of belonging to a group.  Participants noted that podcasts should introduce no new content, only same content in another way.  They also noted that they should get to the point.  Instructors pointed out that creating these podcasts tailored to the needs of students is very time-consuming and usually easier if their lecture is recorded instead.    

I think that these podcasts have a strong possibility of being a valuable resource for

students who are absent from class due to a variety of reasons that are usually completely out of their control.  It can help provide a guideline for the student and help provide them questions to discuss when they return to class so they do not get too far behind.  I don’t think these should be used as a replacement of teaching course material, especially at the secondary level, but primarily as a supplement for struggling students.  There are many times students can get distracted and miss material so it is nice for them to have this resource available to them for extra help.

I am also interested to see how students would react to student-created podcasts on particular mathematical topics.  I have tried some things like this before and students mentioned how they preferred to see other students in a video instead of a boring old guy talking about math.  Students can be much more engaging and creative when given the opportunity.  The article mentioned how there has not been much research done on student-created podcasts yet which is why he didn’t include it in his research.  I am curious to see what students would think of learning more from each other than an expert.

Koppelman, H. (2013, July). Using podcasts in distance education. Paper presented at the

International Association for Development of the Information Society (IADIS)

International Conference on e-Learning, Prague, Czech Republic. Retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED562304.pdf