As a trainer, creating asynchronous content has been somewhat of a challenge for me. I have struggled with when and how to use it. I see the benefit in creating asynchronous material, because there are times when certain subject matter does need to be digested individually.
However, while I have done comprehensive email summaries and video tutorials for various topics, I never thought about using a podcast as a method of instruction. However, podcasting "enables the professor to develop more advanced instructional materials, and to provide individualized instructional assistance for special situations" (King & Cox, 2011).
For example, if I were to need to do a follow-up training on a specific topic for individuals who may have struggled with something, I could cater the training to their specific questions, while not requiring the remainder of the department to necessarily need to listen.
This would also be an effective method of getting out post-presentation material such as answers to follow up questions. I love the idea of having advisors "post their questions in a folder in an online discussion board by week or topic. The faculty member collects the questions and records the questions with the answers and posts the file in print and voice" (King & Cox, 2011).
If I created a weekly podcast with questions I received that week, there would be far fewer questions repeated. It could be a recap of all pertinent information, and could be archived and transcribed for easy searches.
By having both an auditory training and a written recap, I would be catering to different learning styles. "Since learning styles provide information about individual differences in learning preferences they can suggest how instruction can best be designed to support the learning preferences" (Saeed, Yang, & Sinnappan, 2009).
The only real downfall I can see is how it may be time-consuming for individuals to spend time listening to the recaps; however, it may require them to actually digest what is being said rather than archiving an email I send.
King, K. & Cox, T. (2011). The
professor’s guide to taming technology. Charlotte, NC: Information Age
Publishing.
Saeed, Nauman, Yang, Yun, & Sinnapan, Suku. (2009). Emerging Technologies in Higher Education: A Case Of Incorporating Blogs, Podcasts and Social Bookmarks in a Web Programming Course based on Students' Learning Styles and Technology Preferences. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 12(4), 98-109. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/jeductechsoci.12.4.98
Hi Sarah,
ReplyDeleteI thought you made several valid points about using podcasts. In particular, I had never thought of using it as individual assistance. I thought intermediate algebra for a short period of time, and I really wish I had thought about doing a podcast. It would have been so helpful for those who were struggling to keep up in class. One con that I thought of as I considered this idea was how would I assess the effectiveness of the podcast or that it was actually being used. It would be a lot of work for the Instructor so there would need to be some way to capture the use of it, I think. I suppose a survey would suffice to determine if students found it helpful.
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ReplyDeleteSarah,
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of doing a weekly question and answer podcast so that students would have a place to reference their problem areas. I do see a few potential hiccups with this method though. In order for this to work and be of any benefit to the student, the instructor should have a ‘no later than’ turnaround time to getting the students’ questions answered. Also, would there be cutoff for students to get their questions in? If not, then the instructor may spend a great deal of time making podcast as the questions continue to roll in at various times throughout the week. I would also think that a word document should accompany the podcasts, something like a table of contents of some sort, to make the information easy to find.
Danella