John Gordon, Associate Director, DELTA at NC State talked to me last summer about starting a podcast on podcasting. The Podcast On Podcasting (POP) is a project that focuses on the use of podcasting in unique ways. The series has three episodes: faculty podcasts, student-produced podcasts, and a weekly career development podcast by Marcy Bullock’s team.
Marcy Bullock teaches a weekly class with about a hundred students. Bullock’s podcast features alumni and their career trajectories. With one podcast a week for Pack Career Chats while being the Director of Career Development, Bullock’s task seems daunting! Nevertheless, Bullock does a live podcast in class and also interviews over Zoom, for example. Marcy’s students have learned how to edit Zoom files with Audacity to mix the sound to include intro and out to music. The interviews are about 30 minutes. Bullock uses SoundCloud to host and share the episodes. This is a fee-based service that allows Bullock to share the episodes via social media while hosting them on SoundCloud. Bullocks team has helped create, edit, and share podcasts to reach thousands of students! Bullock’s advice was to have a why and a topic/niche you want to fill! Marcy Bullock also ends each podcast episode with a signature question.
Dr. Michael Kanters uses podcasts in a certificate course in sports management. Kanters uses an interview format and compares podcasting to creating instructional videos for courses. Kanters offers the advice: focus on what you want to say and your course map/learning objectives and audience. Kanters also mentions that video creation requires production (time) while podcasting has a quicker turnaround and allows you to focus on content. Balancing assignments and integrating podcasting to course learning objectives was emphasized by Kanters. During the pandemic, Kanters has been able to continue producing content and providing variety to students. Gordon mentioned there is ramp up time for podcasting and fortunately we have access to resources and talented media specialists like Jason Evans Groth! Jason helped our BIT 477/577 Metagenomics course participants create podcasts we shared on our course website. I was worried about the workload we gave students, and script editing and peer-review was time consuming. The final recordings students created were engaging, informative, and truly wrapped a captivating story around complex procedures! I will continue using this assignment, sharing the podcasts, and listening to the recordings to teach others about microbial communities.
Link: Module 1 post (URL opens in new window).
Dr. Jenny Campbell uses podcasting in her Zoology class. Campbell talked to Gordon about the assignment and the challenges. Students work in groups to create stories that are relevant, scientifically accurate… and worth listening to for 16-18 min! Students come up with lists if ideas after reading some books. The groups work with Jason Evans Groth and others to record and out together their podcasts from scripts. I love how Campbell has a listening session and posts on SoundCloud. I also really loved how Campbell describes free choice learning that you do because you want to and the importance of story and science communication. This is a challenging assignment — I agree and noticed that AND I also think these assignments are more meaningful and lasting to our learners. I’m enjoying learning about podcasting, creating my own, and helping students share stories! Maybe the Delftia undergraduate researchers will create their podcast too!
