Podcasting Lectures

I don't really like to lecture, although I can go on and on (and on and on and on as my son would tell you ). I'd much rather get a discussion going in class so the students can learn from each other. Given class make-up and workload, though, students often don't have time to prepare adequately prior to class. Sometimes I ask a question, and you might as well cue the crickets, because no one is going to speak up. It's not that they don't have ideas. Many of them are just reluctant to risk being wrong.

In my classes, there is no such thing as a wrong answer. You would think that such a policy would encourage students to take the risk. And I'm a pretty encouraging kind of gal. Unfortunately, it often takes the entire semester before they feel completely comfortable. No matter. But it leaves me with the problem of downloading information to them in a form that makes the best use of our time together. Assigning more readings is not the answer; they are too hard-pressed for time as it is.

[Our recent province-wide faculty strike was over the issues of class size and contact time with students, among other things. No resolution on that score yet.]

Enter multimedia for multi-tasking.

Podcasts of lecture material can be a godsend. I've been producing more audio and video lately, as mentioned in a recent post. Students tell me they like having this material available to them. There is a greater time investment up front to create podcasts (including online video) but that time is recouped later tenfold. It's definitely worth doing.

Care to comment?