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February 21, 2006

History Course Podcasts

The podcasting of history courses has begun.

In a quick search of the web I found several examples of history courses being podcasted by their instructors:

Jennifer Burns’ Introduction to the History of the United States at Berkeley
Thomas Laqueur’s European Civilization course at Berkeley
Jeff Curto's History of Photography at the College of DuPage
Gordon Lam's History of the United States at Folsom Lake College

These early course podcasts are largely “classroom captures”, by which I mean they broadcast captures of the classroom experience in audio (or in one case video) format. For the student who missed class, these would be very useful, because he/she can not only hear the professor’s lecture, but can also listen to the questions and answers in the class. This alone is a significant advance on the old practice of posting lecture notes on a website for those students who missed class. And, two of these are available via iTunes, which gives them a potentially huge market beyond the confines of their institution.

Of the examples cited above, only Burns’ course offers video to go along with the audio. XXX at DuPage uses music and studio voiceovers at the beginning of the podcast, but then the audio quality declines. As such, they are truly beta samples of what we can expect in the future. Further, they don’t take advantage of the full capabilities of the available technology—such things as placemarks in the audio stream, links to text or image files, and so on. Soon, though, we can expect to see more and more historians pushing the envelope of what the podcast offers.

When I talk to colleagues about podcasting and ideas like iTunesU, some are intrigued, but most worry that podcasting a class will lead to significant declines in classroom attendance. After all, if a student can listen to/watch class without attending, why would he (or she)?

This anxiety is important, but not for the reason given by those feeling anxious. What’s really at stake here is a bigger problem…if students will choose to skip class and just listen/watch, then isn’t there something wrong with the class? If our classes are so dull that a student might just as well access them while on the treadmill or the bus, then I submit it’s time to teach differently.

Posted by mills at February 21, 2006 05:03 PM

Comments

Thanks for the list, I'll add these to my podcast stream.

I am currently in a program that offers full audio of the entire class, and even offered full time students i-pods when enrolling. I have yet to listen to a podcast of a class and about 1/2 those surveyed said the same thing ... but ... I do listen to course related podcasts all the time. Right now, it is supplemental, in the future it could be more integrated - assignments could be introduced by the professor for example.

Posted by: Amy at February 22, 2006 06:45 PM

Thanks for noting my Photo History podcast. I thought I'd tap out a few lines about my experience. I originally thought about recording the lectures for students who might have missed a class, but now have people listening literally all over the world, which is pretty amazing. It's opened the door of the classroom to the rest of the world.

I've done all of the work on podcasting my courses without any support from my institution. It's my own mic, my own software, etc. All the institution gives me is web space and now they are starting to complain about bandwidth consumption. I would love to have better quality stuff, but don't want to spend my own money on equipment, etc.

In terms of students attending class, it seems as though my students are coming to class regardless of whether or not I record the lecture. Yet, by show of hands, about 65% to 70% of the students are using the recorded lectures as a resource. The fact that I have "worldwide" listeners seems to earn me some cache with the students in the classroom, too, especially when I read emails from listeners in Japan and New Zealand to my in-room students.

It's a brave new world...

-Jeff Curto
Professor, Photography
College of DuPage, Glen Ellyn, IL

Posted by: Jeff Curto at March 18, 2006 12:43 AM