Led by Andy Tattersall

It was the influence of late night listening to Radio Luxembourg at the age of 15 when I first took to recording my own audio. I would make cassette tapes of my records interspersed by me chatting nonsense on a cheap microphone before handing them out to friends with the words ‘Tat on 2’ scribbled on the cases. Back then I was clearly captivated by the power of audio communication and the impact it can have on others, I also was obviously much less aware of copyright. And despite then taking my hobby onto the next level as a pirate and legit radio DJ and completing a journalism degree 25 years ago, it would take me another couple of decades to integrate audio into my professional work. I produced my first podcasts on campus five years ago with my ‘How to beat digital distraction’ series on Apple Podcasts. If it was not obvious before then, it is now, that podcasts are a hugely untapped opportunity to engage with others on campus and beyond. What stopped me making them sooner, as I had written about their potential in an internal report for my department in 2006, was permission. I just did not think I would be allowed to make them.

On the surface within the learning and teaching community, podcasts are an effective means of sharing ideas and good practice. This space is dominated, as you would expect, by lively and engaging American education podcasts. Whilst under the surface most campuses have invested money and resources into podcasting, it feels like much more is needed. Until the opening of our new Social Sciences building at Sheffield, called The Wave, there was just a solitary, well used podcast suite. Plans are in motion to expand on that offer and should teachers and students catch onto the benefits of this technology, then more would be needed in the future. Ultimately this has to be driven by the curriculum and by individual champions leading the way.

Whilst podcasting, as we know it, has been around for 20 years, it remains a largely new endeavour for most. Statista estimates that approximately half a billion people listen to podcasts globally and that figure is growing each year. I suspect that a lot of those listeners are academics and students in HE. Yet its potential to create podcasts by that community remains largely untapped. As with any innovation we are perhaps at that early majority stage of the curve. Reasons as to why podcasts have not been adopted at the same rate by HE compared to social media will be many, but at the top of that list will be technical and financial barriers. There is also the issue of confidence with many teachers no doubt feeling more comfortable delivering a lecture than exploring podcasts. Many may be put off by the thought of how they sound, what listeners might think and that no one will listen. Yet, that problem has never stopped a paper from being published or conference presentation being delivered. You may never top the podcast charts but the more you produce, the easier it gets and the better they will sound. From my experience and the guests I work with across my podcasts, it is quite an enjoyable experience.

There are many benefits to creating podcasts in a HE learning environment not just for the students but also those teaching them. Podcasts require digital skills and in an evolving workplace, these transferable skills become ever more valuable. For students, podcasts are a way of reflecting on their learning but also showing whether they have an understanding of a subject. For years, students have been asked to give group presentations and attend

seminars, which will remain as useful exercises and skills. Podcasting provides another option and is discipline agnostic, in theory you can create podcasts on any given subject.

We are becoming more aware of the opportunities and challenges that will come with the AI revolution. The challenges are how do we ensure HE adapts to these changes and podcasts offer an opportunity to do things differently. Giving students the skills and pedagogical reasoning to create their own podcasts provides a different means to generate and assess learning. But that does not come without its challenges.

For podcasting to be a successful part of the curriculum a few things need to happen. Firstly, there needs to be an investment in podcasting suites, whether static or portable so that students can create them. These technologies need support as recording your first podcast can be a daunting prospect for many. There also needs to be a means of hosting and sharing the podcasts. Those delivering courses need the time and support to properly embed podcasting as a learning activity within their modules. Various ground rules need setting in place as to length of podcast, as busy lecturers will not want to invest more time listening to a podcast when it takes them away from marking essays. Decisions need to be made as to whether the quality of the recording is formally assessed. Going forward, video podcasting will become more commonplace and that adds another possibility.

If they are not already, the more progressive academics, already attuned to embedding social media, video and Wikipedia resources into their course materials will find podcasts another valuable resource alongside traditional journals and books. Podcasts created by course tutors also offer an opportunity to supplement recorded presentations and videos. Core and supplementary course materials could be delivered as podcasts. How teachers approach this very much depends on their time and technical abilities, but even short podcasts could be a way of engaging with students in a way other formats fail. Every form of teaching in the digital age has their pros and cons, and with podcasts they succeed where other formats fail, in that they are portable. Students can literally learn whilst they walk to a lecture. It is another way to break up learning and bring the tutor’s voice and personality further into the classroom. To do that, there needs to be an investment of time and money, and the skills to help teachers communicate in different ways to what they may be used to. Given podcasts are not core to academia (yet), some may feel they need permission to create them as part of their courses, but that is not the case. They need practical, technical, and where applicable, copyright guidance. This is no different to creating slide decks and other learning artefacts. Producing podcasts may seem like a leap of faith but alongside presentations, videos and reading lists, they really do have the potential to revolutionise learning.

References

Hammersley, B (2004) Audible Revolution. The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/media/2004/feb/12/broadcasting.digitalmedia

Tattersall, A. (2019) How to beat digital distraction and write more. https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/how-to-beat-digital-distrations/id1457359810

Unknown (2024) Number of podcast listeners worldwide from 2019 to 2024. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1291360/podcast-listeners-worldwide/

Biography

Andy Tattersall works at the Division of Population Health at The University of Sheffield. Andy writes, podcasts and teaches about research communications including podcasting, blogging, social media, video/animation, infographics and altmetrics.

Andy received a Senate Award from The University of Sheffield for his pioneering work on Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) in 2013. He is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and was named in Jisc’s Top 10 Social Media Superstars in HE.

Andy co-wrote and edited a book on Altmetrics which is aimed at researchers and librarians.

You can find more about Andy at his Linktree page here.