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[zharkov]

I'm thinking about adding a brief "podcast" lecture or two to an online class. Has anyone had any luck with this approach?  Any tricks or traps?

The purpose, in this case, will be to emphasize what I expect in a final class project. Plus, I'd just like to check out something new.

Thanks,

Z

[clarkshahnelson]

Hi,

I use podcasts in various ways: videos for learning German, videos to give a tour of the online environment to help orient the students at the beginning of the semester. (I use Camtasia for PC or Snaps Pro X for Mac to record screencasts), and recently I started using Odeo.com for recording quick and easy audio to add into lessons and announcements. It's also great for language teaching, and I have students use studio.odeo.com to record audio  of themselves speaking German to send to me.
Odeo is very easy to use, and makes it super simple to add audio into any online course management system, because they give you HTML code you can just paste in anywhere and it will put a Flash player in your page with the audio you recorded. You just need a headset with microphone.

Best,
Clark Shah-Nelson
http://clarkshahnelson.com

[voxprincipalis]

I don't do any online teaching, but I am LOVING a Clinical Psych class that I am "auditing" via podcast. Love it, love it, love it. It's taught by Dr. Ann Kring at Berkeley and I love listening to her. She sounds a lot like Ellen DeGeneres!

I downloaded this from the following website, where there are lots of other classes on podcast as well:

http://www.productivity501.com/2006/11/free_academic_p.html

If you are considering putting lectures up as podcasts, I recommend that you download and listen to several different classes from different lecturers so that you hear what does and does not work well on podcast. For one thing, it's much easier for listeners to focus in on the number of times you say "um" and "er". One thing that Ann Kring does that I really like is when a student asks a question (which is inaudible) she repeats the question for the benefit of the whole class so everyone hears what she's going to answer. Of course, that's good for the podcast-listening audience too.

I love this. After I am done with Clinical Psych I'm going to listen to another course on human emotion. There are also some philosophy classes I'm eager to listen to.

VP

[fortune12]

Have not used a podcast of my own, but have found several podcasts out there for my classes. One class is online, two others have been f2f. The podcasts have been well received by students. One 7-minute video podcast did quickly what usually takes me an entire 50-minute class to do.

[empyrean_aisles]

recently I started using Odeo.com for recording quick and easy audio to add into lessons and announcements. It's also great for language teaching, and I have students use studio.odeo.com to record audio  of themselves speaking German to send to me.
Odeo is very easy to use, and makes it super simple to add audio into any online course management system, because they give you HTML code you can just paste in anywhere and it will put a Flash player in your page with the audio you recorded. You just need a headset with microphone.

Just wanted to thank clarkshahnelson for this. I checked it out and did a test and it was very easy. These fora are great!

[reader]

Here's what I did -- I asked a colleague from my department to sit with me for a series of brief dialogues on some important matters pertaining to our majors.  Rather than giving a lecture, I structured a dialogue that covered critical information.  Several of these sessions are now available online for our students who appreciate having them as supplemental resources.