Overview
Incorporating podcasting assignments and projects into the classroom provides students another way to connect and engage with the curriculum. It encourages another means of representation and expression and leans into the idea that coursework need not be confined to a restrictive Canvas quiz or assignment format.
To be clear, podcasting is not revolutionary. While the medium may be relatively new, at the heart of every podcast is a story. And storytelling in education is as old as time itself.
What to do first?
We try to approach podcast integration through the lens of backwards design. Ultimately, you start with the end in mind by identifying what students should know and be able to do by the end of your course. Then, you must ponder whether podcasting meets those needs and if a podcast is an appropriate delivery mechanism to meet your instructional goals.
Assessment is one part of this process so think about how you will measure the learning as a result of podcast development. We urge you to consider assessing reflective practices related to the production rather than the quality of production itself. Once your assessment is determined, begin planning lessons that contribute to success of that assessment. Remember, the podcast is not the assessment.
Here is a generalized set of plans that seem to work for our instruction. As a reminder, we typically host four two-hour sessions in our podcasting curriculum. This can be condensed or expanded based on your timeline and assignment needs:
- Start with an introduction activity. It gets students started right away with editing, recording, storytelling, scripting and self-reflection.
- Develop a plan. Backwards design doesn’t just apply to the curriculum. Ask students to develop a plan – what they envision their podcast will look like, how an audience might respond and who that audience might be. This activity helps students to set project goals and begins to frame how an audience might engage with the content being produced. Plans also help to identify specific stories that could or should be told, as well as how students might go about telling those stories (with their own voice, through someone else’s voice, with a group of voices, etc.).
- Receive feedback from peers and instructors. It’s important to incorporate feedback into the process as a way to challenge students to critically evaluate the work. There will likely be strategies and practices that students have used that will be revelatory to some and ignite “ah-ha!” moments during the project.
- Iterate. With so many different facets of production – recording, editing, music, transcripts, reflection – there will inevitably be little tweaks here and there that can be made in the final podcast. Lean into this iterative process and challenge students to improve and grow with each production check-in.
- Celebrate. We always devote a good amount of time to celebrate the work being produced in any given cohort. Producing a podcast, even if it’s for a grade, is hard work. We should be proud of that work and have opportunities to celebrate in the success and triumph for ourselves and for our peers.
How to integrate podcasting into the curriculum?
There are a few things you can do right now to integrate podcasting into your curriculum. In fact, you’re doing one of them right now: develop your own podcast segment or episode. Even completing the initial podcast introduction activity will give you a good idea of the work required to complete a larger production.
Another thing you should consider is how big this podcast assignment will be and how you might scaffold the production with weekly topics and themes. Will you focus on a one-shot activity in class where participants will be introduced to podcasting and given an option to choose it as one delivery mechanism? Or will the assignment span multi-weeks, incorporate collaborative production and development, and require more complex component parts like research and/or interviews? It’s up to you to decide how you might wish to integrate the activity into the course.
In an effort to incorporate universal design into your curriculum, we urge you to consider how podcasting content is consumed by many listeners.
- Are the podcasts a standalone activity or are they incorporated into larger conversations around writing for the web and engaging listeners with a call to action? You might want to consider pairing the podcast with a writing activity where students create their own blog posts, webpages, or portfolios.
- Will students involve community voices? Consider tasking students with reaching out to community organizers for interviews. The same also applies to local industry leaders and mentors in the field.
- How might someone interact with the podcast if they are deaf or hard of hearing? Make sure to highlight accessible practices such as generating transcripts and making them available online.
- How is metadata being used in the assignment? What implications for citation, attribution, preservation, scholarly impact or utility might be incorporated into classroom discussion?
As one example of podcasting instruction, take a look at the instructional arc that former podcast workshop participant and IWP instructor Julian Barr develop for a Geography 272 class. Podcasts developed in this class are also available online.
Where to go for support?
The UW Libraries is happy to help support you in your teaching endeavors. We are able to provide you support by consulting with you directly on these instructional efforts, providing short instructional sessions like the ones you are experiencing in this podcasting track, and more.
UW-IT provide many learning opportunities such as synchronous online workshops and online curriculums for tools such as Audacity and audio editing.