Background and ContextMarianne Talbot is a lecturer in philosophy in the University of Oxford Department for Continuing Education, she has become an ItunesU sensation with her lecture podcasts; Philosophy for Beginners, reaching the global number one position in October 2009 with over 250,000 downloads across the world. “It’s extraordinary. It’s difficult to wrap my mind around the fact that throughout the world 18,000 people are downloading my lecture every week.”The department of continuing education is a university department which teaches members of the public short courses in a wide variety of subjects, offering weekend and evening classes as well as weekly lectures and tutorials in subjects as diverse as languages, physics, mathematics, literature and philosophy. Marianne recorded her lecture series 'Philosophy for Beginners' and made it into podcasts. This series has become a hit around the world with over a quarter of a million downloads from the Oxford ItunesU site. In this lecture series, Marianne aims to give an introduction to the world of philosophy to people who have no formal background in the subject. She talks about the history of philosophy; from the pre-Socratic philosophers of ancient Greece right through to the modern philosophical teachings of the twentieth century. She also talks about epistemology (theory of knowledge), ethics, language and logic in an entertaining and thought-provoking way. ImpactIn just a year of posting material on iTunes U, Oxford has seen over 2 million downloads of lectures or other academic works. “Podcasts that were scattered on the university’s departmental sites are now on iTunes,” said Carolyne Culver, Head of Strategic Communications at the University. “We are getting many more downloads.”Through the success of the series, Marianne has raised the profile of the Department for Continuing Education and indeed the University as a whole, online. In addition to the downloads, Marianne and the University's presence on ITunes has attracted the attention of national newspapers and magazine including The Sunday Times, The Independent and The Time Higher Education magazine as well as numerous blogs, twitter feeds and other online resources. The Sunday Times featured Oxford’s podcasts and described ItunesU as “ a sort of university in the sky hosted by the online music store. There you can find lectures by professors at Oxford, Cambridge, Yale, Stanford, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and many others.” (Sunday Times, October 11, 2009)

podcasts@oucs.ox.ac.uk

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Pictures from top left to top right: Album cover for Dr Benjaminʼs podcast series; screen shots from episode 2 of the series. Inset: Quantum Nanotechnology page on ITunesU

“it was dead easy i mean all i did was give the lectures exactly as i would usually give them and they were recorded”

“Thatʼs 18,000 people [per week] I hope Iʼve turned onto philosophy”

-Marianne Talbot

The Learning Technologies Group located in the Computing Services Department, finds new and innovative ways of using technology to enhance teaching and learning at Oxford University.

Success StoriesDr Marianne Talbot: A Romp through the History of Philosophy

Case Study

Impact (continued)The materials are now being re-used and re-packaged for new courses in the Department for Continuing Education showing how uses of technology can assist in making teaching sustainable and cost effective. Marianne’s materials have reached an audience far beyond Oxford . Over a quarter of a million people have downloaded the podcasts this means that people who wouldn't normally want to learn about philosophy in a traditional classroom setting now have the opportunity, through these lectures and other podcasts from the Oxford ItunesU site. Marianne admits she was fortunate to choose an engaging title in a subject of wide appeal. Nevertheless, she describes the potential of such open access as “awesome”.Podcasts are being used at Oxford to support a variety of different activities in a wide range of departments. Examples include Lectures, Interviews, Overviews of key concepts, Commentaries, Outreach and marketing materials and Revision material.Method - Technology UsedOne of the more remarkable aspects about Marianne's success is the ease with which her lectures were recorded. To record the podcasts a simple mini-DV video camera with a wireless tie-clip microphone was set up in the back of the room. After Marianne had finished giving the lecture series, the videos were edited and sent over to the podcasting team in OUCS (Oxford University Computing Services) and from there they were uploaded to the Oxford Podcasting site and on ItunesU where they were downloaded by members of the public. Summary and ReflectionMarianne Talbot has had a huge success with her Philosophy for Beginners lecture series. She has become a global success through ItunesU and it stands as an example for anyone who is interested in producing podcasts for ItunesU in particular the following things:

The technology used can be simple; a tie-clip microphone, video camera and the ability to edit the material. It is, rather, the content of the podcasts which is the most important thing, so anyone can get involved and contribute. That the demand and appreciation for philosophy and other academic subjects from the general public is very strong as can be seen from the download figures. Marianne Talbot’s series received 18,000 a week, as Marianne says herself ‘that’s 18,00 people I hope I’ve turned on to philosophy’.

Pictures: Above: Screenshot from Marianne’s new lecture series: Introduction to Critical Reasoning. Left: The Philosophy for Beginners RSS feed on podcasts.ox.ac.uk

Follow up: If you are interested in producing podcasts and would like some advice on it, please either visit http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/podcasts, or email us at podcasts@oucs.ox.c.uk . You can also book yourself on one of our podcasting tutorial sessions through the OUCS website. You can access all Oxford’s podcasts through http://podcasts.ox.ac.uk or http://itunes.ox.ac.uk/