An Examination of the Use of Blended Learning to Support Improvement on Engagement and Retention of Part-time

Postgraduate Level Students using Student Edited Podcasts

Deirdre Lawless, Damian GordoneLearning Research Group, School of Computing, Dublin Institute of Technology, Kevin St., Dublin 8

What’s it all about?

• Audience– Part-time Postgraduate Computer Science

Students

• Aim– To investigate how a “Blended Learning”

approach, and specifically the use of student-edited podcasting can be used to address problems encountered

Inspirations

• Audacity– free, open source

software for recording and editing sounds.

• Propaganda– Professional podcast

creation and editing software

• Adobe Vlog It– Video podcasting

software

• Technology set identified • Series of Audio

Podcasts created – Qualitative Analysis– Made available on Pod-o-matic– Used by postgraduate

students completing dissertations

• Content of lectures for podcasting 1 identified and developed

Creating the Podcasts (1/2)

• Script revised several times

• Recorded several versions

• Added sound effects and music

Creating the Podcasts (2/2)

• Recording classes directly

• Not as nice

• Initially intrusive– For lecturer– For students

• Omni-directional microphone– better

Giving the students a voice

• Give us their views

• Generally for MSc students they have three-hour classes

• Last 20 minutes of several classes dedicated to allowing students to incorporate their viewing into podcasts

Andragogy 1. Adults need to know the reason for learning something (Need to Know)

2. Experience (including error) provides the basis for learning activities (Foundation).

3. Adults need to be responsible for their decisions on education; involvement in the planning and evaluation of their instruction (Self-concept).

4. Adults are most interested in learning subjects having immediate relevance to their work and/or personal lives (Readiness).

5. Adult learning is problem-centred rather than content-oriented (Orientation).

6. Adults respond better to internal versus external motivators (Motivation).

Podcasts Developed

• Interview Design and analysis (x 3)

• Creativity from Random Words (X 1)

• Creativity from the Six Hats (X 3)

• Database Normalisation (x 2)

• Database Backup and Recovery (x 2)

• Database ERDs (PTO ->)

ERDs: Edge testing

Student Recordings

• Mostly narrative

• Little additional details

• Some good work examples

Feedback

• From students– Semi-structured interviews

• From staff– Informal commentaries

Feedback

• From students– Semi-structured interviews

• From staff– Informal commentaries

Studentsthrilled

with Podcasts

Feedback

• From students– Semi-structured interviews

• From staff– Informal commentaries

Studentsthrilled

with Podcasts

Staffwantto

SEEthe

benefits

Other Uses

• Preparation for a topic (same as reading a text before a lesson)

• Feedback on assessments

• Introducing module, highlighting learning outcomes

• Student oral presentations assessments

• Debates and discussions (dialectical debate)

Going Forward

• Just scratched the surface– More audios on research methods– Working with International Partners– Video Podcasts (Case Studies like TED)– Zone of proximal development– Recruitment tool?– TechnoSpeak Language tapes– V[A]RK Learning styles