Abstract:

Online communication tools have become the preferred way for young people to access information. In addition, online teaching resources have been increasingly incorporated into the teacher's daily activity in the last years. These online and asynchronous teaching resources are versatile and allow teaching to be brought closer to the student at any time and any place, being also available on virtual campus. Virtual campus has become a fundamental tool in university education, where students increasingly demand content. Among the online communication tools, podcasts are direct communication multimedia files that turn students into the protagonists of their own learning, making them to actively participate in the collaborative search for content, development of the topic, and creation of the Podcast in a guided way. This e-learning methodology has been recently appreciated by the Scientific Culture and Innovation Unit of the Complutense University of Madrid (UCC+I), promoting the use of this tool in courses and providing a specific Guide and training for professors involved in learning podcasts.

The general objective of this work is to propose the use of podcasts by university students to complement face-to-face learning. The team included 11 professors and three postgraduate students from the Department of Nutrition and Food Science, Faculty of Pharmacy, Complutense University of Madrid. The recipients were students of the Degrees of Pharmacy, Human Nutrition and Dietetics, Food Science and Technology and the Double Degree of Pharmacy-Human Nutrition and Dietetics, taught at three Faculties at the Complutense University of Madrid: Faculty of Pharmacy, Faculty of Medicine, and Faculty of Veterinary, with a potential impact in 379 students. Thus, this tool is a practical approach for students to elaborate materials for Final Degree Projects or seminars. In addition, the podcast topics facilitate discussion forums in the classroom related with healthy and sustainable nutrition. This innovative teaching methodology is capable of capturing the attention of students, consolidating students' knowledge of the subject taught, and achieving the acquisition of skills such as more effective self-management of study time, planning, and the promotion of leisure time out of the classroom.

This work is part of the following UCM INNOVA DOCENCIA Project: “El Podcast como recurso docente virtual en la comunicación sobre alimentación saludable y sostenible” (Project reference UCM 406/2023).

Keywords:

Podcast, e-learning, health, teaching innovation.