Abstract:

Since the mid 1980s, we have seen a rapid evolution of e-learning technologies as well as a rapid growth of educational research into, on and about the use of electronic technologies for teaching and learning. The potential for e-learning technologies is particularly broad in higher education where students are expected to take responsibility for their own learning and have the digital skills that allow them to use different kinds of technology in their learning processes.

In this paper, I focus on the use of podcasts in higher education.
Podcast-based teaching is one of many student-centered approaches to teaching and there are a number of theories of learning that can support the use of podcast to increase learning. However, most educational podcasts are teacher-produced and instructional in nature in that they are provide demonstrations, and as a consequence, the potentials and problems of student-produced podcasts have been left largely unexplored.

This paper present findings from a case study into co-production of podcasts with students in higher education on the subject of academic writing. More specifically, the paper analyze potentials and tensions in co-production of podcast in higher education. Student involvement has been an interest in higher education for decades, where it has been approached as a means to increase the motivation and engagement of students. Co-production with students is an attempt to involve the students even more. Co-production with students can be defined as a collaborative, reciprocal process through which all participants have the opportunity to contribute equally, although not in the same ways, to curricular or pedagogical conceptualization, decision making, implementation, investigation, or analysis. Co-production with students then is involving students not only in teaching and learning activities, but in the very development of teaching and learning products or services. However, there is no general agreement about what this entails. The concept of co-production has been used for different phenomena, and the differences are not always made clear. Further, collaborating with students can be challenging and problematic. In other words, there are both potentials and tensions in collaboration with students. Research is needed then into the specific aspects of collaboration with students as well as into its potentials and tensions.

This paper makes a contribution to this emerging field of research by “un-boxing” co-production of podcasts with students at an academic library. Through a case study at The Royal Danish Library, Aarhus University, we develop a conceptual model for production of podcasts with students that identifies the key aspects of the co-production process and specifies its key potentials and tensions.

The paper first describe the case study methodology of the paper. Second, we describe the case and its context in more detail. Third, we present the conceptual model developed to “un-box” co-creation. Finally, we specify the potentials and tension of co-creating with students at academic libraries.

Keywords:

Podcast, higher education, academic writing.