Abstract:

Teachers face an increasingly complex learning environment. There is access to an abundance of information and the AI revolution helps students to deliver more detailed and structured knowledge. This is an opportunity to try new methods in the learning process and use more diverse assessment tools in teaching and evaluating methods. We aim to highlight the development in recent years in Iceland in the use of podcasts in this context.

In the first case from a university the authors have utilized podcasts in their teaching with pre-recorded audio and/or YouTube -like podcasts with both audio and visual appearance. This experiment was in a modular teaching format of 6 weeks, where two teachers examined significant themes related to four of their weekly lectures in 20-30 minutes recording with critical dialogue. The focus is to connect theoretical knowledge and its application to practice.

A second case is from the same university where the students needed to create a podcast in an assignment. These 15–20-minute podcasts in audio format are created by medium sized groups of three to four students. The topics are either chosen by the groups or the teachers. Students then focus on the basic knowledge surrounding the topic in this preparation process. A common student method is to have at least a loosely knitted manuscript or a list of questions ready for the podcast discussion. The communication during the podcast is beneficial and can contribute to the learning process and helps to prepare the student for a role in real life situations or enhance their knowledge.

Overall, the authors’ experience from these cases is that these methods are useful and can help both the teachers and the students to focus better on the main topics. Most participants like this learning method and come well prepared to the podcast recording sessions. This is partly a peer-to-peer learning method. Podcasts are rare in higher education in student assignments. However, a podcast used in university project work can be a training ground for work related environment where the students need to have clear conclusions and valid arguments.

The next step for the authors is to increase and expand this method even more. Expanding the research possibilities could be interesting, trying these methods in different disciplines and study programs, both in undergraduate and on post-graduate levels. The findings so far suggest that educational podcast trials in Iceland could be useful and lead the way to more diverse teaching methods. The cases can shed a light on how these experiences with new modern tools can lead to enhanced knowledge creation and practical learning outputs in higher education.

Keywords:

Podcast, teaching, project assessment, knowledge creation, higher education.