The effectiveness of educational podcasts for teaching music and visual arts in higher education

Abstract

Podcasting is now being used frequently in the higher education sector. Although research has been conducted into the use of podcasting in teaching business, engineering, sciences and languages, little has been done on its use in arts learning. This paper reports on a study that investigated the effectiveness of using podcasts to learn music and visual arts in a teacher-education institution. A total of 128 Year-One to Year-Four students completed a survey and 24 students attended focus-group interviews and gave their feedback on the effectiveness of using podcasts in learning. Generally speaking, the students found the podcasts useful and viewed podcasting as a method which could be used to supplement faceto-face teaching. Results of the study indicated that demonstration of procedures or skills was the most effective type of podcast while reproduction of lecture materials was the least effective. The students suggested that the teachers needed to increase the relevance of the podcast content to what was taught during lessons. The paper concludes with a discussion of the production of effective podcasts and directions for future studies.

New technologies and creative practices in teaching groupwork

“…Using podcasting as an adjunct to teaching and assessment methods in higher education has had some exposure (Jarvis and Dickie, 2010;Evans,2008;Cambell, 2005;Chester et al, 2011;Lazzari, 2009;Rahimi and Asadollahi, 2011). A sample of recent studies demonstrates the use of podcasting in Nursing (Strickland, Gray and Hill, 2012;Kemp, Myers, Campbell and Pratt, 2010), Geography (Hill and Nelson, 2011) and Music and Language education (Tam, 2012). In the following studies podcasting has been used specifically to supplement traditional learning (Van Zanten, Somogyi, and Curro, 2012;O'Bannon, Lubke, Beard and Britt, 2011;Mikkelson, and Devidson, 2011).…”