A Cal State Long Beach professor might walk into his or her classroom with handouts for students or a PowerPoint presentation to help give a lecture. If a student misses the class, then it is up to that student to get the notes from someone else, and it is never quite the same as listening to the lecture.
However, Glenn Zucman, an art professor, has started to offer podcasts to his Art 110 classes as an attempt to help students get a break.
Podcasts are Web-based audio broadcasts via an RSS feed accessed by subscription over the Internet.
“This is the first semester that I’ve done this,” Zucman said. “Not very many people have actually listened to it yet.” Nevertheless, Zucman has set a precedent for CSULB. His Art 110 students can now go online and download his lectures.
Zucman said he sees educational podcasts as the way of the future. “It’s this powerful ability to put content on the Web.”
However, concerns have been raised that if educational podcasts like Zucman’s were made more widely available, a majority of students might not bother to show up to class and would instead rely solely on the podcasts. Zucman said he hasn’t encountered this problem yet.
Zucman brass taxes his podcasts, edits out all the miscellaneous conversations and just posts the nuts and bolts of his lectures. This usually makes the podcast about 30 minutes long.
However, some students are impatient. Zucman thought ahead for this and he said he has the option for students to use a piece of software called “PodZinger,”which allows reviewing of key points in a lecture instead of listening to the whole thing.
“You do miss a class. Perfect attendance doesn’t happen all the time,” Zucman said. “Or, somebody might want to review a class.”
These two reasons were some of the factors as to why Zucman decided to create his educational podcasts.
“I feel that they are beneficial to many students. It gives students a chance to have access to valuable information they missed the first time around,” said senior marketing major Judy Ly.
“Podcasts are a great idea because sometimes students may miss some info from class and may need a way to fill the gaps in their notes,” said junior public relations major Jennika Darling.
Considering all the new technology that has intergraded into education, junior photojournalism major Nina Rawlings said podcasting lectures could have a negative effect.
“I think it’s a wonderful idea as a study aid,” she said. “But I think students will tend to miss more class.”
