Title: Making educational podcasts
Course: Producing Micro Content in a Team (Digivisio 2030) > Section: How to Create Micro Content?

A podcast can cover a specific theme or be part of a series of podcasts. It can be a monologue, a conversation or interview, a report, or a documentary.

Educational podcasts are teaching resources that involve planning and creating a digital audio file with educational content.

Tips for making a podcast

- First, establish which learning goal you want to achieve with the podcast.
- Carefully consider the structure of the podcast and relevant, focused topics from the learners’ perspective. Design the different parts, such as the intro (who are the speakers, and what is the podcast about?), the middle (what content do you want to convey?), and the end (for example, a summary of the most important points and a preview of future topics).
- Consider which learning activities learners do as an assignment after listening to the podcast. Research shows that it can be beneficial for students to answer reflective questions in combination with podcasts. For instance, after listening to the podcast: “What are the differences and similarities with other topics you have studied?” or “How does this topic relate to your daily life?” and “Are there things you find difficult to understand regarding this topic?”. (Yilmaz & Keser, 2016).
- About language: create sentences of around ten words, avoiding excessive use of commas. Use active language: directly address the audience by using words like ‘we’ and, for example, ‘Are there any examples you could think of? <short silence> One example could be…’”
- An informal atmosphere combined with some sort of story can help hold learners’ interest.
- Be sure to have good audio quality. Test this beforehand. If possible, take advantage of your institution's self-service studio or podcast kit.
- Opinions differ on the ideal length of a podcast. If the podcast introduces a certain theme, 15 minutes should suffice. For a discussion-type podcast on a theme, 30 to 45 minutes is more common.

Podcasts are useful tools for transferring information from lecturer to student, and you can also have your students make their own podcasts. Podcasts benefit learners by developing a deeper understanding of the topic and stimulating the development of collaborative, problem-solving, and creative skills. This can be an effective method of familiarising students with their (future) field of work.

Read more

How to leverage podcasts for learning/ Stanford Graduate School of Education

Podcasts in your education, how to do it / Utrecht University

Yilmaz, F. G. K., & Keser, H. (2016). The impact of reflective thinking activities in e-learning: A critical review of the empirical research. Computers & Education, 95, 163-173.