Author: Brenna

Podcasts make great collaborative and capstone projects for students. Some great examples:

• Using podcasting to teach audience and research skills in composition class (including a compilation of the students’ favourite resources).
• Using podcasting to get ecology students to connect with how ecology stories are reported on in the news.
• Educause has collected some great podcast stories, including students using podcasting to report on study abroad experiences, connect as peer mentors, and as study tools for language learners.

But podcasting can also be used for smaller, one-off assignments, thanks to lightweight podcasting tools like our own SPLOT Box, which makes it possible for students to create and upload podcasts on-the-fly, without needing much technical know-how (in fact, you can see how easy the form is to fill in by checking it out here).

(Podcasting can also be a useful tool for content delivery to students in a flipped classroom setting, and some research shows real benefits in student motivation.)

Is podcasting right for your project? To determine that, you need to think about the following questions:

• Can you communicate your research in a meaningful way to a broad general audience?
• Who is your ideal audience? Are you interested in their feedback?
• Are there specific communities you would like to reach? Are you interested in collaborating with those communities?
• Where does the podcast fit in with your larger knowledge mobilization plans?
• How will you share your podcast with relevant audiences?
• Do you have time to commit to a podcast?

It is also worth thinking through the structure and frequency of your podcast. To build audience, podcasts need to be consistent. Consider the schedule you will commit to for podcast releases, and the duration of your intended run.

Podcasting is a distinct medium, and it’s a good idea to listen to a lot of podcasts to figure out what you do and don’t like, what you want to emulate and what you want to do differently. But, in general, podcasting is…

Intimate. Podcasts meet people in their most intimate and domestic moments. I listen to podcasts when I’m walking alone, when I can’t sleep, when I’m doing chores around the house. You’re placing your message inside someone’s ears. Don’t be surprised when they become attached to it, or feel some ownership over it. Which brings us to…

Collaborative. Podcast audiences are attentive and engaged. They want to contribute to the conversation. Think about how to engage listeners and how to collect feedback, and what you plan to do with it when you get it. And if the thought of public engagement gives you hives, this may not be the mobilization medium for you.

Punk rock. Okay, I’m editorializing. But despite corporate encroachment into this space, podcasting is still a very low-barrier DIY mode of creation. We want to provide people with the best possible sound experience, but we don’t want to lose the ethos of independence that is central to the sound of podcasting. What makes your project unique, and how can you capture that with the audio signature of your show?

Scholarly podcasts can take a range of forms, from casual knowledge mobilization to peer-reviewed projects to science-based advocacy. Here are some examples of the range of opportunities available in this field.

Secret Feminist Agenda is a peer-reviewed podcast about feminist issues made by Hannah MacGregor, an assistant professor of publishing at Simon Fraser University.

Crackdown is a SSHRC-funded podcast documenting the war on drugs from the perspective of drug user journalists.

Métis in Space is a podcast by Indigenous academics Molly Swain and Chelsea Vowell, critiquing Indigenous representations in popular culture (especially sci-fi and fantasy).

The UK Edition of The Conversation makes a podcast called In Depth Out Loud, where researchers talk about their latest work in 15-20 minute segments.

Our own CELT makes a podcast about teaching and learning called Adventures in Teaching.

The Canadian Medical Association Journal produces a podcast for medical professionals and academic researchers.

Secrets of Mathematics is an Oxford University podcast that shares classroom conversations and public lectures on selected topics in mathematics.

Podcasts are easily accessible for anyone with an internet connection and typically offered for free, which makes them particularly popular for mobilizing knowledge. While most listeners use a smartphone, they can also be accessed via desktop computer or downloaded to a media player. They’re also relatively easy to make with only a very small investment in equipment (if a large investment in time). This makes them a low-barrier medium for both creators and consumers.

There are now an estimated 660,000 podcasts in production (that’s a real number, not some comically inflated figure I invented to communicate “a lot”), offering up roughly 28 million individual episodes for your listening enjoyment (again, a real number; yes, someone counted).

– Vulture

Podcasts also provide on-demand entertainment and information in niche areas of interest. I listen to podcasts about Canadian politics, feminism in academia, health policy, historical crime, old Hollywood, and a seemingly endless range of other topics. Podcasting is a medium that particularly fits the interest-driven, highly portable way we like to enjoy media now.

Podcasts are essentially radio on the installment plan, a return to the intimacy, wombed shadows, and pregnant implications of words, sounds, and silences in the theater of the mind.

– Vanity Fair