HOW UIS MAKES PODCASTS

Since the Fall 2005 semester, when the University of Illinois at Springfield’s (UIS) Multimedia Education and Production (MEP) team had its podcasting support service fully in place, more than 20 faculty have created podcasts to enhance either face-to-face or fully online courses. MEP Coordinator Munindra Khaund has taken a three-pronged approach in providing this support: engage, educate, and enable.

A Free Lunch Can’t Hurt
Part of the engagement and education process begins with luncheon sessions for faculty, offered twice each semester, where Khaund enlists the help of UIS faculty, who have already produced first-class podcasts, to talk with their peers about their experiences in the world of digital audio. Khaund also presents his growing knowledge of the field of podcasting and vodcasting (video) by giving an overview of the latest and most innovative podcast creations being carried out at other institutions.

Website
The entire podcasting initiative is also supported by a "Podcasting Resources" website, which features a section with links to articles, podcasting how-tos and educational podcasting directories. There’s also a "projects" section with a number of interesting case studies from Spring 2006 podcasts and vodcasts that were created at UIS with the help of the MEP team. Information on how to create and subscribe to podcasts is also presented on this website.

Methods of Operation
There are basically three ways in which podcasts are produced by faculty at UIS. The first, and least- used method, is one in which MEP loads the popular Audacity recording software (which works on both the Mac and PC platforms) onto a faculty member’s office computer. A Logitech microphone is also provided so the faculty member can singularly create a podcast in his/her personal office space.

The second method is where a faculty member utilizes a smart classroom and records his or her full lecture to a live class for a podcast. In this scenario, the smart classroom has a Windows PC that interfaces with an M-Audio pre-amp. A wireless Lavalier lapel microphone is supplied to the faculty member who records with the Audacity software. MEP has set it up so that the faculty member’s production end is a simple three-click process where faculty click to record, click to save and click to upload the audio file to MEP, says Khaund.

The third, and most effective method, is where faculty use MEP’s eSuite to record their podcast. eSuite is a production and editing studio for digital audio and video production. The eSuite walls were recently upgraded with extra padding for better acoustics, and a new Shure microphone (under $150) was purchased for high-fidelity recording. In this scenario, faculty members record their pre-scripted podcasts, which are anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes of weekly guidance and review based on the course syllabus.

Khaund says that faculty who start out recording from their office and then move to the eSuite always wind up staying with the eSuite method after they hear the sound quality difference.

Editing and Publishing
All of these podcasts productions wind up being archived permanently on an MEP podcasting server. Before being uploaded to the server, the native Audacity WAV files get edited by two MEP full-time staff members and one part-time graduate student. "We listen to it; we clean it up and edit it; and we send out a test file for the faculty to approve," says Khaund. In addition, the WAV file is compressed into an MP3 file, as well as packaged/encoded within an XML format in order to make it RSS-feed enabled.

"They get uploaded to our podcasting server, and the students get a URL (from their instructor) to subscribe to the podcast," says Khaund. "Our standard application front end (for listening and organizing podcasts) is iTunes because it is very prevalent, free and works across platforms. When they are in iTunes, the URL path leads back to our server." The beauty of this is anytime there is a new podcast added, it automatically appears when the students launches his or her iTunes account.

Overall Success
Khaund says he is seeing an increasing number of new faculty coming on board to create podcasts. "Now we have faculty from the education department, the communications department and the English department," in addition to the MIS unit.

"We could have really opened up the resources by giving everyone microphones and a defined process on their computers so they could upload Audacity, but I am a stickler for quality," Khaund adds, referring to his preference for the eSuite method for recording podcasts.

Content is Still King
Lastly, Khaund stresses that, overall, it is really not about the technology; "it is the content and pedagogy that really drives podcasting. Today it’s podcasts; next year it will be something else. It is just another piece; it is just another tool."