Kudo’s to Tony Vincent at learninginhand.com for finding this article reporting that students accessing podcasts rather than live lectures performed 9% better on the closing test. Lets be clear, this is only one study, but can it be believed? Perhaps these tools allowing learning to occur anywhere anytime do have a future…
February 25, 2009 at 2:18 am
I haven’t read the original article yet…but I wonder if the students that are likely to want to listen to the podcast are likely to do 9% better anyway? They might be those students that don’t do their homework all term then just read through the textbook themselves near the end and still do well in the exam. Just a thought…
-Nathan
February 26, 2009 at 3:39 am
You’re right Nathan – there may be a whole host of factors here – ie. if you’re willing to download etc you’re probably more self-motivated to begin with…
March 3, 2009 at 6:17 pm
In the study the 64 students were randomly assigned to the lecture or podcast groups. The podcast group wasn’t self-selected–so their willingness to download podcasts wouldn’t necessarily be part of their 9% difference.
But it is true–there are lots of factors involved and I can’t wait to see the results of more studies!
March 4, 2009 at 7:55 am
Ah yes, ta Tony – that only serves to underline the success of the podcast group then. 64 is a small sample though so like you I await further research as well…