Exploring podcasting in heredity and evolution teaching

Abstract

Podcasts are digital files very popular in several and very distinct areas. In higher education, they have been explored in a multitude of ways mainly to support teaching and learning processes. The study here described focuses the integration of podcasts in Heredity and Evolution, a course from the Biology and Geology Degree Program at University of Minho, Portugal. It aimed to introduce podcasts in the teaching/learning context, to empirically study different dimensions of podcasting, and to evaluate students' acceptance and receptiveness to the pedagogical use of this technology. Five informative podcasts and three with feedback were produced and delivered. All the students listened to the audio files and considered the episodes audible and clear, their preference going to episodes of short or moderate length and containing summaries, study guidelines or syllabus contents. Students judged extremely valuable the integration of this technology in learning and showed receptiveness to podcasting in other courses. Curiously, in spite of owning mobile devices, students clearly favored the use of personal computers to listen to the podcasts. This student acceptance and openness to podcasting has been encouraging its pedagogical application in other teaching courses. The episodes produced often maintain the characteristics identified as the best by the students of this study but the pedagogical approach has been moving to a more student-centered learning situation, with students as podcasts producers. © 2016 by The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 44(5):429-432, 2016.