MIT Podcasts: Listening to Class Materials on the Go

Lisa Mayer
Web and Database Consultant
IS&T Departmental Consulting and Application Development (DCAD)

When you see students walking on campus with headphones plugged in their ears, they may be studying for finals instead of grooving to their favorite tunes. MIT faculty members are discovering innovative ways to bring class materials to the technology-savvy students of the 21st century through "podcasting": a technology for distributing multimedia recordings over the Internet. Educators can post lectures and other course materials on the web as video and audio files. Students subscribe and new materials are automatically downloaded to their computers.

This article explains how podcasting works, what software, hardware, and skills one needs to create and use podcasts, and what resources exist at MIT to assist faculty and departments who want to create educational podcasts. Educational podcasting is also the central theme for publications in the Ed Tech Times this month; look for upcoming articles and announcements from IS&T Academic Computing, IS&T Client Support Services, Academic Media Production Services (AMPS), and the MIT Libraries.

Podcasting Educational Materials: What, Why, and How?

How Podcasting Works

Although the term "podcasting" implies a live broadcast, it is more likely that course instructors will podcast prerecorded materials. For example, faculty can use podcasts to distributeaudio and video files of their class lectures. Thus students can take lectures with them and listen while on the train or walking to school. Some may worry that podcasting lectures will encourage students to skip class. Neither podcasts, nor any educational technology can substitute for MIT education. Podcasting simply makes class notes more comprehensive: if students missed anything in class they can refer to that particular lecture for clarity - not only when they work on homework assignments or study for exams, but also if they need a refresher on previously studied material later in their educational and professional life. Podcasting also enables instructors to provide supplementary materials, which perhaps could not be covered in class due to lack of time, and to archive classes that they no longer teach.

Software, Hardware, and Skills

A podcast is essentially an RSS file (a format for syndicating the content of news-like web sites), usually written in XML (Extensible Markup Language), that tells the subscribers' "podcatching" software when a new piece of multimedia is ready to be downloaded. To subscribe to a podcast, users (e.g. students) need podcatching software such as Juice (formerly iPodder) or iTunes, both of which are cross-platform and can be downloaded for free. With RSS feeds in iTunes, Apple also provides links for launching iTunes and automatically subscribing to a podcast. To listen to a podcast, users need a desktop computer or a laptop. To be even more portable, they can purchase an MP3 player like an iPod and transfer the podcasts from a laptop to the player. Considering that college students are about three times more likely than anybody else to own an MP3 player (according to the February 2006 study of the Pew Internet and Family Life Project), this may turn out to be the preferred method of reviewing lecture notes for today's undergraduates.

Thus students most likely already have the necessary skills and electronic gadgets - and the habit - of using podcasts. Do you have what it takes to create podcasts or will you need help? Take this quick quiz before you decide:

• Are you comfortable editing XML code, if provided with RSS template files?
• Do you know how to record and edit audio and video?
• Are you familiar with FTP protocols for uploading files on the Web?

If you answered no to any of the questions above, IS&T's educational technology consultants can help you assess your needs and find the necessary resources for podcasting and other multimedia projects. If you answered yes to all of the questions above, read on to find out how to create podcasts.

Resources and Technical Support

The following resources on campus can assist you with equipment, software, and professional crew.

• Audio Visual Services provides equipment rentals to MIT faculty and staff for academic and classroom support.
• AMPS, the leading in-house vendor for multimedia and technology services that support educational initiatives, produces podcast media files for the MIT community. (This is a for-fee service.)
• The New Media Center, a cluster of Macs loaded with multimedia software, provides the MIT community with do-it-yourself tools for video editing and other multimedia production.

Do-It-Yourself Podcasting

Workflow

There are five basic steps to publishing a podcast (remember, if any of these steps seems confusing, help is available!):

1. Decide the topic of your podcast. For example, the name of your podcast can be the name of a class or a lecture topic.
2. Record your audio and/or video files. You could record every lecture and/or supplementary information to accompany particular lectures.
3. Upload your audio or video to your web server or to a www directory in your AFS (Athena) locker.
4. Include the URLs to the audio or video files in your podcast feed (a document written in XML, also called an RSS feed). Your audience subscribes to the podcast feed, which lets them know when there is a new audio or video file ready for download.
5. Publish your podcast by uploading the RSS feed to your server. You can also promote your podcast by submitting the RSS feed to aggregators such as iTunes or Odeo.

Step by Step Instructions

Through the end of this month the Ed Tech Times will be publishing a series of articles and announcements on topics related to podcasting at MIT, including:

• Technical instructions for recording and editing audio and video files and for creating RSS feeds;
• Available resources from AMPS, AV Services, and the New Media Center;
• Case studies and pilot projects from IS&T and the MIT Libraries;
• Upcoming training and networking events.

More Information on Podcasting @ MIT

If you are interested in discussing news and initiatives related to podcasting at MIT, you can subscribe to MIT's podcast mailing list. Visit the podcast-news mailing list page to add yourself to the list (certificates required). For a directory of podcasts and additional information, see the Podcasts at MIT web site, which is maintained by IS&T's DCAD.