Planning a podcast

Concurrent Session 3 & 4 (combined)
Leadership

Session Materials

Brief Abstract

Podcasts have become a popular tool for professional development, instructional activities, class projects, and other personal and professional applications. Workshop participants will leave this session with an actionable plan and support resources that will allow them to develop a podcast series with a well-defined concept and identity.

Presenters

Lead Presenter: Rebecca Mushtare, State University of New York at Oswego

Rebecca Mushtare is the Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and a Professor of Interaction Design at the State University of New York at Oswego. Rebecca co-hosts the Tea for Teaching podcast with John Kane.

Co-presenter: John Kane, SUNY - State College at Oswego

John Kane is a Professor of Economics, the Director of the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching at SUNY-Oswego, and a co-host of the Tea for Teaching podcast..

Extended Abstract

Podcasts allow instructors, researchers, and professional developers to reach public audiences anytime and anyplace. Podcasts are a cost effective way to create and share content and transcripts. The low bandwidth requirements of .mp3 files, which is the compressed format podcast audio is distributed in, promote equity (unlike videos that have high bandwidth requirements) because they can be streamed on slow network connections with a small impact on data plans. Podcasts with accessible transcripts allow the target audience to access the content in text or audio format, providing the audience with increased flexibility in obtaining podcast content.

Podcasts can allow:

  • professional developers to reach distant, commuting, or busy faculty who are unavailable for synchronous professional development activities;

  • faculty to quickly record and share relevant content with students in a flexible manner;

  • students to engage in an open pedagogy class projects where that they can share their episodes with peers (or another public audience) using the smartphones, chromebooks, or other mobile devices they already possess;

  • faculty and professional staff to engage in public scholarship in their area(s) of expertise.

In this session, the hosts of a popular podcast series on teaching and learning will guide participants through brainstorming exercises and activities to develop a refined and actionable plan to create a sustainable podcast. Facilitators will offer resources, support and activities for participants to launch their own podcast or to launch a podcast assignment with students. Workshop participants will use a provided template to develop a plan during the session that includes the information and materials necessary to launch a podcast through Apple Podcasts and other popular distribution platforms. Plans will include:

  • Concept

  • Audience

  • Format

  • Identity & Branding

  • Recording & Editing

  • Budget & Funding

  • Marketing & Promotion

  • Evaluation

Participants will have the opportunity to share their ideas and plans in small groups and with workshop facilitators in order to refine and strengthen their plans

A free pressbook, created by the workshop facilitators, will be shared with the participants to provide guidance on the hardware and software requirements to record, edit, and distribute a podcast successfully.