course podcasts

This is a hard thing to find out, as entirely too much course material is locked away behind the authentication barriers of learning/course management systems, when it could be supporting the entire education community.

Recording a lecture may not produce a good podcast. This point was made by a colleague, Michael Rappa, who produced podcasts for his Fall 2005 course. His says, "It is not as simple as just recording lectures." His approach has been to record a separate 30 minute presentation covering the lecture content. Is this worthwhile? Read his interview (the link is below) and listen to a file or two (again, see below for the link) - and comment on this.

He provides these podcasts on an "open" site which is well worth visiting as an example of his philosophy of open-ness. Take a look at MIT's Open Courseware effort to see more about this philosophy.

A short interview transcript which describes his project is well worth reading.

Any comments here will be forwarded to him.