Podcasts Link Biology Students to Learning

Profiles in Success: Purdue University

Making Learning Lively

Working with Kerr and McPhail, Iten first mapped out the most common “problem areas” in the biology courses she teaches. The trio also sought the input of undergraduate teaching assistants (TAs), sharing stories about their classroom challenges and identifying likely content for the podcasts.

Biology student with iPod

Given that the podcasts would be targeted for incoming freshmen, Iten says her team chose to take a fairly offbeat approach. One popular project saw the debut of a character called “Mr. Obvious,” who answers questions new students seem to ask all too frequently. And TAs appearing as on-camera talent were happy to ham it up whenever needed.

Says Iten, “We have to consider the population of students. Many of the freshmen are 17 when they get here, and that’s quite a teaching challenge. We believe that having a dialogue is the best way to engage them, instead of just presenting lectures. And incorporating elements from popular culture really helps students relate to what they’re hearing and seeing.”

 

“Macs are built for creative people. They just don’t get in the way.”

— Laurie Iten

Podcasts Ideal for Audio, Video iPod

These days, Iten and her group first write a detailed, radio-style script on the lab or class to be covered. Though more and more Purdue students now purchase video iPods, the team tries to design the podcasts to be equally useful for those with an audio-only iPod.

“We always try to think of what it would be like if a student just had audio capabilities,” confirms Iten. “After we pull a good script together, we record the dialogue, then we mix it with the music with Soundtrack Pro. Then using Final Cut Pro Rodney adds the video, text, and graphics to the audio track, and we output it in the podcast format. Since Rodney’s a scientific illustrator and graphic artist, everything looks wonderful!”

Apple Tools Enable Easy, Economical Production