Below is a summarized transcript of this presentation.  Please help add to this topic by using the "Talk" section tab above to add your comments.

• Read the reasearch paper for this presentation PDF
• Read the annotated bibliography for this presentation PDF

For those that are new to podcasting, there are great resources on how to create podcasts.  In particular, I like this one from How to Podcast Tutorial.com

Audio from the MWCA 2008 conference

Summarized Transcript from the Michigan Writing Centers Associaiton 2008 Conference

Noah: One of things that we were going to do is give historical background, both podcasting we do and in general. For MSU this began last fall. I was interested in podcasting specifically, because I listen to podcasts. I thought podcasting with the Writing Center might be useful to other people.

Other people are podcasting. For example: iTunes: offers a number of colleges releasing course materials. Started with MIT, now we also have Michigan Tech. This is going on.Then edutainment stuff like Grammar Girl, which has nothing to do with academic setting.

This is happening. There is an audience, although, maybe not the same people as coming to WC. When you think about the things you can do online. In the real world the writing center focuses on one-to-one consulting. Being on line there are less limitations. Those were the things I brought to it last year. Also, this has not been done before.

Karissa:  Noah and I are well suited because, Noah: has the technical know how to make it, I have the pedagogical background. The question in my mind, is it a passing trend in higher ed, because it’s cool? Or are there tangible benefits? What research has been done? How can MSU ground the initiative in research and make a case for it. Because any school that wants to do this, you have to make a case to seek funding, that this is interesting.

We felt it was important to go into this with research. Not a lot of research has been done. Only 3-4 actual cases where universities have created podcasts and obtained tangible data. Also, not all of those studies were situated in the context of writing centers, rather they were classroom context.

For some perspective, the research falls into 3 categoriesPodcasts to record class lecturesPodcasts as supplemental to course materials such as: notes, students creating own things, etc...Podcasting student authored text

A few studies: First, in 2004, the UofM School of Dentistry have course lectures available online. They took a different approach and did research to find best way, through pilot studies. 3 pilot studies found students wanted mobility. Podcasting is great for that. Making podcasts was more time efficient than video recording lecture. It’s just faster. Also, based on students surveyed, podcast was popular, 85% students said they were helpfulpodcasts looked like a good solution

Duke, did a initiative to release podcasts for their students. Also, Bowling Green University partnered with regional institutions and write a grant to collaborate podcasting, doing it outside classroom

Finally, Texas AM, best known use of podcast for writing centers. They have two different podcasts: one for faculty, interview with visiting faculty, issues in teaching writing. They also have Write Right, where students interview faculty, interpreting assignments, practical how to's. They also have a feature in WC to create custom podcast for their class, the writing center will work with them.

MSU liked the idea of student produced podcasts. We liked opening the door to MSU to say what they want. We will talk later about why studies support podcasting, there are conflicts, but the most positive things that come out of that

Noah: So who cares about this? We are in a good situation, we have funding to support this, we will address the money issue. What I can convince you is that its a good investment.Our approach is that it does not matter who your audience is. With iTunes, there is an audience out there, the question is, who is going to provide it. For example, Grammar Girl is a business that provides content. There is a large audience. This gives us the chance to rethink what a writing center online is. Also, don't have to be experts about this. You don't have to target a specific audience, the chances are, your audience is bigger than you think. This is good, because not all your consultants have the same interests. The most successful podcasts are the one’s that students produce. Consultants as producers equals better quality.

We don't know who the audience is. We can do research and analytics to find out. We think who cares are: other writing centers, to help each other. This narrows a gap that has existed to share information with each other. Also, other departments on campus, not just writing centers, they have a vested in students as well, Also, other universities, faculty, admins, etc, This is also a good thing for ourselves, good training, when you have to do something for someone else, we can document the process. It makes sense to record what we are doing. This builds institutional knowledge of what happened in the past, passed to people in futures. Little research has been done to see if this transcends entrainment purposes

Karissa: Overall, podcasts may not improve our consulting, but it does extend. We took that approach. We can extend and reach people in different ways. Things that came to mind is workshops we do, we thought what potential we can make available, listen to basic things, create podcasts for faculty and students who have scheduling issuesmore issues than what Noah: said. 1st idea, we have distance learners, for example students in flint, extends to people outside our own university. 2nd, opportunity for consultants to learn new technology. This is a great opportunity to teach each other, and also add to our resumes. 3rd, this engages pedagogy. Who is our audience, what content, how will I craft the message so it is useful. 4th, other communities of learners, people who don't do well in traditional learning settings, or other unique needs. 5th, instant, on demand, we acknowledge that people learn in variety of context. And finally 6th, ESL learners, who can practice listening, and get help at the same time. This is why its productive for MSU

Noah: So what happened? This was not isolated, part of a process of redoing the websiteone of the reasons we thought of the website was to actually get the new podcasting to work. We initially used Wordpress to get our podcasts up, you can download the podcast, or grab the RSS feed. We have an audience for this even though our alpha site.[plays audio piece]. You can download these through iTunes, which was a big deal, iTunes not the only solutions, Odeo as well, but iTunes is the biggest.

Our podcasts are not supposed to sound like telling you what to do. It makes sense to let the consultant/producer do what makes sense to them. We try to make them sound friendly. Also, this is rolled into bigger website rethinking, which takes expert away from the writing center. We want to allow a conversation to take place. For example, we could have 30 podcasts about thesis statements. We can have people comment on them, have a conversation around the podcasts, that helps you specifically. From an expert point of view there is no right way, your thesis may not be the way we addressed it.you can create lots of podcasts, the ones that are good, people will click more, and share it. Also, since were not run by commercial dollars we can do whatever we want.

We also ran into the problem of time. It takes time to write script, approve, record, put it up. means your not helping people one to one. We are trying to balances that your not helping one-to-one, with the value of the podcast. We think as you gain experience, they become easier to produce, and more economic sense to put time into. Also, for some podcasts we just put a recorder down and and turn it on.

Our next step is to get other people to record things, for example: faculty. MSU being tier-1 university, we should set the standard. For podcasting being an option for universities.

Karissa: How are we going to asses podcasting? There currently is not a lot out there to prove this is working. The fact that you can get user feedback through comments, will be useful to assess the usefulness. Also, thinking about how to create online space, but from our MSU students, what do they want, is it useful to them.

What Questions: do we need to ask? As we are more engaged with faculty, this will be more important. For example, a questionnaire for students in classes, and being in constant process of revision.

Why should you care?1, in writing center in real life where bodies, time are real, you don't have same boundaries in virtual spaces. This is the same with other things like books in libraries. In real life, objects are limited and have value because they are limited. The writing center is limited by budget, consultants, hours in a day. None of that matters online. The bandwidth and hard drive space is almost free. Most of you are paying for it anyway if you have web space. The factor of cost, the recording equipment and the people to do it. In a year, I learned it all from scratch. I did Google searches. That's how I learned it. The only thing I knew, was that Wordpress was a good place to start. There is a whole community around Wordpress. We are using Drupal, a little more advanced. Offers opportunities for podcasting too.

Equipment: Our recorder is a couple hundred bucks. We have also used laptops to record. The quality doesn't have to be perfect, I am learning the quality is in the content, not in the professional sounding website. That doesn't mean its easy, but don't get caught up in equipment.

Karissa: Why should you care? This is grounded in research. We looked to the research since we needed to make a case. Just because podcasts are online, doesn't mean its being used. How does this match with our mission? Finally, What equipment do we need?

Noah: This doesn’t replace the face to face consultation of writing centers. Here is a list of equipment. iTunes, free. They are not only one, Odeo as well. We use iTunes because its there, and sometimes thats how you make choices, itunes doesn't hold the files, we do, use RSSRSSWordpressDrupalMarantz 660, $400, internal mic, also plug external microphones into it.H2 Zoom, small $200, good surround sound mic, plastic,Edirol makes good recordersyou can start with these 3I would get the H2 Zoom, because it uses 2 double A batteries, and is very portable.

Other equipmentTime, People and IdeasWe started with people that was interested, not always easy. We decided we wanted a lot of voices. This is not as practical, because that took time. Keep in mind, it does not have to be writing center clients. Anyone could be a producer, clients, faculty, admin.

When space, time is limited you have to say no a lot, and you haven't completely eliminated the real life problems, but we can say yes a lot more. Also, going to other departments for funding. we haven't done this. There is $$$ for this. Not many writing centers are doing this. We spent couple hours a podcast, a couple weeks setting it up. It works as long as we put stuff up.

Karissa: We haven't relied on grant fundingstart with departments. What type of things are other departments looking to invest in. This isn't just for English dept. Also, look for funding opportunities for any dept. Having diversity in your WC will help with this.

Trixie: We did have grant money to get the technology. Go after tech money wherever it will be.

Noah: We also piggyback with others. Hook up. We use the Doc Lab, they bought a lot of equipment. We have the recorder, they have some other stuff. There is no reason you can't go somewhere else. The way I see it is the WC is a neutral place.

Karissa: knowledge of what your objects comes in handy, being able to show similar objects to other depts.

Questions: Software for editing? For editing on Macs we use Garageband, its free. Audacity is free for Mac/PC/Linux. You can also look Osalt for open source alternative for a list for free alternative for win/mac software. We use garageband because it’s simple and we already have Macs.

it would be a shame a year from if there is not competition to produce these things

Trixie: One of the useful things for me is that writing center hosts a lot of guest speakers. We give our space to others, and being able to record, trying to get permissions, and those kinds of things, if they are doing workshops with powerpoint to get those pieces.

QuestionAre we doing other than audio podcasts? Podcasts tend to be easier. But we also create video podcasts using powerpoint. We make the powerpoint into jpegs and match it with the audio.

Karissa: that is a next stepI can see it would be helpful to do video tutorials for students for our digital consulting.