UCC's doomed podcasting plan

UCC is rumoured to be trialling video podcasts of lecturers' presentations. There is no possible way it can succeed. Here's how it will fail.

1. Podcasts are introduced
2. Half students don't bother turning up for lectures
3. Some students fail exams
4. Parents of failing students go on Liveline to say it's college's fault that kids didn't go to lectures
5. Podcasts are withdrawn

When I was in college, we weren't allowed even bring a laptop into the lecture hall. The stated reason was that it would be too easy to distribute the notes and would act as a disincentive to other students to attend. And that's not to speak of the 'intellectual property rights' of self-important lecturers and their prepared lectures.

Comments

[Bernie Goldbach]

The only thing more boring than a droning lecture with bad acoustics than listening to a talking head of a boring lecture instead of your playlist. It's hard enough getting students to download and listen to just-in-time podcasts that we've produced to ensure those missing in class can catch up through a semblance of an interesting education session.

Half of enrollewd students don't turn up for lectures midway through academic terms already. I don't think having a podcast option will accelerate that trend because the archived videos or downloadable audio won't be a real replacement. Besides, do the students who don't show have broadband so that they can pull down the vidcasts of what they missed?

I'm curious about the way UCC is trying to support this venture. It takes most Irish podcasters at least three minutes to produce every one minute of audio. Double that with video if you're compressing it for friendly network downloads or adding any kind of graphics for better viewing. Is this kind of educational multimedia specialism sanctioned in the context of third level funding? If so, I'll be trying my hand at it during the summer. So far, there's no separate funding I have seen in Ireland that would help me produce quality education podcasts or vidcasts. What we do at podcasting.ie is part of a multimedia degree programme. Fair play to UCC--a big round from me if they open their venture to peer review.

[Robin Blandford]

We get everything as PDF's anyway... (except for material that is drawn on a board or said as side comments). Having audio would be very handy to listen to when driving to/from college sitting stuck on the M50.