Podcasting adds a broader dimension to online teaching.  Additionally, using podcasting can enhance the instruction for hybrid and face-to-face courses. MP3 players, which are mobile technology, enable students to take their downloaded course content with them.

This form of instructional delivery also enhances the online instructor’s ability to connect with students who may have different learning styles in the class. Most students can benefit from being able to hear a lecture, course orientation and/or assignment articulated by their instructors, in addition to just reading transcripts.  Difficult material can be replayed as often as necessary.  Podcasts also add a personal touch to any given online class. A good audio podcast emphasizes key points in a given lecture and--with proper tone and inflection--will reinforce important course content, textbook readings, and test materials the instructors want to emphasize.

Instructors can digitally record their classroom lectures and then upload them to the online courses for students to refer to or listen to if a class is missed. Another possibility is to write a script for a course orientation or lecture and read and record it in a more controlled environment like an office or recording studio.  Some instructors record their podcasts and post them immediately to their courses without doing any post production work and others may choose to edit their digital recording in an editing program like audacity.

Once a student subscribes to a teacher’s podcasts, he/she will receive them every time the instructor uploads new digital content to ITunes (if ITunes is used by a given institution). Podcasts can also be uploaded to a college server and linked to or embedded directly into Moodle or Blackboard.