Queen Mary, University of London

Podcasting, Voice Tools

A podcast is a digital audio or video file, placed on the Web, for listeners to download to their own computer or portable device. Usually, podcasts are a series of such recordings, and are made available via syndication, so that listeners can subscribe to the series via RSS (Really Simple Syndication). They can then choose where they want to receive the updates – e.g. a Google Homepage, iTunes.

Why Should I Podcast?

Podcasting may be for you if you want:

  • to give your students (or other students) access to a series of audio or video recordings;
  • your students to be able to subscribe to your podcast so that they receive automatic notifcation of new files.

New uses for podcasts are appearing all the time, but here are some suggestions:

  • Give students a valuable study aid to help them keep pace, eitrher when they have to miss a lecture, or as a supplement to lectures/seminar discussions
  • Offer full-motion video replay of expert procedures and techniques demonstrated during class
  • Provide wider access to highly specialized faculty members and guest lecturers
  • Deliver Web-based orientation and procedural training to staff or to students (e.g. a library tour)

Making a podcast

You don’t need special equipment to make a basic audio podcast. You can do it with a web connection and some web space, a microphone, a computer and some recording software (if you don’t have these, get in touch with us at elearning@qmul.ac.uk and we can help you).

Here’s a guide about how to make podcasts in this way

Using Wimba Voice Tools to Make Podcasts

We offer the voice tools provided by Wimba for use within the VLE. There’s a podcasting tool included, allowing you to make podcasts within BlackBoard. If you run a course area within the VLE, this means it’s easy for you to make a podcast for your students who have access to that area.

Here’s a guide showing you how to make podcasts with the Wimba podcaster.

Are you already podcasting?

We’re always on the look out for good uses of technology in education. If you have a podcast at QM, feel free to let us know by leaving a comment on this page – other readers may be interested too.

More about Podcasting

From time to time, we’ll mention podcasting in a blog post. Here’s an archive of posts that mention podcasting:

DateTitle Category Tags
22 July 2010 Linking to your Podcast from your Webpage

This post shows how to link to your RSS file so your users can find your podcast. It will show you how to use the ITPC link so your users can subscribe directly in iTunes.

 How-to guidance , , , ,
20 July 2010 Writing an RSS feed for iTunes

In this post we will cover how to go about writing your own XML to create an RSS feed for iTunes. The format used will be legible by most RSS aggregators but I will assume that you may intend, as some stage, to submit your feed to the iTunes Store which requires certain extra tags.
If [...]

 How-to guidance , , ,
1 December 2009 Principal’s Open Meeting recorded using Q-Review

The Distance and E-Learning Unit’s lecture capture project, Q-Review, is progressing well this year. The system is now installed in three centrally bookable theatres (Perrin in Whitechapel, Fogg in SBCS and Skeel in the People’s Palace).
The system can record audio, screen capture and video. Recently it was used to record an Open Meeting by QM’s [...]

 News and Events , ,
24 April 2009 Blackboard European User Conference, 6-8 April, Barcelona

The last few years have seen an increase in both the number of us using the VLE here at Queen Mary, and the breadth of activities we’re using it for. We’ve responded to both good and bad changes in the products and now the majority of departments are making extensive use of our current [...]

 Blog posts
Reviews		 , ,
7 October 2008 Oxbridge launch on iTunesU

Oxford and Cambridge have now joined the (still small) ranks of UK Higher Education institutions publishing on iTunesU. The simultaneous launch has prompted some to speculate that this is just the latest battleground for the old rivals (see Oxford v Cambridge: battle of the podcasts in the Guardian Education). Obviously Oxford and [...]

 News and Events ,
13 August 2008 Why not just audio?

Simple audio is often the most effective media type that can be used. It is also the easiest to create and distribute. There are many excellent reasons why one might want to use video or a screen capture of a demonstration. We often make use of both in these tutorials and posts. Many of the [...]

 Blog posts ,
22 February 2008 Podcasting

Regular podcasts are now commonplace in the news, entertainment and increasingly in teaching and learning. If you are interested in setting up your own podcast or want to know what they are, please see our resources below as a starting point.
How to Podcast
Using the Wimba Podcaster

 How-to guidance , , ,