Purdue Turns To Podcasts

Purdue University has begun providing podcasts of lectures for certain courses. Purdue offers recordings for students who miss a class or who want to review specific lectures. Previously, recordings were available for about 100 courses but only on audio cassettes. Starting this fall, recordings for lectures from some courses are availble as MP3 files, allowing students to download the recordings rather than going to the library to check out tapes. Michael Gay, manager of broadcast networks and services, said faculty who agree to have their courses added to the podcast service need only submit an online request form and wear a microphone while they lecture. So far, almost 50 courses are part of the podcasting service, and Purdue officials hope that number rises next semester. Currently, podcasts are available publicly, though in the future they may be restricted to campus users. Users of the service can download a specific lecture or all of the lectures from an entire course. As for the notion that some students might decide simply never to attend lectures in favor of listening to the downloads, Gay commented that “most instructors agree that any student who thinks an audio recording is a surrogate for class is doomed to failure.” Critics said podcasting programs favor students who can afford portable music players, but Gay noted that the podcasts are in a format that can be played on any computer.

Chronicle of Higher Education, 31 August 2005 (sub. req’d)