I found this article interesting: Dani McKinney, a researcher at the State University of New York in Fredonia, conducted a study comparing test scores of students who attended a regular physics lecture to those who only viewed the content as a podcast, downloaded through iTunes University.
The results, as noted in the article:
Students who downloaded the podcast averaged a C (71 out of 100) on the test – substantially better than those who attended the lecture, who on average mustered only a D (62).
But that difference vanished among students who watched the podcast but did not take notes.Students who listened to the podcast one or more times and took notes had an average score of 77, McKinney says.
Motivation might have been an issue, as the experiment did not count for class credit, though the highest scorer in each group earned a $15 iTunes gift certificate.
McKinney next wants to test how these two delivery methods compare over an entire semester, and also thinks podcasts would benefit traditional lectures as opposed to just replacing them. I’m inclined to agree, especially as the means necessary to create rich podcast content decrease.
(New Scientist, via Daniel Pink’s Twitter stream)
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