The effectiveness of podcasts in sport management education

Abstract

Online and mobile learning resources are becoming more important in higher education as students expect more flexibility and diversity in the educational tools and resources they can access. One of these online resources is educational podcasts. Podcasts offer educators and students a unique way to convey and learn about new information related to an academic subject. Educational podcasts can be classified under different learning styles, strategies, and pedagogies, such as e-learning or hybrid learning, Constructivism, the scaffolding technique, supplemental tools, and cooperative learning. Past literature demonstrates a demand for educational podcasts from both educators and students. The purpose of this study was to perform an exploratory analysis on the use of podcasts in higher education, and to determine the effectiveness of these podcasts on enhancing student learning in a Sport Management Event and Facilities Management class. The research questions we were looking to answer are: Did the podcasts affect student learning? Did the podcasts influence student motivation? And finally, how useful were the podcasts? The results showed that the participants in this study had an overall positive learning experience from listening to the podcasts, and that students fell in between being unmotivated and moderately motivated to listen to the podcasts. The student population, overall, reported being in favor of using the podcasts. The findings from this study help reinforce previous findings about the usefulness and positive learning outcomes from the use of podcasts but highlight the need for instructors to find ways of improving student motivation to use podcasts.

Introduction

As society transitions further into the 21st century, technology and higher education continue to assimilate. With this assimilation, online and mobile learning tools, which utilize electronic and hybrid learning philosophies, are becoming more popular in institutions of higher education (Merhi, 2015). One such educational tool which is being utilized by the institutions whom have embraced online education are educational podcasts. These educational podcasts can serve a variety of purposes, such as being the primary deliverer of course content, serving as supplemental tools that support lecture or book content, or podcasts which discuss connecting theory to practice. Using podcasts helps universities serve students who might have difficulties attending courses in person (Merhi, 2015). The use of technology has allowed students to have better access and control over when they wish to engage with course content because of their convenient and flexible nature (Kvavik & Caruso, 2005; Smith, Salaway, & Caruso, 2009).

Educational podcasts are being used in a variety of settings, and there are many ways in which podcasts can be used in education. In most instances, podcasts are being used as a supplemental tool, in which they highlight important aspects of a topic (Abate, 2013). Utilizing podcasts as a supplemental tool has also been referred to as the “scaffolding technique” because of the support they can provide in discussing fundamentals of the course, discussing and preparing in-class activities, or preparation for other unique class work such as laboratory work (Powell & Mason, 2013). In other settings, the podcasts have totally replaced either traditional lectures or textbook chapters and serve as the primary deliverer of course content (Back et al., 2016). Finally, podcasts have also served the purpose of bridging the gap between theory and practice in some disciplines by having the podcasts contain interviews with practitioners in a particular field of study (Lee & Wicks, 2010).

Podcasts, in an educational setting, are defined as audio or audio/video files that students can download or stream and utilize to learn and reinforce material at their own pace (Prakash, Muthuraman, & Anand, 2017). Educational podcasts offer a breath of fresh air from traditional lectures and traditional means of education because they help students who may have different learning preferences, they can be used by students and educators who wish to have more modern and accessible technology in a classroom, and they allow students to multi-task by listening to them in such settings as the gym while they exercise, or in the car while they drive (Prakash et al., 2017). Because podcasts can address issues associated with traditional education, such as its inflexibility, it should be no surprise that there is a demand for podcasts and mobile learning technologies from students (Adkins, 2011). Thus, it is critical to better understand how to utilize podcasts in a higher education setting to achieve the best possible student learning outcomes.

With technology becoming more affordable there is increased access to online and mobile learning, which has increased the stress on educators to effectively adapt to the technology which is now available to students (Van Hooft, 2008). Most importantly, podcasts have already been used in various educational settings and have been shown to help improve student learning outcomes. The purpose of this study is to perform an exploratory analysis on podcasts which are used both as a supplemental tool and as a tool for connecting theory to practice in a graduate-level Sport Management Event and Facilities Management course. This study was looking to explore how motivated students were to listen to the podcasts, and the effectiveness of these podcasts on enhancing student learning.