Lawlor, Bob and Donnelly, Roisin (2010) Using Podcasts to support Communication Skills Development: A Case Study for Content Preferences among Postgraduate Research Students. Computers & Education, 54 (4). pp. 962-971. ISSN 0360-1315

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Abstract

The need for the integration of generic skills training into structured PhD programmes is widely accepted. However, effective integration of such training requires flexible delivery mechanisms which facilitate self-paced and independent learning. We video recorded an eminent speaker delivering a one-hour live presentation to a group of fifteen first-year science and engineering PhD research students. The topic of the presentation was inter-disciplinary professional communication skills. Following the presentation, we post-processed the video recording into seven alternative podcast formats. At a subsequent session, we showed the seven podcast formats to the fifteen students and carried out a survey to assess their reactions to the various formats. The survey results (quantitative and qualitative) were analyzed to give useful insight into the student preferences in relation to podcast formats. The students expressed a clear preference for summary key-point slides with explanatory voice-over by the original speaker. Such a podcast should be made available before a face-to-face session to promote discussion at that session and/or after a face-to-face session to help reinforce key points discussed at the session.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This is the preprint version of the published article, which is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2009.09.031
Keywords:	Podcast; Communication Skills; Generic Skills; Postgraduate Research;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Science and Engineering > Electronic Engineering
Item ID:	8787
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2009.09.031
Depositing User:	Robert Lawlor
Date Deposited:	11 Sep 2017 15:46
Journal or Publication Title:	Computers & Education
Publisher:	Elsevier
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	http://www.sciencedirect.com/
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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