Summary

Professor Stefanie Goyette (formerly of Global Liberal Studies) assigned a podcasting project in lieu of a final paper in her Cultural Foundations II course. She knew many of her students listened to podcasts, and wanted to provide a creative means for students to synthesize and demonstrate knowledge.

Learning objectives

• Work on a team to perform and present research.
• Properly frame a text for a non-specialist (general) audience.

Professor Goyette developed learning objectives and technical specifics with the FAS Office of Ed Tech. She created her Tumblr blog and offered an in-class session (20 minutes) to expose students to the basics of creating and editing audio.   Leveraging the medium of podcasting challenged students to distill scholarly arguments and gain transferable technical skills that apply to a wide range of experiences.

Student experience

• Make and edit a basic podcast (20-25 minutes of high-quality audio in which each member of the group gets to speak about the same amount).
• Demonstrate familiarity with text, original analysis, and research on topic.
• Devise an interesting format or debate topic to liven up the podcast and provide a thematic core.
• Divide up project tasks effectively with team.
• The Tumblr post must include: the podcast audio; any necessary documents or images; Works Cited; outline of who was responsible for each part of project.

Technology resources

• Audio recording and editing software (GarageBand and Audacity)
• Freely available music and audio assets (see a list on our website)
• Microphones and recording spaces (NYU LaGuardia Coop)
• Web publishing (Tumblr)

Outcomes

• Tumblr site: https://podcastparadiso.tumblr.com/

“The students loved it and it was mostly very productive in terms of learning.” – Stephanie Goyette