Ready your iPods, podcasting comes to PLU
June 23, 2006
Students in the MBA program this fall will be the first to utilize the newest technological endeavor at PLU: podcasting.
The School of Business received a $1,000 grant from PLU’s Digital Media Center through the second annual Small Grants Program for Integrating Information Services and Technologies into the Curriculum. The school will become the first to offer students access to lectures via podcast, using the grant money to purchase the audio recording equipment and software needed to place the recordings online, said Josh Page, the school’s information technology specialist.
“This will put PLU up a league amongst other universities because now we can say we have some podcasting abilities,” Page said.
The MBA program was targeted because many of the students are juggling work and a family, he said.
“The MBA seemed like a good test-bed because there were the most benefits for those students straight away,” Page said.
The recorded audio from lectures and any relevant presentations will be uploaded to Sakai, the university’s new online course-content management system that is replacing Blackboard, Page said. Since users must enter an I.D. and password, access to the podcasts can be controlled, he added.
Students can then download the audio and presentations to their computers or MP3 players to peruse at a more convenient time, like when they are at home in the evening or during their morning commute on the train, Page said.
“They won’t feel like they missed out on a lot because they’ll have the ability and opportunity to catch up,” he said.
The equipment can be used outside of the classroom as well to record seminars and guest speakers, and then make that content available online to those who were unable to attend, Page said. He added that faculty members might be able to take the equipment to conferences, record the event and share it with their colleagues when they return.
“There are opportunities to expand this into something bigger,” he said.
If all goes well, it is likely the program could be expanded to include undergraduate business classes, Page said. The grant requires recipients to present on their program in the following year and make the project outcomes available to share with other faculty members.
“This grant is used to do something new with technology,” Page said. “We have to share the knowledge.”
The grant program was established to allow faculty to explore the use of technology and information services within their courses. For this upcoming academic year, $5,000 was available to fund grants up to $1,000.
Recipients were chosen based a variety to criteria, including the overall impact of the project on their course or department, the feasibility of the project, the perceived benefits to other faculty, students and courses, and the incorporation of information literacy or technology proficiency skills for students. The technology or educational technique also had to be unavailable on campus or easily transferable from another source.
Other grant recipients for the 2006-2007 academic year include Lynn Hunnicutt, associate professor of economics, to underwrite the deployment of a student response system for economics; MaryAnn Carr, clinical associate professor of nursing, to purchase a Tablet PC and study the practical use of the computer and software in clinical nursing settings; and Solveig Robinson, assistant professor of English, to purchase digital letterpress equipment that will enable students to experiment with new book arts technology and foster collaboration between the book arts and graphics arts programs.
“This will put PLU up a league amongst other universities because now we can say we have some podcasting abilities,” Page said.
The MBA program was targeted because many of the students are juggling work and a family, he said.
“The MBA seemed like a good test-bed because there were the most benefits for those students straight away,” Page said.
The recorded audio from lectures and any relevant presentations will be uploaded to Sakai, the university’s new online course-content management system that is replacing Blackboard, Page said. Since users must enter an I.D. and password, access to the podcasts can be controlled, he added.
Students can then download the audio and presentations to their computers or MP3 players to peruse at a more convenient time, like when they are at home in the evening or during their morning commute on the train, Page said.
“They won’t feel like they missed out on a lot because they’ll have the ability and opportunity to catch up,” he said.
The equipment can be used outside of the classroom as well to record seminars and guest speakers, and then make that content available online to those who were unable to attend, Page said. He added that faculty members might be able to take the equipment to conferences, record the event and share it with their colleagues when they return.
“There are opportunities to expand this into something bigger,” he said.
If all goes well, it is likely the program could be expanded to include undergraduate business classes, Page said. The grant requires recipients to present on their program in the following year and make the project outcomes available to share with other faculty members.
“This grant is used to do something new with technology,” Page said. “We have to share the knowledge.”
The grant program was established to allow faculty to explore the use of technology and information services within their courses. For this upcoming academic year, $5,000 was available to fund grants up to $1,000.
Recipients were chosen based a variety to criteria, including the overall impact of the project on their course or department, the feasibility of the project, the perceived benefits to other faculty, students and courses, and the incorporation of information literacy or technology proficiency skills for students. The technology or educational technique also had to be unavailable on campus or easily transferable from another source.
Other grant recipients for the 2006-2007 academic year include Lynn Hunnicutt, associate professor of economics, to underwrite the deployment of a student response system for economics; MaryAnn Carr, clinical associate professor of nursing, to purchase a Tablet PC and study the practical use of the computer and software in clinical nursing settings; and Solveig Robinson, assistant professor of English, to purchase digital letterpress equipment that will enable students to experiment with new book arts technology and foster collaboration between the book arts and graphics arts programs.