Digital Education: “A cup of tea with Alex”, a supplementary educational podcast

Abstract

Among several technologies that are being used in education and that are changing the way learning takes place, podcasting has been used by schools, universities and other institutions to improve the learning experience of their students. The aim of this research study is to get information, explore perceptions and collect opinions regarding the experience with podcasting of a group of adult learners enrolled in a language course. To do so, I have created “A cup of tea with Alex”, a ten-episode educational podcast series that served as supplementary material for the 20-hour-language course I organized. Every lesson of the language course was combined with a podcast created the day after class. The aim of each episode was to summarize the previous lecture with additional examples and explanations, provide the audio materials used in class, and give homework and/or extra information. Qualitative data about the participants’ experience were collected through two questionnaires. The analysis of the answers given by the respondents shed light on the features, advantages and disadvantages of podcasting. The findings highlighted that educational podcasting used as supplementary tool succeeded to enhance the overall learning experience, providing an additional source of content to learners and enabling them to be more in control of their learning.