Podcasting in Medical School

The following was written on the utility of Podcasting lectures in Medical School:

A student’s duty is to learn, and their first step is to determine how they learn. Albert Einstein once said: “Insanity is doing the same things over and over again and expecting the different results”. If a student determines that they are less able to learn from attending interactive lectures or case conferences time and again, they owe it to themselves to make a change. That change for many students at major Universities is the podcast. A podcast is in essence a take home lecture; a means to bring the lecture hall to a more suitable environment customized for each student. Ultimately it is a new learning tool offered to the student of today to ensure efficiency and optimize time management. In a technological world with so many new choices to assist a student in their education it is essential that every student identify the tools that work for them.

So what is the problem? If Podcasts were such an excellent educational tool that serves the needs of so many students why would it be necessary to write this treatise? The answer is simple. This new technology, like others, is not well understood by professors, and there are widely held misconceptions that cast podcasts in a bad light. Too many professors are reluctant to accept podcasts as positive because they firmly believe that students SHOULD be in class. Misunderstanding the podcasts has resulted in the assumption by many professors that the students who use them are lazy. This treatise intends to clarify exactly what a podcast is and explain how it is used. The ultimate goal is to express the concerns by students and attempt to explain this new technology with the hopes that the modern educator will understand and come to accept podcasts as a productive new learning tool.

STUDENTS MUST BE PHYSICALLY PRESENT IN CLASS
Some professors disagree with the idea of podcasting because they believe students should be in class to ask questions and interact with their peers. While that may be true for some, it is not true for others and this presents one of the biggest hurdles for the podcast: overcoming this misconception. Many professors set up their lectures to be interactive in an attempt to make the environment more stimulating. Their goal of course is to attempt to make the experience of sitting through lecture as high yield as possible. This is a great strategy for those students who engage during lecture but it is of no benefit to those who don’t.

FORCE STUDENTS TO ATTEND CLASS
Many professors seem to think that the student should be required to attend lecture and therefore go out of their way to penalize those students who don’t attend. For example, many will refuse to use the podcast pointer or they will use the chalkboard rather than a power point presentation with the hope that if enough material is restricted to the classroom then the podcasters will feel pressured to attend. Forcing a student to attend lecture is not an effective means of educating. It will not accomplish anything besides filling a lecture hall, which is not synonymous with learning. Those students who do not learn while sitting in class will not suddenly be motivated to interact or ask questions. In fact, most of those students find the constant questions and interruptions in lecture to be more of a distraction than a benefit. Sitting in class is simply not conducive to learning for some students and pressuring students to attend only disrupts the learning process for them.

GET 100% OUT OF THE LECTURE
For those students who cannot fully benefit from attending lecture, podcasts are an important part of their individualized adult education. They allow the student to pause and think before moving on. The student can take comprehensive notes and understand them before they proceed to a new topic. This option is lost in the lecture hall as the student will only have time to rapidly jot down a quick note before the professor moves on, hindering thorough understanding of the topic or to even take proper notes. In the past this was the best option but still ineffective for many students. But we now have a new option, the podcast, which allows a much higher yield. A student can now take in information at his or her own pace and to process it effectively.
Here is an explanation of the benefits of the podcast as described by a student of the COM Class of 2012:
“Since I began using podcasts, my average test scores went up approximately 10 percentage points. In addition, because podcasts are a more effective use of my time, I spend less time per lecture than I previously did. For example: Prior to using podcasts, I was spending an additional three hours on top of each 50 min lecture I attended – a total of 4 hours per lecture. Given that on average we have 3-5 lectures per day, I was struggling to just stay caught up. With podcasts I go through each lecture slowly; I start and stop, replay, etc. Podcasts allow me to organize my thoughts and learn as I go. I am able to hang on every word the professor says and make sure I write it down. In class this is not an option. Even with this amount of detail my time per lecture is still reduced by podcasting – only two hours per lecture compared to the four I previously spent. In effect, I learn more of the material in about half the time.”

This statement demonstrates that some students find the podcasts not only more practical but as a valuable tool to better comprehend the material. Should a student be obligated to attend class when it is clear that their success would be diminished? If you ask the students who use the podcasts I am certain that the answers would be “no” across the board.

PODCASTS PROMOTE LAZINESS
Another misconception seemingly held by many lecturers is that students are just plain lazy and use the podcasts as an excuse to not come to class. There is no doubt that there are lazy students but podcasts are not to blame for this. Those students will always find a way to remain lazy, irrespective of the availability of podcasts. In fact, the majority of the students who don’t attend class don’t even use the podcast. Many block directors have confirmed that before podcasts, there was an equal number of students present at lecture and the advent of the podcast has not significantly decreased the numbers of students in lecture.

IF STUDENTS ARE NOT PHYSICALLY PRESENT IN MY LECTURE THEN THEY CANNOT FULLY APPRECIATE WHAT I HAVE TO OFFER AS A LECTURER
Professors often think that a student just can’t understand the material presented if they aren’t in class, believing a student must be physically present in order to learn. As a student who has tried both, I can tell you that this belief is simply incorrect. One’s physical presence is not a measure of their attentiveness, determination or work ethic and most certainly does not equate to what they can learn. What professors don’t understand is that podcasters diligently watch the entire lecture, pausing it from time to time to jot down notes, and rewind to ensure a proper understanding of what the professor is teaching. This reflects the student’s enormous respect for the material that is being presented, and in effect, the time and effort put into a lecture by the professor is not lost on the podcast, but rather, amplified.

DON’T ALIENATE THOSE STUDENTS WHO HAVE A DIFFERENT LEARNING STYLE
Lecturers should not ostracize students for utilizing different learning methods especially when those methods have proven to be successful. One of the greatest complaints by podcasters is being made to feel like less of a student, as if they do not work as hard for choosing to utilize podcasts. In every block (though not with every professor) podcasters must listen to comments directed at their absence. Some professors go out of their way to make it more difficult for podcasters to get the most out of lectures. For example, one professor said he preferred to use the laser pointer because he knew that podcasters could not see it; that there should be some reward for those who attend lecture. Nothing more acutely destroys a student’s motivation to learn than having to listen to comments from professors criticizing them for utilizing the podcasts. Ultimately, these comments demonstrate the lecturer’s ignorance of the system. Such unprofessional behavior further serves to divide the student body, often generating laughs from those students present in lecture and even causing arguments between podcasters and students who prefer lecture. Moreover, a student should not be denied access to lectures or any interaction based case conference by refusing to podcast them. This only hurts those students who find that attending group based conferences/lectures to be ineffective.

IT IS ABOUT EDUCATION
The modern age of technology offers us many new ways to make our lives more efficient and successful. The science behind education has always taken advantage of technology; from the chalkboard to the calculator to the computer and now the podcast. Education is not about how educators should teach as much as it is about how each student learns. With so many new learning tools available, the modern students are obligated to identify what works for them. They would be derelict in their duty if they did not take advantage of the learning tools that they individually deem to be most effective. Teachers, by the very creed of their profession, should be concerned with what has actually proven to help the student learn. Specifically, what the student has decided is the most effective means.

CONCLUSION
In the past, attending lecture was the only option so a student had to learn to adapt. Now we have many more learning tools, and it is the duty of every student to find the tool that works for them. We feel that it is important for faculty to support the students in their endeavor to not only be educated by others, but to educate themselves; our future profession requires it. The only way in which we as physicians will be able to meet the demands of the ever-evolving field of medicine is through self-education, and podcasts are an excellent means to achieve that. The take home message of this treatise is that a student should not be forced to learn in a particular manner, and the current obsession with attendance and pedagogic hand-holding by many professors has no place in adult education.

In ending I leave you with a quote from Kahlil Gibran: “The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind.”