I have been fascinated by podcast for several years now. Unlike any other media podcasts have a very specific following. Podcasts have a unique role within our society that are often followed by a very passionate group. This is something that fascinates me. Podcasts allow people to share their opinion's and view on life with a freedom unlike other media outlets. This freedom and passion that so many podcasters have has always inspired me to want to have my own podcast.
When I read the description of the capstone class on the website I immediately thought of a podcast. Professor Young said this would be an opportunity to show what we have learned throughout our college career with the freedom to prove it in whichever way we see fit. A podcast is everything that a capstone should be. An open environment in which for me to show what I know with the freedom to speak in my own words with no right or wrong answer. Using critical thinking, research, and open to the entire world I created a six episode podcast showing what I have learned so far at Dixie State University. I quickly came to understand that what I thought was some of my favorite podcasters talking into a microphone developed into a much more complicated process.
- Learn how to use Garage Band to upload, edit, and maintain the podcast.
- Apply and teach communication theories into the podcast episodes.
- Teach people helpful tips from communication they can apply to everyday life.
- Use outside research and theories to apply learning tips to listeners
- Effectively promote and manage the podcast through social media to drive traffic to the website or iTunes.
- Use main theories learned throughout my time as a human communication major to teach my audience.
- Creating content was never a struggle because there is constantly something to talk about. The struggle came when keeping the guest on the shows moving along with a story to keep the episode flow. Although content wasn't an issue staying appealing to a general audience became an issue as each guest brought on had his/her own idea and personal opinion. This is good but, trying to keep as many listeners as possible made it so I didn't want to offend anyone.
- Outside research was done on theories such as the Four Horseman of The Apocalypse to ensure the theory is accurately shared with listeners.
- Not having a specific audience helped by trying not to offend anyone with language or guests but still having a wide range of content on the episodes.
Research:
Research has been done on how effective a podcast can be in education and teaching students. This was important to see how much people that listen to podcasts actually take in that information and re-use what is learned. Fernando (2009).
Students from K-12 to see how listening to podcasts helped them remember material that they found difficult. They let the children have podcasts of their teachers on topics that they missed or found difficult. This was interesting to see how young the children all the way to twelfth grade responded to podcasts and how they affected the learning. Hew (2009).
Researchers looked at the potential of podcast within language cross culture. They looked at multiple students and different tactics of the podcast. The potential benefits for a podcast are interesting although most of their research is assumed. Lawlor (2009).
I found it difficult to find research on exactly what I am trying to accomplish with this podcast. Most of the previous research was done on younger students and how they responded to the podcast. Past research was helpful to see how
others implemented their podcast into the student population.
Plan:
I wanted a podcast that would inform, inspire, and interest the general public with no specific target audience. The St. George Sun Podcast spotlights people from St. George Utah whom have a story to tell or a message to share. The people who were on the podcast were just that inspiring, informative, and interesting. The podcast gave me an opportunity to show some of the things that I have learned so far in my classes here at DSU. How to deal with conflict competently at work and within their own families. The 4 Horsemen of The Apocalypse by Dr. John Gottman taught myself and my listeners around criticism, defensiveness, contempt, and stonewalling. Among other theories that I have learned from the array of communication classes I have taken.
Execution:
Each episode of the podcast became better over time. I set up a Facebook account, Twitter, Website, email, and iTunes account for people to listen to the podcast and reach out to me with questions and feedback. Each of these gave me great statistics of how many listeners I had per episode and each week.
Each episode of the podcast became better over time. I set up a Facebook account, Twitter, Website, email, and iTunes account for people to listen to the podcast and reach out to me with questions and feedback. Each of these gave me great statistics of how many listeners I had per episode and each week.
October 9th 1 Episode uploaded 3 plays #314 self help on itunes
October 23rd 2 Episodes uploaded 52 downloads 11 plays #29 Self Help
October 30th 0 Episodes uploaded 25 downloads 5 plays #97 Self Help
November 13th 1 Episode uploaded 19 downloads 2 plays #69 Self Help
November 27th 1 Episode uploaded 22 downloads 0 plays #62 Self Help
November 30th 1 Episode uploaded 67 downloads 0 plays #57 Self Help
December 4th 0 Episode uploaded 16 downloads 0 plays #117 Self Help
All of this information was retrieved from Podomatic which I used as my web host for the podcast. All of my stats came in seven day time periods. Obviously the podcast views went up every time a new episode was released. What surprised me was the increase of new listeners every week. The podcast went from 3 downloaders to a high of 67 listeners in a few weeks. What you can see from the two above photos is how many downloads I had per episode that was uploaded to iTunes. The difference between downloads and plays was also surprising. Downloads are a representation of how many downloads from iTunes there were. The plays are how many times people went to my site and played the episode from there which only totaled 18. Also watching the podcast jump from being #314 in the self help section on iTunes to #29 was extremely satisfying.
Facebook proved to be the best way to promote the podcast. I quickly gained 147 friends of the St. George Sun Podcast within a three week time period. The St. George Sun page quickly got 33 likes which was higher than I assumed. It's hard to say how many people Facebook pushed towards the podcast. There was a slight increase in downloads after I started the Facebook page.
Self Evaluation:
I quickly discovered that the podcast demanded much more attention and effort than I assumed. Going into the project I had no background with social media marketing, Garageband (which I used for editing), or radio broadcasting. The editing aspect I found to give me the most trouble. I spent hours trying to make an episode 'perfect' and up to my standards. Promoting the podcast was much more time consuming than I had anticipated. Most of my time was spent with guests, research, learning the applications, meetings, planning the podcast episodes, among other things that came up throughout the semester. I also have a notebook that I have kept throughout the semester of ideas and outlines for the podcast episodes.
I quickly discovered that the podcast demanded much more attention and effort than I assumed. Going into the project I had no background with social media marketing, Garageband (which I used for editing), or radio broadcasting. The editing aspect I found to give me the most trouble. I spent hours trying to make an episode 'perfect' and up to my standards. Promoting the podcast was much more time consuming than I had anticipated. Most of my time was spent with guests, research, learning the applications, meetings, planning the podcast episodes, among other things that came up throughout the semester. I also have a notebook that I have kept throughout the semester of ideas and outlines for the podcast episodes.
Although there was never a number set on how many episodes I was supposed to upload throughout the semester I had a self goal of 10 episodes. I am disappointed a little to only get six episodes out but, I am extremely pleased with the episodes I have put out. The quality of the episodes I released exceeded my expectations for the podcast. Overall I think I set my standards and expectations to high for myself and the podcast. I am happy with the content that I put out and I believe I did a great job at showing what I have learnt at DSU. The St. George Sun is the definition of what a senior capstone should be. Showing what you have learned throughout all the years of going to school. I wish I could have done more with the podcast but, I absolutely underestimated the work put into running a podcast.
References:
Bob Lawlor (2009). Using podcasts to support communication skills development: A case study for content format preferences among postgraduate research students. Education Volume 54, Issue 4, Pages 962–971
Bob Lawlor (2009). Using podcasts to support communication skills development: A case study for content format preferences among postgraduate research students. Education Volume 54, Issue 4, Pages 962–971
Khe Foon Hew (2009). Audio Podcast in K-12 and Higher Education: a review of research topics and methodologies Educational Technology Research and Development. June , Volume 57, Issue 3, pp 333-357
Rosell-Aguilar, Fernando (2009). Podcasting for language learning: The Next Generation: Social Networking and Online Collaboration in Foreign Language Learning. San Marco: Calico, pp. 13–34.
