SlashDot includes a post today that is concerned with the issue of podcasting lectures and the potential problem of absenteeism.
I had a personal reaction to the post that would likely be different from the reaction of many. I follow and contribute to a small literature on the positive and negative consequences of offering students online representations of lecture content (e.g., notes, audio). In this case, the “hard copy” literature associated with this issue probably predates and is more robust than the online discussion.
For example, a good deal of the “hard copy” consideration of making lecture resources available to students is grounded in an old literature that examines student limitations in note taking. The cognitive demands of taking notes may reduce the “processing of lecture content” AND “generate a poor account of the lecture” to review later. Alternative representations of a lecture (whether outlines, PowerPoint images offered to students, or podcasts) offer benefits by addressing such limitations OR by providing an alternative for students who missed class for “acceptable” reasons.
The SlashDot analysis mainly offers advice on mechanisms for assuring that students will still come to class and can access a podcost (e.g., a password distributed in class).
BTW – my research seems to indicate that students prefer “complete notes” (taken by a skilled note taker) to an online audio “transcript” of the lecture. This makes sense to me. A good set of notes can be read quickly and easily scanned for problem areas. In addition, online notes have been “preprocessed” by an “expert” student.
I do encourage you to read the comments associated with the SlashDot post.
