Dream team or odd couple? Examining the combined use of lectures and podcasting in higher education

Abstract

This study explores the effectiveness of the sequential use of lectures and video podcasting in higher education. Drawing together several theories, this paper examines the influence of student’s perceived prior knowledge gained from lectures and technology acceptance model-related variables on student’s self-reported assimilation of new material presented through podcasting. Data were obtained from 179 undergraduates and were analyzed using a structural equation modelling approach. The results showed the influence of prior knowledge gained from lectures and effective use of video podcasts on perceived assimilation of additional knowledge. It was also found that perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness determine the attitude towards using video podcasts, which in turn positively affects the effective use of this tool. The findings suggest that lectures are very valuable to develop learning processes based on the podcasting technology and also that encouraging the acceptance and effective use of video podcasting is important in the learning experience.

Keywords:

• Podcasting
• educational technology
• learning strategies
• higher education
• structural equation models