Using podcasting in a VLE - will students engage?

The impact of podcasts on engagement with a virtual learning environment is explored in this paper.Will user generated podcasts create a community of practice? Will creation of user generated content give pre-service teachers ideas for using technology in their future classrooms?The artefact design is influenced by previous research on blended learning undertaken by Garrison (2004), Dalsgaard (2007) and Keller (2008). Also influential were the works of Ioannou-Georgiou (2006) and Harris (2008) who used podcasting and personalisation of technology to promote knowledge sharing, and Lave and Wenger (1998) and Lee (2008) who looked at communities of practice and whether they can be formed by user generated content.The researcher created a blended course delivered in Moodle using HTML pages, podcasting, SCORM and user generated content. The overall focus of the research was on engagement with the podcasts embedded within a VLE. The major sample, termed the EAL Group, was measured on their interaction with all elements of the online course. The multimedia content was linked to other course materials released to students over an eight week period. A sub-group of the EAL Group, termed the Podcast Group, continued to interact with the VLE over a further five week period, and created their own user generated podcasts.Using a case-study approach, the research undertaken was of a qualitative and quantitative nature.The findings confirm that EAL Group engaged with the blended learning environment and liked the podcasts, but also revealed that time spent online is not comparable to traditional face-to-face courses.A requirement for mandatory IT training for pre-service teachers has been identified as a result of the study including creation of podcasts and submission of these to the VLE as part of the assessment criteria of future online courses.