Help With ~ Podcasts

• Student Development: 

Podcasting provides students with an opportunity to exercise oral communication skills, in addition to developing inventive thinking and network thinking.  In the realm of video and audio production, podcasting is less complicated in terms of the equipment that is necessary and involves shorter production as well as editing times. 

LITS Digital Learning Framework - LITS helps students integrate digital capabilities—knowledge, skills, and experience that can be applied to a professional or creative endeavor— into their individual learning plans through hands-on experiences in digitally rich environments. 

Hamilton College Educational Goals - Podcasting projects and skills support many aspects of our educational goals.

• For the Intended Audience:

"The format of podcasts allows a deeper dive into many subjects — it creates the possibility of long form investigations in a very accessible medium.  While many of us might not take the time to sit down and read a 20k word length article, we can listen to that article in bite sized chunks... especially if it’s presented in an entertaining, narrative way."  --  Carrie Ryan, Co-Author of Serial Box's Dead Air, on Quora

• Hamilton College Courses with Podcast Assignments
  •  To see a list of faculty members who have included podcast assignments in their courses within the past few years, follow this link.

• Hamilton College Podcast Examples:
  • BIO 223: Bioethics

1. • SOC 101: Intro to Sociology
     • https://hamiltoncs.org/sharingsociology/spring2020/sociological-imagination-and-the-coronavirus-pandemic/
     • https://hamiltoncs.org/sharingsociology/spring2020/the-contagion-of-hate/

   • Feeding our Past, Nourishing our Future - A Decolonization Podcast - Summer Research Project, Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center

Podcast projects require several stages of development and production, and typically involve 2-3 months of student work.

• One important decision to make early in planning for the semester project: Will the podcasts be showcased on a webpage? 
  • If so, then designing the website will factor into initial planning with the R&ID Team, and assignment timelines.

• Another consideration is the time involved in the Interview Process:
  • Two Types of Podcast Interviewing:
    • Journalistic Podcasts

      •  “Generally a podcast would come under the heading of ‘journalism,’ as its intent is to broadcast to the general public. The interviewee is aware of this, as would be the interview subject of any journalist in any medium. Journalism is one of the areas that is considered ‘not research’ by the federal statute. There is, of course, guidance with regard to journalistic ethics, but the IRB would not be involved." -- Hamilton College IRB

        • Journalistic ethics resources:

          • SPJ Code of Ethics, Society of Professional Journalists 

          • ONA Ethics: Interviewing, Online News Association

      • Time consideration: Navigating interviews with Hamilton community members vs. non-Hamilton members.

        • Obtaining broadcast permission from non-Hamilton members may involve extra time.

    • Research Project Podcasts

      • There are research projects (theses, independent studies, etc.) when students have used IRBs.

        • Time consideration: Hamilton College Institutional Review Board

Workflow:

1. Meet with R&ID Team to plan the assignment and timeline for workshops and production.

2. Overview of the podcast development process for students*:

• Pre-Production Survey – Many students have prior experience with audio recording equipment and audio editing platforms.

• Decide Podcast Topic(s)

• Decide Podcast Format

• Decide Potential Podcast Group Members

• Attend Workshop on: Pre-Production & Production

• Attend Workshop on: Post-Production

• Publish & Deliver Podcasts - including Assignment of Metadata

*Please see "For Students" sections for process details.