Section 3: Defining your institution's podcasting objectives and choosing delivery channels

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Contents 1 Defining your institution's podcasting objectives and choosing delivery channels 1.1 Podcasting objectives 1.1.1 Who is your target audience? 1.1.2 What are your podcasts for? 1.1.3 How is the proposed content to be delivered? 1.2 Using available delivery channels to your advantage

[edit] 1 Defining your institution's podcasting objectives and choosing delivery channels

[edit] 1.1 Podcasting objectives

When defining your institutional podcasting processes, it is essential to develop a clear understanding of your objectives, and think about the reasons for developing these processes.

[edit] 1.1.1 Who is your target audience?

Each of the various delivery channels available provide opportunities to exploit different markets, so you need to determine who your target audience will be. For example, around 85% of downloads from the OU’s iTunes U site are by non-UK, global users – with a significant percentage based in the USA. Researching the demographic of a site’s users will allow you to decide whether it targets the right audience for your podcasts.

[edit] 1.1.2 What are your podcasts for?

You need to consider whether your podcasts will be aimed at existing students, will they enhance face-to-face lectures, or to replace them? Are the podcasts to be part of your institution’s distance education strategy, or are they seen as an opportunity to expand your reach into new markets or to attract new students? Many HE institutions are involved in research programmes, is podcasting the new way of disseminating research interests and achievements to a global research community? Or of course your institution may have established an OER (Open Education Resource) commitment, choosing to share its educational content more widely.

Whether your decision to develop a podcasting strategy is motivated by just one of these reasons, or perhaps all of them, asking yourself these questions will inform your decision making, and determine the route you choose when developing your processes.

[edit] 1.1.3 How is the proposed content to be delivered?

• via you own website?
• streaming, podcasting, open access, password access, downloadable, non-downloadable?
• third-party website – this is where you are putting the content onto a website which may be governed by its own terms and conditions, for example iTunes U. Do these terms and conditions conflict with your project requirements?

[edit] 1.2 Using available delivery channels to your advantage

The new online media delivery channels available to HE institutions provide an opportunity for them to explore their boundaries and limitations, consider how best to exploit them for the benefit of students, and reach out to a broader, worldwide audience. Each of these channels provide a means of presenting different styles of media content, and different environments for institutions to reach a wide variety of users.

Online habits are rapidly changing, and understanding the motivations, behaviour and expectations of users of these channels will help you to decide where your institution’s presence will be most effective.

Unregulated

• Public open access channels

These are sites which are completely open and accessible to all. An example would be YouTube ¬– a participatory video sharing website where video materials can be shared, discussed and contributed to.

Regulated

• Closed institutional, student-facing channels

These are usually closed, password protected online environments, with access limited to staff and students. At the OU this includes the Virtual Learning Environment, where students are able to access not just audio and video podcasts, but all aspects of their course materials. The OU also have Podcast.Open, a channel for collecting and distributing podcast feeds; users have access to a wealth of existing podcast material – but it also provides the opportunity for users to produce podcasts too. It allows users to collect their thoughts into a series of podcasts, and syndicate out to other channels, like iTunes, Miro or YouTube.

• Institutional publicity channels

These channels are used for distribution of learning materials to existing students, and also to reach out to other prospective students. At the OU these include Open2.net, the interactive online learning portal for all BBC/Open University co-produced TV and radio programmes, and iTunes U private.

• Premium public open access channels

These are sites which are completely open and accessible to all. An example would be iTunes U – a video sharing website where terms and conditions apply.

• Premium public Open Education Resources (OERs)

Material presented on OER sites is usually made freely available to users under the ‘creative commons’ licensing agreement Attribution–Non-Commercial–Share Alike 2.0 (UK: England & Wales). Users are free to download, remix and reuse content any way they wish as long as they stay within the terms of the licence. (Further details about creative commons licensing is included later in this report). OpenLearn is the OU’s award winning OER site. All content is made freely available to users under the ‘creative commons’ licence.

The variety of sites available allows HE institutions to target to a diverse range of users, pitching their materials accordingly.

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