Sandra Guy of the Chicago Sun Times recently posted an interesting article discussing the impact of pod/vodcasting on educational instruction at DePaul University. Among other implementations, DePaul produces podcasts and vodcasts for students to watch before signing up for classes to learn about professors and coursework. DePaul faculty members have also found podcasts to be ideal for lectures designed to guide students through textbooks and for tutorials, particularly those with screen shots that guide students on a walk-through of searching a Web site or a library database.

At some universities students produce their own podcasts for course assignments. Students at Duke University have been required to demonstrate proficiency in a foreign language via a podcast and create short movies showing scenes they imagine from a Jane Austen novel, said Lynne O’Brien, director of academic technology and instructional services at the Duke library.

As Dan Schmit—instructional technology specialist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln—suggests, podcasting has truly become a “new movement” in higher education.