A preliminary study of podcasting in developing higher education institutions. A South African case

Date16 August 2011
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/13287261111164853
Pages268-285
Published date16 August 2011
AuthorRaymond Mugwanya,Gary Marsden,Richard Boateng
Subject MatterInformation & knowledge management
A preliminary study of podcasting
in developing higher education
institutions
A South African case
Raymond Mugwanya and Gary Marsden
Department of Computer Science, University of Cape Town,
Cape Town, South Africa, and
Richard Boateng
College of Business,
International Center for Information Technology and Development,
Southern University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report on podcasting experience by faculty and students in
a South African higher education institution (HEI), identify issues, limitations and discuss
implications for the design of future tools.
Design/methodology/approach – This work consisted of two parts: semi-structured interviews
with lecturers, content/curriculum developers and a student survey.
Findings Rogers’s diffusion of innovations theory provided the framework for this research
including determining how new innovations are disseminated, their rate of adoption, the five-stage
decision-making process for adoption and the characteristics an innovation must possess to be
attractive to adopters. The methodology used relied heavily on descriptive and qualitative data
analyses in order to determine the current podcasting practices and experiences. Results reveal that by
assuming some of the respondents are “innovators” or “early adopters”, they are still in the early
stages of the decision-making process.
Research limitations/implications – Some instructors who are identified as “early adopters” are
experimenting with podcasting as an add-on to existing lecture resources. However, innovations and
their subsequent adoption require an understanding of lecturers’ and students’ perceptions,
opportunities and challenges.
Originality/value – Podcasting in developing HEIs and the tools therein to support the process has
not been given much attention. The context of this study is the first kind of empirical research in this
area. The findings from this exploratory research will be valuable for podcasting users.
Keywords South Africa,Higher education institutions, Podcasting, Perceptions,Podcasting tools,
Mobile education,Contextual tools, Web 2.0
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
The delivery and instruction of lecture content in higher education (HE) has been
enhanced by technology developments. This millennium has witnessed increased
interest in experimenting with mobile learning and the use of Web 2.0 technologies, i.e.
podcasting – each promising improvements in delivery, participation, knowledge
acquisition and retention ( Jenkins et al., 2008). In addition, the advent of the internet
has presented new ways for academics to create, share and distribute educational
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
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JSIT
13,3
268
Journal of Systems and Information
Technology
Vol. 13 No. 3, 2011
pp. 268-285
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
1328-7265
DOI 10.1108/13287261111164853
content (Ractham and Zhang, 2006; Shim et al., 2007). The works reported in Evans
(2008), Shim et al. (2007), Jowitt (2008) and Edirisingha et al. (2007) reveal that
podcasting emerged from a combination of the terms “broadcasting” and “iPod”.
It involves authoring and publishing audio and/or video (vodcast) files using really
simple syndication (RSS). There are a number of trends that have led to increased
attention to podcasting by educators, practitioners and other technologists, i.e. media
houses such as the British Broadcasting Corporation, Times Online and Cable News
Network have increasingly made available podcasts of selected programmes (i.e.
sports, drama, etc.); increases in mobile device ownership and increased availability of
podcasting tools.
However, creating content for informal exchange and entertainment is different
from that for academic learning. There exists some research on the use and evaluation
of podcasts but it has focused on the universities in the USA, the UK and Asia Pacific.
Moreover, podcasting has been explored in the following areas: business and education
(Asia Pacific), to support a university news service, coverage of guest lectures and
dyslexia support (UK) and to augment classroom support (USA) (Shim et al., 2007).
There is limited published work to evaluate the podcasting of educational lectures
in developing regions such as South Africa. Furthermore, the available tools are
designed for use in developed world contexts. Therefore, if podcasting is to be
successfully used, there is a need for contextual tools for use within developing regions.
We therefore present results on the use of podcasting technology at a South African HE
institution (HEI) by different stakeholders (i.e. academics and students). In order to
understand current usage, perceptions and limitations of podcasting, we undertake a
concurrent mixed methods study involving both qualitative and quantitative data
collection and analysis. The rest of this paper is organized as follows: Section 2 review s
literature on podcasting lectures in HEIs, the next section details the methodology used
for our studies and data analysis. Section 4 details a summary of results, Section 5
presents implications followed by conclusions in Section 6.
2. Overview of SA HEI situation
This sub-section is based on the report on “Landscaping information and
communication technologies in higher education in South Africa” prepared for
TENET (Brown et al., 2007). In the past, there was not much connection between
provision of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and HEI reform
process in Africa. ICTs were often isolated and regarded as extras by many
science-oriented departments, i.e. computer science, engineering or technologically
biased faculty. In their status reports on ICT and HE in African countries, Ngugi et al.
(2007) and Farrell and Isaacs (2007) reveal that many African Governments identified
ICTs as a national development priority over the last decade or so. In particular,
South Africa has certainly moved forward in terms of ICT access since 2000 when
compared to the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). South Africa has more fixed lines,
internet users (including broadband subscribers) and mobile subscribers – this has
increased from 29.7 subscribers per 100 people in 2002 to 92.6 per 100 people in 2009
(ITU, 2009). Similarly, a review of current research certainly demonstrates that ICTs
are being taken seriously in teaching and learning in South African HEIs.
Despite these developments, developing HEIs have remained very much behind
those of other regions such as the Americas, Europe and the Pacific’s in embracing
Podcasting in
developing HEIs
269

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