Making podcasts instead of just listening to them might help medical students learn

A small experimental study in Germany compared medical students’ knowledge of a topic they learned by producing a podcast with their knowledge of a topic they learned by listening to a podcast. However, while one group showed better knowledge about the topic on which they produced a podcast, there were no differences between the two learning methods in the other group, making the overall results inconclusive. The paper was published in The Clinical Teacher.

Podcasts are digital audio programs that people can listen to on a phone, computer, or other device. They are usually released as episodes, often in a series focused on a particular topic. Podcasts can be about news, science, history, business, health, sports, storytelling, or simple entertainment.

People listen to podcasts to learn new things, keep up with current issues, or hear expert opinions and personal experiences. They can listen to podcasts while driving, walking, exercising, or doing chores. Some podcasts are educational and are used to explain complex ideas in a simple and accessible way. Others are mainly for relaxation, humor, or passing time in an enjoyable way. Podcasts can also help people feel connected to communities that share their interests or concerns.

Study author Matthias Carl Laupichler and his colleagues wanted to compare the effects of actively producing podcast recordings on medical students’ learning outcomes with **the** effects of passive listening to podcasts. They note that actively producing a podcast recording represents an example of active learning, an approach that is, theoretically, expected to be more effective than passive learning represented by listening to a podcast. The study authors also hypothesized that students’ level of knowledge of the topic they learned about **would** be better if the test was closer to the time of learning.

Study participants were 86 fifth-year students **at** a German medical school taking a pediatrics course. The study was conducted during their block internship weeks. The block internship is a mandatory course all medical students **at** that school must complete. They are usually assigned 1 week during a 13-week period to participate in it.

Students completed their study participation in small groups in different weeks of the academic year. Participation in this study was done on two days. During one day, students produced a podcast on their assigned topic, and on the other day they listened to a podcast on the second topic. There were two wider groups—students from one group produced podcasts on the topic of atrial septal defect and listened to podcasts on ventricular septal defect, while the assignment of topics was reversed in the other group. Atrial septal defect and ventricular septal defect are two types of congenital heart defects. In the end, students took a mandatory paper-and-pencil exam that tested their knowledge about the two topics they produced podcasts or listened **to** in the scope of the experiment.

Results showed that the group that produced podcasts about atrial septal defect, but listened **to a podcast about ventricular** septal defect had better knowledge about the topic on which they produced podcasts. On the other hand, the second group showed similar levels of knowledge on the two topics. Students’ knowledge of the two topics tended to be better if the time when they produced podcasts or listened to them was closer to the time of the exam.

“The study’s findings provide initial evidence that student-led podcast production could add value to medical education. Clinical teachers might consider integrating active podcast production into courses characterized by high levels of student engagement**,” the** study authors concluded.

The study contributes to the scientific knowledge about active learning. However, the study authors note that the tests about the two topics students learned about in this experiment were very close to their summative final exam. Intensive learning for the final exam could have **leveled out their knowledge of the two experimental topics, potentially masking the differences between the two learning methods.** Additionally, although students passively listened to one of the topics, they actively answered questions about it **afterward, which** might have attenuated the differences between active and passive learning methods (producing vs listening to podcasts) used in the study.

The paper, “Influence of Active Production Versus Passive Consumption of Podcasts on Medical Students’ Learning Outcomes”, was authored by Matthias Carl Laupichler, Alexandra Aster, Lara Soyubey, Gilda Masala, Greta Winkelhorst, Rike Remmert, Tobias Raupach, and Anthea Peters.