Students may soon be able to download podcasts of their favorite Penn State lectures to their computers and iPods.

More than 100 sections of Penn State courses are being podcasted this semester on iTunesU throughout the commonwealth campuses, up from only 40 last semester.

The Penn State podcasting system has not been heavily promoted because it is still in the pilot phase until summer 2007. However, the relative simplicity of creating a podcast has helped persuade some faculty members to use them in their courses.

At Penn State, there are about two dozen classrooms that are equipped to record podcasts, and all the faculty member has to do is open up an application at the podium, clip on their microphone and press record, Cole Camplese, information technology manager, said.

"We're trying to really get to the bottom of what students want and how it impacts the teaching and learning process," he said.

Steve Brady, assistant professor of operations and supply chain management at Penn State Harrisburg, said podcasts enable his students to learn on their own time.

"The power of podcasting enables you to take a lecture with you and listen to it on your time when you're best able to absorb the material," he said.

Greg Pierce, instructor of finance at University Park, uses podcasting for Finance 100 (Introduction to Finance) and said his students really take advantage of the podcasts.

"I find them helpful in a variety of areas," he said. "A lot of
students want information anytime, anywhere, so on their way to class they often review the lectures if they missed a concept in class."

Some students said they are interested in the podcasts, but noted that they are particular-ly useful if you miss a class or two.

"I might use it if I missed a lot of class," Melania Elsner (freshman-division of undergraduate studies) said, adding that it would be easier to skip a class that offered a podcast of the lecture.

Camplese said he is not concerned that students will skip class just because the lecture is available to them electronically.

"We are not seeing a decrease in people coming to class," Camplese said. "A good percentage of students are listening to podcasts at least one time after lecture," he added.

To avoid problems with attendance, faculty can use techniques like those used by Brady and Pierce such as pop quizzes and just taking attendance.

"Students use it to strengthen their subject knowledge instead of a means of cutting class," Pierce said.

Many faculty members who use the podcasts aren't just recording lectures but instead are recording information about upcoming events to better prepare students for class, Camplese said.

Brady uses video-casting, also known as vodcasting, to go through homework without having to take up class time.

Pierce uses an enhanced podcast which has slides that move along with his voice so that students with computers or video iPods can read the slides as they listen to his voice.

Camplese said there are similarities to the use of ANGEL course management system to podcasting in the classroom.

"Several years ago, no one used ANGEL, and now it's used for almost every course," Camplese said. "Podcasting won't be like ANGEL in that everybody will be using it, but a relatively significant percentage of faculty will take advantage of it at one point or another."

Podcasts are becoming more prevalent throughout colleges, especially in the Big Ten.

At Purdue University, students can already download lectures from about 100 different courses. Every semester, students download 250,000 lectures, said John Campbell, associate vice president for teaching-and-learning technologies.

Purdue has been recording
lectures for 20 years and origin-ally offered the lectures on cassettes available to students at the library.

"Most of the Big Ten schools have some sort of podcasting going on now," Campbell said.