In the evaluation survey for the pilot service, 95% of students said it was useful for their studies, and 100% of lecturers who had used it said they would recommend it to others. Students said that:

“<This service> is invaluable to my current high grades”

“Recordings allow students the opportunity to go over vital material and compare <the recordings> with notes to ensure all relevant <topics> are covered”.

“The viewpoint of a tutor or lecturer is essentially what a university student pays for, if we were able to review the thoughts and words of our lecturers we would not only feel more comfortable
but more satisfied”.

“This was really useful during my revision period where I was able to make sure I had written down important points from the… lectures.

I think it was one of the reasons why I obtained a first for that module”.

Q-Review offers staff the option to have their lectures recorded and distributed to their students with no additional work for the staff member. The room records automatically and the recordings are distributed to students via Blackboard or by email. You retain full control of your recordings and can edit or delete them as you wish.

It will record video, audio, and the presenters screen (e.g. PowerPoint, notations or webpages) and combine these into a user-friendly format. If you would prefer not to appear on video, it can also be set to record just audio or just audio plus screen.

Here is a sample image taken from a training session that one of the ELU recorded in the E-Learning Studio. (Click on image to enlarge).

The facility is now in the following rooms:

• The E-Learning Studio, Learning Institute, Francis Bancroft Building, Mile End
• David Sizer LT, Mile End
• Draper’s LT, Mile End
• Mason’s LT, Mile End
• Math’s LT, Mile End
• G O Jones LT, Mile End
• Arts 1 LT, Mile End
• Arts 2 LT, Mile End
• Laws 2.10, Mile End
• Geography 1.26, Mile End
• Skeel LT, Mile End
• Room 209, Mile End
• Perrin LT, Whitechapel
• Milton LT, Whitechapel
• Morris LT, Charterhouse Square
• Willoughby LT, Charterhouse Square
• Clark Kennedy, Innovation Centre

If you would like to use it this coming year, please let us know so that Room Bookings can try to schedule your lectures in Q-Review ready rooms.

If you cannot gain access to an equipped room or you would like to record off-site or at home we can also give you a mobile version on a laptop or install it on yours. Angie Raymond, from the School of Law, talks about her use of this version, called Personal Capture, here: http://www.learninginstitute.qmul.ac.uk/elearning/reviews/angie-raymond/

If you, or your colleagues, would like us to prioritise the new installations into rooms that you make frequent use of – please let us know.

You can find out what students said here and what staff thought of the system here. Also see our series of interviews with staff who have used the system in our Case Studies series here.

You can find out more about the service and see some examples here: http://www.learninginstitute.qmul.ac.uk/elearning/services/q-review-lecture-capture/

The project team are happy to talk to any member of QM about this service in any context. If you are interested email elearning@qmul.ac.uk

- Student response, Q-Review Survey

We recently ran a survey on podcasting lectures at QM, seeking the views of staff and students on this technology.  We received 614 responses from students who took the time to include some really good comments. We share some of these below.

The term ‘podcasting’ was used loosely to describe a means of recording content and distributing to an intended audience. A more precise definition of the term podcasting is described on Wikipedia at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcasting

Fear of student absenteeism is one of the primary concerns cited by teaching staff (refer to “QM Podcasting Survey Results” post). However research indicates that lecture capture has little, if any, impact on attendance. 82.2% of student survey respondents indicated that their attendance would remain the same and here are some reasons they gave why they would still attend:

“I get more out of the actual lecture interactivity and only use the recordings when I need to query something.”

“It is much more motivating and inspiring to see the actual EXPERT talking in real life about their subject!”

“It is the discussion between lecturers and students that have the more rewarding intellectual content – you can’t get this from a recording.”

“I like to be present during lectures initially and then know that I have the full recording to go over again later”

“recordings should be a back up like a cd. it is like music, it is better live but after the concert replaying a cd helps refresh the memories”

“I find that I understand something better after going over it twice or three times, so I would use both the recoding and the lecture itself”

“Rather than rushing to note ‘everything’ the lecturer says, I could be more pro-active in my engagement with the presentation”

“Recordings are helpful when you’re absent – recordings aren’t the cause for absence”.

“…if I haven’t gone to the lecture, chances are I won’t bother to watch the recording either”

“I (sic) struggle taking notes, and remembering what has been said. I attend all lectures and practicals but I spend so much time cleaning up my notes in preparation for exam revision that I fall behind on reading and other homework. Recorded lectures would aid in confident studying.”

“Only a fool would sit there and rely on technology.”

“Sometimes a lecturer talks so fast that while you are noting down one point you miss the next. When I think i have missed something I like to listen again. Repetition also helps cement it into my mind. The problem is that most lectures are not made available to us so we cannot rely on the service. This is a huge shame and a waste of a valuable resource. It really lets the school down that they cannot seem to organise it adequately.”

In the survey, students were asked: “Do you think that the recording of lectures are helpful to your studies?”

95% said yes, and again, they were very forthcoming with comments. One student summarised the benefits as “(a) Can go back and listen to them more than once if you dont understand a point, (b) can listen to them in your own time. (C) can make more thorough notes from them by pausing and playing them. (d) can catch up on any missed lectures. (e) helps to refresh memory during exam time”. Another student commented “I find it difficult to absorb the entire lecture whilst sat taking notes. The recorded lectures have been invaluable to my current high grades.”

There were near 500 additional comments on this question, please see: All student responses to Question 6

Students were also asked if being able to review lecture recordings would mean that they stopped taking notes in class, to which 87.1% said No they wouldn’t stop taking notes. One student points out “the more notes I take the more I would learn” while another states that “Taking notes also helps me to concentrate.”

Overall, lecture capture provides an opportunity to improve the service we offer students, both in terms of flexibility of access for revision and study, for accessibility and for effective learning.

If you are interested in making recordings for your students, or if you would like to learn more about the different options available – whether recording a live event or pre-recorded content – then please get in touch with us at qreview-admin@qmul.ac.uk

You may also be interested in:

1. QM Podcasting Survey Results
2. Q-Review Lecture Capture Service
3. Case Study – Law lecturer shares her Q-Review experience

The term ‘podcasting’ was used loosely to describe a means of recording content – primarily, in this case, recording of lectures (audio, video and/or computer screen) and distributing these recordings to an intended audience.

There were 83 staff responses and 614 student reponses to the survey. 36% of staff had made recordings over the past year and 67% of these had used the Q-Review service. 100% of those who had used the Q-Review service would recommend the service to others, with one user stating “Outstanding facility, outstandingly well supported”.

Survey participants could enter into a prize draw for an Amazon Kindle. Dr. Katherine Fleming, from the school of English and Drama, was the lucky winner of a Kindle. Dr. Fleming shared with us that although she hasn’t done any recordings, she would be interested in using the Q-Review service in the future but feels that more guidance and advice on the implications of podcasting in the university would be helpful before embarking too enthusiastically on the service.

Other staff respondents expressed worry of lectures being replaced by podcasts – one respondent commented that

“There is so much interaction that occurs in lectures. The relationship between the lecturer and the student cohort is part of the learning — and teaching — experience. Face time with students is pedagogically advantageous to them. And allows me to read their faces, respond in the moment, and be receptive to their learning.”

While these concerns are understandable, it should be stressed that the Q-Review service is not meant to be a replacement for lectures but has been used as a supplement to the face-to-face classroom experience. This is also addressed in the Code of Practice for the service.

Other staff worried that recordings would affect attendance. However, staff should be assured that there was strong evidence that students still value face-to-face interactions. Research indicates that lecture capture has little, if any, impact on attendance – one student pointed out that

“Recordings are helpful when you’re absent – recordings aren’t the cause for absence.”

82.2% of students indicated that their attendance would remain the same.  Students commented that recordings are used in addition to lecture time and allow them to recap areas that they may have had difficulty in understanding the first time around, allowing them to go over material covered in class at a slower pace, especially if they missed something in class and had gaps in their notes. Students still valued the interaction and engagement experienced in face-to-face time.

Students were very forthcoming with their feedback and their comments give a real insight to how they feel the technology is beneficial to their learning. One student stated

“I find it difficult to absorb the entire lecture whilst sat taking notes..recorded lectures have been invaluable to my current high grades.”

Another student commented

“Rather than rushing to note ‘everything’ the lecturer says, I could be more pro-active in my engagement with the presentation.”

Some students were also concerned about loss of face-time with their teachers, and stressed that the service should be used as an aid in their studies, not a replacement for lectures. (Refer to QM Podcasting Survey – the Student Perspective).

Other staff expressed concern about intellectual property, performance management and surveillance issues (to see how these issues are currently addressed, see the Code of Practice).

There were also some very positive feelings about the technology from staff. 46.6% of staff respondents acknowledged that the ability to pause and rewind is the most valuable aspect of recordings, while 25.9% felt that recordings were most valuable because it allows for ‘Flexible teaching and learning – as lecture time can be used more creatively’.

One staff member who had tried the technology commented

“I was quite nervous about doing this at first. Some of my lectures are quite complicated, and I was worried about mistakes that I may make, and also about student attendance. But so far, so good! Students thank me for participating so it is obviously very popular with them.”

Another staff member pointed out that

“Any form of multi-media that facilitates the passing of information from teacher to student is a valuable tool both in learning and teaching. The use of modern technology should be embraced and encouraged to achieve this goal.”

Overall the survey produced mixed feelings about the technology from staff, though the majority were in favour of it.  70% feel that there is value in lectures being recorded and made available to students. It is still an opt-in service and uptake continues to rise steadily.

If you are interested in making recordings for your students, or if you would like to learn more about the different options available – whether recording a live event or pre-recorded content – then please get in touch with us at qreview-admin@qmul.ac.uk

You may also be interested in:

1. QM Podcasting Survey – the Student Perspective
2. Q-Review Lecture Capture Service
3. Case Study – Law lecturer shares her Q-Review experience

“Students were using their own devices to record the lecture anyway…” Angie pointed out, and so this tool made it easier for both herself and for her students. Many of her students are studying Law in English even though English is not their first language, so they are able to review the lecture recording at their own pace. This allowed Angie to be more comfortable in delivering her lecture, as she did not have to spend extra time going over information in the classroom, as she knew that they could go back and listen to the recording.

Angie also admitted that she was able to use the recordings for her own self-reflection in order to make improvements to her lectures… “I listen to the recording, and think about how I was delivering the material – did I go too fast, did I explain it properly?”

She has recorded about 20 live sessions so far, for over 100 students. Angie emphasised that she takes attendance and it has remained very high throughout the year. She stressed that “most students know that attending a lecture live allows you to ask questions and be engaged…the capture service is used for review”.

Some of Angie’s Hints and Tips:

“I was nervous at first. I was fearful that I would show up on YouTube or that students would make fun of the video – but none of these have happened.”

“It’s worked wonderfully to capture my lecture, but I’m not sure I would use it for my tutorials…”

“Staff should think about if they want to do a video capture – I chose not to because I am an energetic lecturer and I scribble on the board, so the video was a bit strange to watch, as you fly in front of the camera. The audio and screen was very useful.”

“If I had to do it over, I would practice a bit more. The first few lectures you can tell that I am a bit conscious of the recording. It came across a bit unnatural. But now I don’t feel so focussed on the technology, I don’t even remember it’s there.”

“In the future I might record intros to the class, give some basic/background information that I would like to use, but don’t want to go through it in class. I can do this at home on my laptop now.”

Please click on the video below to listen to the full interview.

If you are interested in using Q-Review Personal Capture to record your lectures please submit a request by logging into our online helpdesk at https://helpdesk.its.qmul.ac.uk – click on the ‘Request’ button and then select ‘Q-Review – Lecture Capture’.

If you are unable to log into our helpdesk, please send an email to vle-support@qmul.ac.uk

1. Case Study: Physics lecturer shares his experience of recording his lecture
2. Case Study: Stephen Bishop turns his lecture material into podcasts

This article covers:

1. An overview of the Q-Review Presentation Editor
2. What you will need to edit your recording
3. Steps to edit your recording
4. A 4-minute video demonstration of the process
5. Trouble-shooting (Internet Explorer security warnings)

For Q-Review FAQs, please log into our Online Helpdesk at https://helpdesk.its.qmul.ac.uk. To submit a query, click the ‘Request’ button, then select ‘Q-Review-Lecture Capture’.

Overview

The Q-Review Presentation Editor offers a user-friendly interface and allows you to trim sections of the recording that you would like removed. The very basic editor eliminates the confusing features that come with more advanced video editing software, but this means that you won’t be able to do more advanced edits, such as adding in sections.

Most users find the tool meets their needs, as they generally just cut the beginning and the end of their recordings – perhaps where the audience is coming in or leaving the session. You can also remove sections from the middle – however this can become a bit tricky, especially if the recording includes video. By removing sections in the middle of the video, it can make the recording seem jerky to the viewer, especially if the speaker is moving around alot. We recommend that you only trim sections from the beginning and end, if possible.

Edits must be done within 14 days of the recording, and you can also restore edits within this timeframe. If the link has already been given to your audience (such as within a Blackboard course area), the link will automatically update with your edits once it has finished processing.

Below is a sample of the Presentation Editor. It allows you to view your slides (if you had any) and listen to the audio.

What you will need:

1. A computer with internet access and Flash installed.
2. Speakers or a headset (to hear audio).
3. Presenter access to a Q-Review recording that is less than 14 days old.
4. A username and password to access the Q-Review server.
   (You can request this by sending a query via our Online Helpdesk: https://helpdesk.its.qmul.ac.uk).

Steps to Edit:

1. First, log into the Q-Review server with your username and password at https://ess.q-review.qmul.ac.uk:8443
   (request login details via our Online Helpdesk).
2. Click on the link to the recording that you would like to edit.
3. Scroll to the bottom of the next page, and click on the green “Edit Media” button.
4. This will load the Presentation Editor.
5. Click the play button, and identify where you want to trim.
6. Move the markers to the section that you want to remove – the first marker should be at the start of the section you want to trim, and the second marker at the end of where you want to trim.
7. Click on the scissor icon.
8. The section will be greyed out, indicating that it has been removed.

Once you have made your edits following the above steps, you can click on the “Preview” tab to review your edits.

9. When finished, click on the “Publish” tab
10. Then click the “Save and Publish” button which will publish your edited recording.

Depending on how long the recording is, will depend on how long it will take to process the edited recording. As an estimate, the processing time is usually the same length as the recording (so if the recording is 60 minutes long, estimate 60 minutes to process).

After it has been processed, you can return to the link you originally received for the recording, and that link will be updated with the edited version.

Short Movie Demonstration:

You can view this 4-minute movie which demonstrates the steps in greater detail. If you have speakers then you can listen to the demonstration. Otherwise, I have added closed caption for the sections worth noting.

Please contact us by logging into our Online Helpdesk – https://helpdesk.its.qmul.ac.uk.  Submit your query by clicking on the ‘Request‘ button, then select ‘Q-Review – Lecture Capture‘ from the drop-down list.

Trouble-shooting:

If you are using Internet Explorer, you may receive a few security warnings similar to the ones below.

Click on the “Continue to this website” link if you receive a warning like this:

Click “No” if you receive a warning like the one below as you do not wish to view only the secure items. Clicking yes will result in the Presentation Editor not loading.

Photo Credit

SX-70 on Flickr

The E-Learning Unit at QM is currently surveying staff and students to find out their views on podcasting lectures at QM

Q-Review is a pilot service to enable staff to record and publish their lectures or presentations. It’s a free-to-use, opt-in service that aims to encourage innovative and flexible teaching methods, and lecturers retain full control over their recordings.

What do you think of this service? Your thoughts matter.

Tell us your opinion and you could win a Kindle!

Mr. Bishop felt conscious over the years that too much of his class time was being spent giving basic content, leaving little time to explain the material to his students. So he decided to turn this basic content into podcasts which his students could listen to before class, take necessary notes, and then he could use class time for explanatory information, allowing more time to answer questions. Thus class time would be more interactive and hopefully more enjoyable for both him and the students. Mr. Bishop brought his already prepared class notes and made ten 45 minute podcasts for his students to be able to listen to before class.

Mr. Bishop plans to make these podcasts available to his students via Blackboard. Although Q-Review can automatically publish to Blackboard, Mr. Bishop prefers to have more control of his recordings, such as being able to make minor top and tail edits, and so he will be adding links to the recordings in his Blackboard course areas manually.

I had the opportunity to interview Mr. Bishop when he had finished making these podcasts, to find out what he thought of the whole podcasting experience. I will meet with Mr. Bishop again at the end of the term to find out what his students thought of his new way of delivering the lecture content.

If you are unable to see the player below, please visit this webpage to listen to the interview.

If you would like to find out more information about Q-Review, podcasting or ways to capture your lectures, please contact us at qreview-admin@qmul.ac.uk

Link to Interview with Stephen Bishop

In order for your users to find your podcast you must, as with any online resource, provide a link to it.

Look here (http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/kermode) to see some examples of different types of links to a podcast. On the right-handside you will see several links including RSS, iTunes and Zune.

Open up the link and hover your cursor over (don’t click) the different hyperlinks to the podcast. On the bottom left of your browser you will see the actual link. You can see that the first part changes from itpc to http to zune and so on.

Try that out before continuing to read this post.

As you can see there are several ways of doing this. We will cover two of the most generic here. These are:

1. Creating a special type of link which tells a computer to open iTunes and subscribe to the podcast
2. Linking directly to the file and allowing your computer to decide what to do with the file.

There are advantages to both.

The first, the ITPC link, has an obvious appeal in that it is much easier for your end-user. They don’t need to do anything more than click on a link and follow the on-screen instructions. However some websites (for example, wordpress.com) will not allow the use of the ITPC link. Also not all of your users will use iTunes.

The second, the HTTP link, is a normal weblink and carries no information about what it is linking to. Each computer setup will do something different with it. Firefox, for example, will open the full RSS feed in a useful and accessible way. Internet Explorer, on the other hand, will display the actual code of the RSS in a manner completely bewildering to most users. However, the HTTP link, does allow your user to choose what they want to do with the link. They could, for example, copy and paste the link into iTunes to suscribe.

We would suggest including both on your website. Though please note that including all the options included in the example BBC page is very easy and you would go through exactly the same process; just changing the first section of the link. For example “itpc://mypodcast.qmul.ac.uk/rss.xml” would change to “zune://subscribe/Put in the title of your podcast here=http://mypodcast.qmul.ac.uk/rss.xml”.

How do you do it?

Well, it’s exactly the same as any hyperlink. You enter some text or an image and wrap some HTML code around it. In the example below I am going to borrow the link to Mark Kermode’s film reviews on the BBC website (always a good listen) and use that as an example.

The RSS file is located here http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/fivelive/kermode/rss.xml.

You can see me making a copy of a normal http link and turning it into a itpc link in the video below.

The HTML code I used for the normal HTTP link to the RSS feed is:
{a href=”http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/fivelive/kermode/rss.xml” }This is a link to my podcast.

The HTML code I used for the ITPC link to the RSS feed is:
{a href=”itpc://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/fivelive/kermode/rss.xml”}This is a link to my podcast using ITPC.

Hopefully that covers what you need to know but, if not, you can as always get in touch with your questions.

If you’re not sure what RSS is please read this post (http://www.esddelu.org.uk/introducing/what-is-rss/) before continuing here.

This is remarkably easy to do – even if the amount of XML will look intimidating at first.

What will you need?

So, in order to create your feed, you’ll need a few things:

• An mp3 file online already
• Access to some web space to save your files
• A basic knowledge of HTML
• An image to use for your podcast that is a JPEG sized at 300×300 pixels at 72dpi

Once you have those things then keep reading.

What will this post cover?

What we’ll cover here is:

1. A look at an empty RSS feed with no episodes in it
2. What you need to do to start off
3. An example of the XML to make a very basic podcast episode
4. That’s it!
5. A list of recommended links to read if you’re interested in continuing to podcast

A look at an empty RSS feed with no episodes in it>

Below you will see a lot of XML. It will look off-putting at first but remember that all you need to change is the text in capitals. (I have taken this example from a very helpful post here: http://homepage.mac.com/rfwilmut/notes/podcast.html)

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?>
<rss xmlns:itunes=”http://www.itunes.com/dtds/podcast-1.0.dtd” version=”2.0″>

<channel>
<title>THE NAME OF YOUR PODCAST</title>
<link>THE URL OF THE WEB PAGE ABOUT YOUR PODCAST</link>
<language>en-us</language>
<copyright>YEAR, AND YOUR NAME (OPTIONAL)</copyright>
<itunes:subtitle>A SUBTITLE</itunes:subtitle>
<itunes:author>YOUR NAME</itunes:author>
<itunes:summary>A PARAGRAPH DESCRIBING THE SUBJECT OF YOUR PODCAST</itunes:summary>
<description>A BRIEF SENTENCE ABOUT YOUR PODCAST</description>
<itunes:owner>
<itunes:name>John Doe</itunes:name>
<itunes:email>AN EMAIL ADDRESS FOR VISITORS (OPTIONAL)</itunes:email>
</itunes:owner>
<itunes:image href=”URL OF AN IMAGE FOR THE PODCAST” />
<itunes:category text=”CHOOSE A CATEGORY FROM THE APPLE LIST (SEE BELOW)”>
<itunes:category text=”CHOOSE A SUB-CATEGORY”/>
</itunes:category>
<itunes:category text=”ANOTHER CATEGORY (OPTIONAL)”/>

<item>
<title>TITLE OF THE EPISODE</title>
<itunes:author>YOUR NAME</itunes:author>
<itunes:subtitle>A SUBTITLE FOR THE EPISODE</itunes:subtitle>
<itunes:summary>A DESCRIPTION OF THE CONTENTS OF YOUR EPISODE</itunes:summary>
<enclosure url=”THE FULL URL OF THE MEDIA FILE FOR THE EPISODE” length=”FILE SIZE IN BYTES” type=”FOR AN MP3 FILE – audio/mpeg” />
<guid>THE FULL URL OF THE MEDIA FILE FOR THE EPISODE</guid>
<pubDate>DATE, E.G. Wed, 15 Jun 2005 19:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<itunes:duration>DURATION H:MM:SS</itunes:duration>
<itunes:keywords>ENTER KEYWORDS FOR SEARCHING</itunes:keywords>
<itunes:explicit>yes IF CONTAINS ADULT MATERIAL, OTHERWISE no</itunes:explicit>
</item>

</channel>
</rss>

What you need to do to start off

Now we will move your mp3 file into a public folder and create the basic XML of your podcast.

1. The first thing you will to do is to put your mp3 file into a public folder. Upload it into a folder on your webiste called ‘podcasts’.
2. The XML will look like what’s below. I have included a copy of this file below for you to use in this exercise. Right-click here and save the file to your local computer. Open the file in Notepad (PC) or TextEdit (Mac) to edit it.
   
   <?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?>
   <rss xmlns:itunes=”http://www.itunes.com/dtds/podcast-1.0.dtd” version=”2.0″>
   <channel>
   <title>THE NAME OF YOUR PODCAST</title>
   <link>THE URL OF THE WEB PAGE ABOUT YOUR PODCAST</link>
   <language>en-us</language>
   <copyright>YEAR, AND YOUR NAME (OPTIONAL)</copyright>
   <itunes:subtitle>A SUBTITLE</itunes:subtitle>
   <itunes:author>YOUR NAME</itunes:author>
   <itunes:summary>A PARAGRAPH DESCRIBING THE SUBJECT OF YOUR PODCAST</itunes:summary>
   <description>A BRIEF SENTENCE ABOUT YOUR PODCAST</description>
   <itunes:owner>
   <itunes:name>John Doe</itunes:name>
   <itunes:email>AN EMAIL ADDRESS FOR VISITORS (OPTIONAL)</itunes:email>
   </itunes:owner>
   <itunes:image href=”URL OF AN IMAGE FOR THE PODCAST” />
   <itunes:category text=”CHOOSE A CATEGORY FROM THE APPLE LIST (SEE BELOW)”>
   <itunes:category text=”CHOOSE A SUB-CATEGORY”/>
   </itunes:category>
   <itunes:category text=”ANOTHER CATEGORY (OPTIONAL)”/>
   </channel>
   </rss>
   
3. Fill in the details of your podcast for title, link, copyright,subtitle, author, summary, name, email.
4. Now fill in the categories. Look here (http://www.feedforall.com/itune-tutorial-tags.htm#category) for a list of iTunes categories and sub-categories. Choose the ones you want your podcast to be a part of
5. For the image attribute, enter the URL of an image that you want to use as the ‘shop-front’ for your podcast.This image must be a JPEG sized at 300×300 pixels at 72dpi
6. Save your file onto your web folder with a name you will remember (no spaces or special characters). Make sure the file extension is .xml

Okay, now you’ve got your basic xml online and waiting for content.

An example of the XML to make a very basic podcast

Now you will make your first episode. The XML below needs to be copy-and-pasted before the line that says </channel> in your XML file.

1. So, paste in this code (leaving out the {}):
   {
   <item>
   <title>TITLE OF THE EPISODE</title>
   <itunes:author>YOUR NAME</itunes:author>
   <itunes:subtitle>A SUBTITLE FOR THE EPISODE</itunes:subtitle>
   <itunes:summary>A DESCRIPTION OF THE CONTENTS OF YOUR EPISODE</itunes:summary>
   <enclosure url="THE FULL URL OF THE MEDIA FILE FOR THE EPISODE" length="FILE SIZE IN BYTES" type="audio/mpeg" />
   <guid>THE FULL URL OF THE MEDIA FILE FOR THE EPISODE</guid>
   <pubDate>DATE, E.G. Wed, 15 Jun 2005 19:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
   <itunes:duration>DURATION H:MM:SS</itunes:duration>
   <itunes:keywords>ENTER KEYWORDS FOR SEARCHING</itunes:keywords>
   <itunes:explicit>yes IF CONTAINS ADULT MATERIAL, OTHERWISE  no</itunes:explicit>
   </item>

   }

2. Fill in the details of your podcast for title, author, subtitle, summary, the URL of your mp3 file in both places it is mentioned, the pubdate (publication date), duration, keywords, a note as to whether or not you consider the contents to be of an explicit nature.
3. Save your file
4. Note down the full URL to your XML file

That’s it!

That really is it.

Try opening your XML file in Firefox and seeing how it works.

Then go to iTunes and select ‘Advanced > Subscribe to Podcast’ and enter in the URL of your XML file.

When you have more episodes just copy-and-paste one of your earlier ones and enter in the new details.

A list of recommended links

Below are a list of the links that I have used to make this post and some further reading.

• How to make a podcast: http://homepage.mac.com/rfwilmut/notes/podcast.html
• A list of all the attributes that iTunes uses and what they mean: http://www.feedforall.com/itune-tutorial-tags.htm
• The full page from Apple about iTunes and how to make more complex RSS feeds: http://www.apple.com/itunes/podcasts/specs.html
• A really useful page that breaks down all of the XML above into bite-size chunks with an explanation of each: http://www.danfergusdesign.com/classfiles/generalReference/rssFeedSample.html

1. An audio/video recorder – such as a Flip camera (available in the ELU)
2. Editing and Conversion software – such as iMovie and iSquint (available in the ELU) or jaycut.com (available online) *
3. A media host account – such as YouTube or Screencast (available online)
4. A Blackboard course area (available through the ELU) *

* Not required, but helpful

Step 1 – Record your Video

It is easy to record and get video using a Flip camera (which you can borrow from the ELU). The following steps were adapted from the Flip Camera’s website:

1. Turn it on and press the red button to start/stop recording.
2. Record.
3. Connect camera to computer (slide switch on the side of camera to pop the USB connector out). For PC users, navigate to ‘My Computer’; go to FlipVideo Drive, then DCIM folder to get video.

Step 2 – Edit your Video

This step is not required, but helpful.

Using iSquint and iMovie (both available in the E-Learning Studio) you can compress and edit your video. Compressing your video file in iSquint is very easy and makes your video iPod compatible. There are other options for editing videos, such as Jaycut.com which offers free online editing options. (You can read our article about Jaycut here).

1. Open iSquint and simply drag your movie file into the iSquint screen.
2. Click the Start button.
3. Depending on your video size, the conversion should take a few minutes.
4. In the example below, my video file was compressed and went from 54.3MB to 5MB

If you would like to make edits, you can open your video in iMovie (or jaycut.com) where you can remove sections of your video, as well as add text and/or animation.

Step 3 – Share your Video

Next, you will need to have a media hosting account – such as YouTube or Screencast (read our comparison blog here). Screencast allows you to set privacy and authentication rights to your recordings, and decide who you want to share your recordings with.

A basic Screencast account is free (2GB space). £7.50/month or £73.50/year gives 25GB of space.

1. Log into Screencast and click Upload Content (create a free account if you don’t have one)
2. Browse for your video recording and upload into Screencast
3. Once the upload is complete, click the Close button

Your video will be in the My Library root folder (you can move your videos into folders later)

1. Hover your mouse over the video for more options.
2. Click on the Share icon  to see options for how to share your video

You can copy and paste the first link into an e-mail and share with your students or, you can add the link into your Blackboard course.

Step 4 – Embedding your Recording into your Blackboard Course

The following shows a sample recording that was uploaded to Screencast then embedded onto a page within a Blackboard course. Follow these steps:

1. Within Screencast, copy the Embed on your page script (option 3 in image above)
2. Log into your Blackboard course area. From the Build tab, click Add File, then Create File
3. From the Create File page, give the page a Title, then click Enable HTML Creator button
4. Type an introduction, then click the Source View tab (see image below)
5. Paste the script from Screencast (see #1) within the <body> tags, after your introduction

1. Scroll to the bottom of the Create File page, click Save.
2. Click on the Student View tab, and click the File that you just created.
3. The embedded video should display, see an example below.

Here is my embedded video made with the Flip Camera: