All wired up but not plugged in: an evaluation of tourism and leisure marketing students' expectations and experiences of lecture podcasting.

Today's learners live in a digital age and there is much anecdotal evidence to suggest that students in the 21st century would prefer the electronic delivery of learning materials and lecture content using a range of tools that enable them to access information anywhere anytime (see, e.g., 0blinger & 0blinger, 2005). This study is an evaluation of tourism marketing students' expectations and experiences of lecture podcasting. The aim of the study was to quantify students' expectations of podcasting, and compare and contrast this with their actual usage of the new learning technology. The study was designed specifically to answer two questions: is podcasting just a fad or does it enhance student learning, and will it be widely embraced by both domestic and international undergraduate students?

Keywords: podcasting, Generation Y, student learning, lectures, technology, MP3

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The higher education learning experience is constantly changing. Emerging technologies add new dimensions of richness and complexity to the 'traditional' learning experience. However, while this technology offers students and their teachers a wide range of learning opportunities, it also presents a new set of challenges for institutions, their teaching staff and students. The assumption is that the majority of students are 'digital natives', who have been using information and communication technologies (ICTs) their entire lives and therefore expect technology to be a major part of their learning experience. However, it would be unfair to assume that all university students have enhanced information literacy. In addition, teaching staff may not be as technologically adept or enthusiastic at incorporating learning technologies into their existing pedagogy.

More importantly, teaching staff may not have the required skills for developing technologically enriched learning materials. This can be referred to as one component of the 'digital divide' (Committee of Inquiry into the Changing Learner Experience, 2009). Some universities may also be unable to meet the related infrastructure, resource or technological requirements that may be expected or required to provide these types of resources. Despite these issues many universities have given the growth and development of highly interactive online environments strategic priority.

eLearning is an umbrella term that is best described as an approach to learning that uses modern technology. It enables different types of learning activities from those that rely on traditional teaching modes (e.g., the face-to-face lecture, tutorial or lab), and traditional media (e.g., books), eLearning generally involves any type of learning that is delivered by electronic means and is mobile and flexible. Devices include mobile telephones, MP3 players, iPods, and personal computers. This type of learning is 'on demand', able to be accessed anywhere and anytime. Today, the most talked about development in eLearning is Web 2.0 technology, which refers to a second generation of web development and design.

Web 2.0 facilitates communication, information sharing and collaboration on the World Wide Web. Examples of Web 2.0 include social networking sites (for example: Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and LinkedIn), wikis and blogs (to name just a few). In sum, eLearning is a word used to describe a particular pedagogical approach to the delivery of education using modern technology. One of the most popular devices for eLearning today is the personal mobile device.

The following quote from Campbell (2005) best illustrates how students are using personal mobile devices in their everyday lives:

'Imagine' It's midweek at Anywhere State University. Jenny rolls out of bed at about nine a.m., as usual, and thinks about breakfast and her first class. As she's dressing and getting ready to go out, she fires up iTunes on her laptop and checks her podcast subscriptions. There's a new show from Adam Curry at Daily Source Code, another one from Cody at Vinyl Podcast ('fair use of forgotten music'), and three audio feeds from her classes. She doesn't notice that the classroom material and the leisure-time entertainment are coming through the same medium and desktop utility; for her, it's natural that school stuff would mingle with other aspects of her daily life.

As Campbell's (2005) narrative suggests, the use of personal mobile learning devices such as iPods, MP3 players and mobile phones are increasingly being used by students in higher education to access and supplement learning materials, as well as social networking devices to keep in touch with their peers. These devices, or emerging technologies, are often described as affording a wide range of learning activities that can improve student learning. The problem, however, is that the experience and/or familiarity with these devices can differ between students and lecturers. There are also issues associated with equity and access to emerging technologies. It is often assumed that digital natives naturally demand and expect lecturers to provide services such as podcasting as part of their delivery. It is also assumed that lecturers, including those delivering tourism content, are also willing to embrace new technologies in their pedagogy.

The electronic delivery of lecture content, such as podcasting, is a new learning technology that has become available to lecturers in the higher education sector to improve and enhance their teaching and learning toolkits. While some have embraced this new tool, others have expressed reservations about its impact on traditional learning methods and, in particular, class attendance. From the student perspective, there is significant anecdotal evidence and media hype that students who are predominantly known as 'Generation Y', 'The Net Generation', or 'Digital Native', are all wired up and ready to embrace this new style of content delivery. However, as stated by Kennedy et al. (2009), there are few empirical studies of the Net Generation. Therefore, there is clearly a need to better understand the use of mobile technologies in higher education. This study aims to contribute to a growing body of knowledge on students' expectations and experiences of lecture podcasting as a form of eLearning.

This article will present the findings of research that analysed students' expectations and experience with lecture podcasting in a first-year marketing unit undertaken in second semester 2007. The research was conducted by an academic staff member who was responsible for the introduction of podcasting to this unit. The article commences with a review of the existing literature on podcasting and elearning then details the research methods used before presenting the results and discussion. The article concludes with reflections on the integration of podcasting into the curricula and recommendations for future research.

Literature Review

The higher education learning experience is constantly changing. Emerging technologies add new dimensions of richness and complexity to the 'traditional' learning experience. The use of wireless, mobile, portable, and/or handheld devices is increasingly being used in universities as tools for learning. This type of learning is commonly referred to as eLearning, or more recently, mLearning. For the purpose of this article, the term 'eLearning' will be used to describe the type of learning that occurs by using mobile handheld devices such as MP3 players and iPods.

eLearning is an umbrella term that is best described as an approach to learning that utilises modern technology as a learning tool. It enables different types of learning activities from those that rely on traditional teaching modes (e.g., the face-to-face lecture, tutorial or lab), and traditional media (e.g., books), eLearning generally involves any type of learning that is delivered by electronic means and is mobile and flexible. Devices include mobile telephones, MP3 players, iPods and personal computers. This type of learning is 'on demand', able to be accessed anywhere and anytime.

The use of personal mobile learning devices such as iPods, MP3 players and mobile phones are increasingly being used by students in higher education to access and supplement learning materials, as well as, social networking devices to keep in touch with their peers. These devices, or emerging technologies, are often described as affording a wide range of learning activities that can improve student learning.

Consequently, there is a growing body of research and literature exploring the impact of technology in higher education and in particular the electronic delivery of content. Research has found that students, many of whom are members of the 'Net Generation', want to receive and process information quickly and effortless, prefer active learning to traditional lectures, rely on ICT to communicate with teaching staff and peers and accept that technology will be integrated into their education The Net Generation or Digital Natives are terms used to describe the group of young people, born between 1980 and 1994, who are often characterised by their everyday use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). Consequently, there is a growing body of research and literature exploring the impact of technology in higher education and in particular the electronic delivery of content. Research has found that these students want to receive and process information quickly and effortless, prefer active learning to traditional lectures, rely on ICT to communicate with teaching staff and peers, and generally accept that technology will be integrated into their education (e.g., Barnes, Marateo, & Ferris, 2007; Oblinger & Oblinger, 2005).

At the beginning of this century Prensky (2001a, 2001b) described today's university students as digital natives who have been using ICTs their entire lives and therefore think and process information differently from their predecessors, and in some cases, their lecturers and tutors. For this reason, Prensky (2001a) warned that the disparity between how ICTs are used between these students and their teachers is one of the biggest problems in education today. Consequently, there is a growing body of research about students' expectations, access to, and use of mobile technologies.

There are assumptions, however, that today's learners are wholly responsible for their own learning. For example, in 2002, Sigala warned that '... e-learning is based on a pedagogical model that emphasises the ability and role of the learner as responsible for their own learning, students' perceptions of themselves and their self-regulatory processes are vital conditions for the achievement of any learning benefits' (2002, p. 34). Students' engagement in eLearning may also depend on individual learning style, motivation and access to the required technology.

In their research on the use of technology in higher education, Krause, Hartley, James and McInnes (2005) found that first-year students spent 4 hours per week on the web for study and research purposes. Two years later, publishing results from research conducted in 2005 and 2007, Oliver and Goerke (2007) reported that the vast majority (over 90%) of first-year students had access to the internet outside the university and the majority used it for study-related purposes. They also found that many students owned mobile phones and iPod/MP3 ownership increased from 40% in 2005 to 70% in 2007. The use of podcasts, however, was only 7% in 2005 and 22% in 2007.

Growing interest in the use of ICT in higher education and the Net Generation is also represented by a number of national research projects funded by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC). For example, in 2006, 'Educating the Net Generation', a collaborative project involving the University of Melbourne, the University of Wollongong, and Charles Sturt University, investigated students' and teachers' use of new technologies. Data collected in the first stage of the project (Kennedy et al., 2009) highlighted that although students reported high levels of access and use of ICTs (including mobile phones, internet, e-mail, and personal computers), very few students were using emerging Web 2.0 technologies (including social networking sites, blogs and wikis).

In addition, the New Technologies, New Pedagogies project, also funded by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC), investigated and created new teaching and learning strategies using mobile technologies. The project investigated the educational potential of mobile devices (smartphones) and iPods in tertiary education. The aim of the project was to investigate the potential uses and affordances of smartphones and iPods, engage teachers to explore and invent pedagogies appropriate to their students' use of a mobile device in completing a complex task within an authentic learning environment, and implement the use of mobile technologies in learning activities.

Each teacher was given an iPod[TM] and a smartphone to familiarise themselves with during the first phase of the project. In the second phase, the focus moved to the professional development of the teachers who would use the mobile technologies in their class. In the third phase, learning tasks were implemented and evaluated. Outcomes from the project included a range of pedagogies and the creation of '... more knowledgeable and confident users of mobile technologies' (Herrington, Mantei, Herrington, Olney, & Ferry, 2008).

Podcasting has therefore become an emerging technology used to enhance teaching and learning. Learning materials can be downloaded to a personal computer and then transferred to a portable media player and listened to by the user at their convenience. As acknowledged by Chan and Lee (2005), if the user does not have access to a portable media player, the content can be listed to on the computer. For this reason, 'podcasting provides a low-cost, low-barrier tool for disseminating content across the Internet' (Chan & Lee, 2005, p. 65).

The psychological advantages of what Clark and Walsh (2004) labelled 'iPod-learning' is discussed in relation to lifestyle and wider society, where listening to a portable music device is 'socially acceptable'. The 'anytime, anyplace' convenience of portable media players and other devices capable of digitally storing music has been referred to by Chan and Lee (2005) as nomadic learning, or true mobile learning (mLearning). Thus, this type of learning can be summarised as convenient, portable, easy to use, and acceptable.

Research on the specific use of podcasting in higher education was conducted in 2006 by Bongey, Cizadlo and Kalnbach, who investigated the benefits, challenges and impact of podcasting in higher education. In this study, a biology professor implemented podcasts to explore the value of course-casting and its role in student learning. In addition to a survey, direct observation, attendance counts and server statistics provided data. In the survey, five questions focused on whether the podcasts affected the students' attendance of class, students' preferences for listening to and processing of lecture material, and students' perceptions of the academic impact associated with the podcast availability. The research found that podcasts did not necessarily result in declining class attendance and that students perceived them as useful additional resources rather than lecture replacements.

Taking a slightly different approach, Clarke, Taylor and Westcott (2007) explored the impacts of short audio podcasts on both the postgraduate students and the lecturer in a management class at the University of Sydney. The trial began in the second half of a semester. The lecture topics were summarised in short podcast episodes that were posted on the learning management system (Blackboard) within a week of the lecture. Six podcast episodes in total were created in audio-only format.

Clarke et al.'s (2007) study found that students do feel that podcasting is useful for supporting their learning. Most interesting was that almost two thirds of students 'liked the fact they could be supported to learn in their own time, supporting the "anywhere, anytime, at any pace" dictum commonly associated with podcasting and other means of flexible learning' (p. 26). The lecturer also reported that although the podcasts did increase workload, they assisted with one's own critical reflection and focus on the academic activity. Another finding among the students was that while only 63% listened to the podcasts, 70% recommended that the lecturer should keep producing them (Clarke et al., 2007, p. 24). The authors concluded that this may 'suggest that most participating students support the lecturer's attempts to support their learning using this learning technology, regardless of whether they actually utilised the podcasts' (p. 26).

Copley (2007) investigated download patterns and student responses to podcasting use via a survey of both undergraduate and master's level Marine Science students in the United Kingdom. He found that while they were enthusiastic about the podcasts, they mostly accessed them for revision and assignment preparation rather than as a substitute for lecture attendance. Another study by Evans (2007) confirms the role of podcasts as key revision tools, finding from a survey of 200 first-year students in an Information and Communication unit that they found the podcasts more efficient than their text books and lecture notes. Dale (2007) has been the first to study the use of podcasting specifically by tourism students, although they were short additional podcasts rather than full lecture podcasts, which are the focus of this research. He found that, despite some technical and copyright issues, the podcasts were well received by students although he cautions that they should only '... be viewed as another supplementary channel for supporting student learning' (Dale, 2007, p. 55).

A report on Web 2.0 technology in higher education by The Committee of Inquiry into the Changing Learner Experience (2009) referred to the 'Great Expectations' study commissioned by Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) in 2008. That study investigated students' degrees of comfort with using technologies in their first year at university. The committee's findings suggested that 'not all students are equally familiar or comfortable with new technologies across the board' (2009, p. 21). In that study, students reported that they were not comfortable and/or familiar with using podcasts and making podcasts.

Research Design

The aim of this study was to analyse first-year students' expectations and experience with lecture podcasting in the unit THSILTM (Leisure and Tourism Marketing). This research used a quantitative approach that involved inviting all sport, tourism and hospitality students studying this compulsory core unit in second semester 2007 to complete two surveys. A pre-use survey (n = 125) was administered during the first lecture at the start of semester to measure the students' expectations and opinions about using this new learning tool. This initial survey was completed before the students were provided with detailed information about the forthcoming lecture podcasting so as to measure unbiased reactions to this new learning tool. A post-use survey (n = 126) was completed at the end of semester to measure students' experiences with podcasting. The response rate of this survey dropped to n = 65 following question nine as respondents were directed to skip the experience questions if they had not accessed the podcasts. This means that they went straight to section three, which measured their use of technology.

The three-page pre- and postself-completion surveys were designed to capture the expectations and experiences of students using lecture podcasts. The surveys were also designed to investigate whether the students' level of general technology use had any influence on their uptake of this new teaching and learning tool. In order to set the parameters, the surveys began by asking fundamental demographic questions such as age, gender and course of study, as well as probing for information on lecture attendance and previous podcasting experience. The next section of the surveys asked students to estimate their expected and then actual use of podcasting in this unit, followed by a series of 16 statements related to their expectations and experience of podcasting. Students were invited to rate their level of agreement with these statements using a 5-point Likert scale (Strongly agree to Strongly disagree). These statements, which were drawn from the literature, covered themes such as learning enhancement, understanding content, motivation and flexibility. The final section of the surveys asked students about their current use of technology outside the tertiary learning environment. For example, it asked them to estimate the time they spent using the internet, mobile phones and MP3 players. Please note that this research was conducted before the introduction of social networking sites such as Facebook[R] and Twitter[TM].

Students were assured, in accordance with ethics approval, that their participation in this research project was purely voluntary and that whatever choice they made it would not have any bearing on their grades. The data collected from this nonprobability convenience sample was entered into the software package SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences Version 12) and frequencies and cross-tabulations were performed (Jennings, 2001).

Findings and Discussion

The response rate for the pre-use survey was n = 125 and for the post-use survey n = 126. This represented approximately 60% of the students enrolled in this unit. The relatively low percentage from a convenience sample was probably due to traditionally low lecture attendance in core units, which was partly the reason for trialling the introduction of podcasting in this unit. It is also possible that a higher percentage, or perhaps even a different cohort, of students may have responded had the survey been administered through a different medium such as a mail out or electronically via the university's learning management system.

The key finding of this project was that although 95% of students indicated that they would access podcasting at least once during the semester, the post-use survey indicated that only 51.5% actually did so, and that of them only 2.5% accessed every lecture. This was particularly interesting as the students were generally very technologically literate with 95% having access to a personal computer and the internet at home. In addition, 75% indicated regular use of an MP3 player, with the same number advising that they spend at least 6 hours a week on the internet. Furthermore, all participants advised that they regularly access the WebCT sites for their various university units.

Demographic Data

The students who participated in this research were predominantly young, generation Y with 95.2% under 25 years, female (65%), and enrolled in either a Bachelor of Business (Tourism Management; 22%) a Bachelor of Business (Tourism and Hospitality Management; 52%) or a Bachelor of Business (Sport & Leisure Management; 22%). Sixty-five per cent were domestic students, while the remaining 35% were international students. Approximately 40% of respondents had entered university from a TAFE college, while another 40 % had arrived directly from secondary school. This demographic outline would appear to be consistent with the general student profile for tourism or leisure industry-based degree programs delivered at a metropolitan campus in Australia.

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

Lecture Attendance and Podcasting Use

When asked how many lectures they would normally attend for a university unit 50% stated that they would attend all 12 lectures with 14% admitting they would only attend 2-5 and 47% indicating that they would attend 6-10. Interestingly, in the post-use survey only 24% actually attended each lecture with 21% attending 2-5 and 55% attending 6-10. The majority of students (96%) had not previously used podcasting for any other university unit and this percentage remained the same at the end of semester, indicating that podcasting was not yet a widely used teaching tool across the students' degree programs.

When students were asked at the beginning of semester how often they thought they might use podcasting, the results were quite mixed; although overall, a very significant majority of 95% of students did indicate that they would access this new learning technology at least once (as indicated in Table 1). The post-use survey was very revealing in that it shows that despite this initial interest, only 51.6% of students actually ended up using the lecture podcasts. Although when compared to Clarke's (2007) research, which reported a 63% uptake, this was not an entirely unanticipated result. However, the relatively low proportion of students accessing the podcasts in this study was lower than the researchers had expected due to the anecdotal and media evidence of generation Y's affinity with new technology. There may be many reasons for this result, including Campbell's (2005) caution about equity and access issues. The reasons may have been technical including file size and internet speeds, but they may have also been psychological or behavioural. The reasons may also be related to the content of the podcasts. Perhaps they would have been more popular if they had been broken down or serialised into smaller parts rather than one 2-hour lecture. This is an area that needs to be researched more in-depth.

Some 72% of students chose not to access the podcasts, including 72% of the Tourism Management cohort, 56% of the Sport Management cohort and 37% of the Tourism and Hospitality Management cohort. The higher access rate among Tourism and Hospitality students was reflective of the higher number of international students in that group. Only 34% of international students did not access the podcasts compared to 53% of their domestic colleagues. Another interesting finding was that of those who chose not to access the podcasts the majority were female (69%). While the finding on international student uptake is consistent with Clarke's (2007) research it contradicts his finding that they were also most likely to be female.

When asked in the pre-use survey how they would access the podcasts the majority of students (77%) indicated that they would download them onto their desktop/laptop with only 14.5% stating that they would download to an MP3 player. These percentages only changed slightly among the 51.6% of actual users with 81% stating that they downloaded the podcasts onto their computers while only 12% downloaded the podcast lectures to an MP3 player. This finding is consistent with research conducted by Kennedy et al. (2009) who reported that many students were infrequent users of emerging technologies. Further, their research found that some students were not aware of Web 2.0 technologies such as blogs and podcasting.

Another interesting finding was the frequency of access. As Figure 1 illustrates, despite an initial buzz and interest in accessing podcasting, the rate of downloads was quite low during the semester, only picking up in the last couple of weeks. This would indicate that the primary use of the podcasts was for exam revision. This is consistent with the findings of researchers such as Bryans-Bongeny, (2006) and Copely (2007) that students do not access podcasts as a replacement for lecture attendance. According to Callaway (2009), psychological research suggests that university students who download a podcast lecture achieve substantially higher exam results than those who attend the lecture in person.

Perceptions of Podcasting

Before they were exposed to podcasting in this unit, the students were asked to put forward three words that came to mind when they thought about podcasting. The top three words--iPod, technology and the internet--indicate that students were initially identifying with the physical application of the technology rather than its role as a learning device. When this exercise was completed again at the end of semester, the top three words changed to iPod, convenience and useful, indicating a change toward not only the preference of the mobile learning device, but also about student engagement with the technology and how it is helpful in their everyday learning at university. The top 10 words associated with podcasting are presented in Table 2.

Expectations and Experience of Podcasting

As mentioned previously, the vast majority of students had no prior experience accessing lecture material via podcasts. It is evident in the results that while the students stated they would have a go, with 95% indicating that they would access the podcasts at least once, they were initially not that enthusiastic about using this new technology, with less than half on average indicating that they were actually looking forward to using podcasting. The perception changed significantly after use by 51% of students who did choose to engage with the technology, as shown in Table 3.

The results for questions relating to the students' motivation, purpose, enjoyment and their belief that podcasting was a worthwhile experience did not differ significantly from the pre- to post- use surveys. This would indicate that for those who chose to use the lecture podcasts their experience largely matched their expectations. The other interesting finding in this section was the students' agreement that podcasting would provide a flexible alternative to attending lectures both before and after they had accessed the technology. This is an area that could be researched further to uncover the reasons why podcasting had such a low uptake when the participants largely believed that they were a viable alternative to class contact.

Usefulness as a Learning Tool

The enhancement of student learning was the primary objective in the introduction of podcasting of the lecture content in this unit. In recent years, many university lecturers have noted declining lecture attendance as an area of concern. While most students do appear to be comfortable downloading abbreviated lecture notes, it was felt that the availability of the full lectures online would enable students to access the full content, whatever their reasons for nonattendance in the traditional face-to-face lecture situation. The results shown in Table 4 indicate that for those who did access the podcast lectures, it delivered on their expectations of its usefulness as a learning tool. As shown earlier in Figure 1 it could be inferred from their pattern of use that, in a learning context, students found the podcasts to be most useful for revision before the exam rather than as an ongoing learning tool throughout the semester.

Use of Technology

In the final section of this study, participants were asked a number of questions about their general use of technology. The results are presented below in Table 5 indicate that, despite the low uptake of podcasting, this cohort of predominantly generation Y students are wired up and frequently use technology outside of their learning environment. Some 93.6% of students indicated that they have a computer at home with 80% stating that they spend more than 5 hours a week accessing the internet and 50% claiming ownership of their own website or blog. Overall, these findings would suggest that while students appear to be very comfortable accessing WebCT to down load paper copies of lecture notes and to access additional course information, they have not taken up podcasting as enthusiastically. There may be a number of reasons for this including technical difficulties, file size, and/or internet speed. In addition, it could also be inferred that some students still like to attend class while others are choosing not to access lecture material in any form, paper or electronic.

Conclusion and Recommendations

The results presented in this article indicate that there is a need for more exploratory qualitative analysis of students' interaction (or not) with podcasting. This would be useful for educators in order to understand how and why students use it in order to best utilise this method in the delivery of tourism units. From this study it is evident that students, particularly those from generation Y who are often also referred to as digital natives, are wired up and familiar with a range of new technologies that could facilitate the delivery of academic content; however, a significant number are choosing not to. Therefore, the question may not be should we or should we not embrace this new technology as a teaching resource, but rather how should we integrate it into the curricula in a way that it will be viewed as a useful and worthwhile learning tool by our students?

As mobile technologies are increasingly being used in higher education institutions as tools for learning, the authors acknowledge that there is growing interest and research in this area. This article is intended as a 'snapshot' of how podcasting is used in one unit of study. It is not a representation of all students in all universities; however, it does provide a useful foundation from which to conduct further research.

DOI 10.1375/jhtm.16.1.94

Acknowledgment 

The author would like to thank Ms Sharon Linke for her assistance with this project.

References

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Dale Sanders 

Edith Cowan University, Australia

Megan LeClus

Edith Cowan University, Australia

Correspondence

Dale Sanders, School of Marketing, Tourism and Leisure, Edith Cowan University, 270 Joendalup Drive, Joondalup WA 6027, Australia. E-mail: [e-mail]

Table 1
Use of Podcasting

Percentage             Estimated   Actual
of lectures               use       use

Every lecture             5.6       2.4
75%-100% of lectures     17.6       4.8
50%-75% of lectures      39.2      11.1
25%-50% of lectures      15.2      15.9
0-25% of lectures        17.6      17.5
Never                     4.0      48.4

Table 2
Top Ten Words Associated With Podcasting

Pre-use                    Post-use

Word          Frequency      Word       Frequency

IPod             38       IPod             27
Technology       16       Convenience      26
Internet         14       Useful           15
Music            14       Internet         14
Convenience      11       Technology       13
Good             11       Easy             12
Useful           11       Good             10
Easy             10       Music            10
Audio            10       Helpful           9
Video            10       Computer          7

Table 3
Expectations and Experience of Podcasting

                                Pre-use          Post-use

Question                     Mean      SD      Mean      SD

I am looking (looked) *       2.4     0.9      3.4      1.2
forward to using
podcasting

Anticipating (using)          3.2     0.9      3.2      1.0
podcasting has helped me
remain motivated in this
subject

The purpose of podcasting     3.3     0.9      3.6      1.1
is clear to me

I think podcasting will       3.5     0.9      3.3      1.0
be (was) an enjoyable
experience

I believe that podcasting     3.6     0.8      3.5      .08
will be (was) a
worthwhile educational
experience

I don't think podcasting      2.6     1.0      2.5      1.1
will provide a flexible
alternative to attending
lectures.

Scale. 1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = neutral,
4 = agree, 5 = strongly agree

Table 4
Usefulness as a Learning Tool

                               Pre-use       Post-use

Question                     Mean     SD    Mean     SD

I think podcasting will      3.6     0.8     3.5    0.9
enhance (did enhance) my
understanding of
marketing issues

I think podcasting will      3.7     0.7     3.6    1.0
(did) help me understand
the theoretical material
we have learned in class.

I think podcasting will      3.7     0.8     3.5    0.8
enhance (enhanced) what I
learn in class

I don't think podcasting     2.6     0.9     2.8    9.0
will help (helped) me
apply the practical
material we learned in
class

I don't think podcasting     2.7     0.9     2.7    0.9
will help (helped) me to
learn critically

I think I'm going to         3.5     0.8     3.1    0.9
(did) learn more about
this subject using
podcasting

I don't think podcasting     2.5     0.8     2.7    1.0
will (did) make a
positive contribution to
my assessment items

Scale: 1 =strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = neutral, 4 =
agree, 5 =strongly agree

Table 5
Use of Technology

                                          Frequency of use %

Technology Type                     Never    Occasionally   Frequently

MSN or online chat                  21           40            39
Download internet music             17.5         48.5          33
Internet movies or video clips      20           52            27
Online shopping                     37           55             7
SMS (mobile phone texting)           2.5         26            70.5
MP3 Player                          11           36.5          51.5
Access ??WebCT (University LMS)      0.5         20            79.5
X-Box[TM] PlayStation[R]            55.5         36.5           8
YouTube                             26           57            16.5