Student-Produced Vodcasts as Active Metacognitive Learning

Pod and vodcasts are increasingly used in international higher education. Most are produced by faculty either to replace the traditional lecture or to provide an alternative source of lecture material for students to listen to at convenient times. In contrast this paper examines the learning outcomes achieved when students’ produce vodcasts as an assigned task. When producing the vodcasts students’ were no longer 'time poor' often aiming only for a Pass. They were highly motivated and involved in activities designed to address the learning objectives and engaged in active metacognitive learning. The students were involved in peer learning developing research, teamwork and communication understandings and skills, all desirable professional attributes. Evaluation of the pilot of the student-produced vodcast assignment indicates that there was very high engagement and that the learning outcomes achieved were outstanding. Student pre-and-post assignment self-assessment surveys indicate they learnt significantly in the stated assignment objectives of (1) improved awareness of IT careers - 29% to 70% good awareness - and (2) improved skills in multimedia communication - 27% to 49% good video recording and 16% to 51% good multimedia editing skills.