Quality of podcasts recorded by nursing lecturers as pre-class learning material for students: An observational study

To evaluate the quality of podcasts produced by lecturers as pre-class learning material; to verify lecturers' buy-in, after a specific workshop, regarding the practice of producing and using podcasts.

The teaching-learning process has undergone significant changes in recent years with the proposal of the flipped classroom strategy, which places the student at the center of the learning process and uses technology that requires adaptation of lecturers, both inside and outside the classroom. Pre-class learning material is one of the features of the flipped classroom model. It provides basic concepts for problem solving in small group discussion in classroom. Podcasts for this educational purpose are a recent technology and their innovative characteristics require deeper understanding in terms of their influence and usability.

Prospective, descriptive and quantitative study.

A workshop on the production of educational podcasts was offered to 23 lecturers on the Nursing course.

Data were collected in the second semester of 2021 and the quality analysis was based on criteria available in the literature.

Eighteen professors (78 %) participated in the study and 46 podcasts were produced. Most professors being nurses (61 %), followed by biologists (28 %). Most have a doctorate degree (72 %). These podcasts were available for a mean of five days before the classes and their mean access rate by students was 58 %. There was no correlation between the access rate and the period of availability before the relative class. Most podcasts were informative (100 %) and monologues (98 %). The average duration was 6.2 min, which is within the ideal duration recommended in the literature. All of the podcasts included a description of the learning objectives at the beginning and most of them also included a closing message at the end.

The nursing lecturers were able to produce their podcasts, which met quality criteria and reached the standards suggested by experts in the field.