Using Learning Analytics to Evaluate the Clinical Education Podcast Format.

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Digital Learning
• Learning Analytics

Background:

• Learning analytics is widely used in e-learning but has not been applied to clinical education podcasts.
• Podcasts are an emerging medium for medical education delivery.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate listener engagement with clinical education podcasts using learning analytics.
• To understand audience retention patterns in this specific educational format.

Main Methods:

• A podcast series was created on the Anchor by Spotify platform, with episodes released bi-weekly starting March 30, 2021.
• Analytics data, including total plays and audience retention, were examined up to a censoring date of November 1, 2022.

Main Results:

• The study analyzed 29,747 total podcast plays.
• Average audience retention decreased by 10% per minute until 2.5 minutes, after which it declined at a steadier rate of 1.8% per minute.
• No specific attention limit was identified for short-form podcast episodes (maximum length 17 minutes).

Conclusions:

• Clinical education podcasts exhibit an initial rapid decline in listener attention within the first 2.5 minutes.
• Following this initial drop-off, retention rates stabilize, indicating that shorter podcast formats may be effective for sustained engagement.
• Learning analytics provides valuable insights into the consumption of educational podcasts.