About Podcasts
Have you been playing with the idea of making an educational podcast? Looking to allow leading experts to reach your students from the comfort of their own home? Creating inspiring and durable learning materials with a personal touch to boot? And having a lot of fun in the process?
You've come to the right place!
On this overview page, you will find the most essential information on educational podcast production at WUR.
After going through this, you will:
- be familiar with the podcast production process at WUR;
- be able to decide whether and why a podcast is the right format for what you're trying to achieve;
- understand and be able to create the basic conditions for a succesful educational podcast.
Step 1: Ideation
Recording a podcast starts with booking an intake meeting via [email protected] or directly through the Outlook booking app. In this intake meeting, an instructional designer will explore the project with your and refine your idea. Topics that will come up:
- Your audience, educational goals and how to best achieve them;
- The scope of your project;
- A first exploration of fun and interesting angles.
We'll also consider the question: is a podcast actually the best format for what you're trying to achieve?
Bluntly put, podcasts work well for reflection, inspiration, involving otherwise hard-to-reach experts and exploring complexity and dilemmas in accessible dialogue. If you need students to remember every detail, visual solutions like knowledge clips are a better fit.
Read this short article on the advantages and disadvantages of podcasts in education to learn more.
Step 2: Preparation
Once your idea is clear, it's time for the most exciting part: crafting your story. We do this by addressing several production goals and creating a podcast script. We'll explore:
- What format best fits your podcast;
- Who will be part of the podcast and in what capacity;
- What anecdotes/angles/stories/jokes/sound design support your goals best.
To achieve this, we'll typically follow the steps below. Some projects cut out or combine steps, others add more depending on scope and goals.
Production goals
A quality educational podcast is both well-structured and engaging. To achieve this, we'll consider these core aspects of your podcast when preparing:
- Your audience, learning goals and scope;
- The podcast intro and outro;
- Roles & responsibilities of all participants;
- What to say (but not exactly how);
- The roadmap through your conversation;
- Bringing your podcast to life.
Each production goal has a number of considerations we take into account.
The podcast script
To facilitate your podcast roadmap, we have created podcast script format for interviews and discussion/conversations. If you're looking for a different podcast format (e.g. a documentary), we'll customize these formats to fit your specific needs.
The template will allow you to structure your podcast into:
- segments (~3 main subjects);
- topics (~3 talking points within your subjects);
- notes (the details and nuggets of conversation).
This will allow you to have a well-structured but spontaneous conversation.
Step 3: Recording
Showtime! You'll record your podcast in the sound-proof podcast studio in the basement of Atlas (104) in room D.040.
Intimidated by buttons? Dreading the sound of your own voice? Nervous for your first recording? No worries, one of our multimedia specialists will help you from start to finish, taking care of:
- conversations up to 4 people recorded on a Rode Podcaster Pro setup including 4 Rode Podmic microphones;
- calling in additional external guests;
- any (licensed or rights-free) sound effects and jingles;
- you, whether you need emotional support or just coffee.
Step 4: Publication
After the recording, our media specialist will:
- export the recording as a final audio file or separate tracks;
- publish the final podcast on YuJa, the WUR's media platform for you to embed in BrightSpace or elsewhere.
What we don't support, but you are free to do yourself:
- editing your podcast;
- publishing your podcast on a public platform.
Next steps
Do you want to start creating your educational podcast, or explore ideas with our team? Send an email to [email protected] or plan an intake meeting directly.
Want to know more about video and podcasts for education?
Please visit:
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