E-Tivities

This chapter addresses the theme of interactive learning in higher education for distance and on-campus students. We focus on asynchronous digital audio (ADA), which we define and place in context among media used in education. We review the literature on interaction in education and learning and discuss briefly five types: learner-content, learner-learner, learner-teacher, learner-interface and teacher-content.

We examine opportunities for and outcomes from using ADA for interactive learning by distance and on-campus students at the University of Leicester, where podcasting and voice boards have been introduced into the teaching of a range of subjects. With a simple model, we discuss designing explicit interactive tasks for learners and provide evidence from two case studies of ADA, one using podcasting, the other voice boards. With the same model, we also discuss implicit interactive tasks for learners, illustrated by evidence from a case study of podcasting.

We recommend, based on our research and experience, further use of ADA with podcasts and voice boards, for interactive learning. We discuss future research, such as: Can ADA’s impact on students’ performance be measured? How much extra time do students commit to using ADA? What does ADA cost? How does audio feedback spark student-tutor dialogues, and what effects do these dialogues have? Can other disciplines benefit from using ADA and if so how? Are there advantages in using other voice tools such as voice e-mail and audio blogs to promote interactive learning? Further research is needed, although ADA interactive learning already offers much to learners at a distance and on-campus.