The essential measures that you should monitor to prove the effectiveness of podcasts in elearning
It is undeniable that more and more developers Elearning began to integrate podcasts in their online courses to diversify the learning equipment and engage learners. But are there more advantages to use podcasts in elearning beyond the improved commitment of the learner? And, in the affirmative, what measures should you keep track to demonstrate them? In this article, we will explore a few practical steps and specific measures that can provide tangible proof of the podcast learning efficiency.
Steps must know the evaluation of the effectiveness of learning podcasts
1. Know what you are trying to do
All training documents exist in an online course to reach one or more specific learning objectives. These could include the acquisition of certain skills or knowledge, learning to apply them in real situations or an increase in the commitment and participation of the learner. Therefore, before starting to make a plan to measure the effectiveness of podcasts in learning, you must establish the objectives you want to achieve. This will provide a clear framework compared to which you can compare the learner's performance data before and after the learners, the learners listened to the podcast.
2. Use pre and post-existence assessments
This could be the easiest way to assess the effectiveness of a podcast to help learners acquire new knowledge or skills. More specifically, this approach involves administering a quick quiz or a reflective prompt before and after learners listen to an episode of podcast. This will give you a clear idea of ​​their level of knowledge before the podcast and how to listen to it affected it. When assessing this type of data, consider whether the podcasts that include interactive elements lead to a better acquisition of knowledge in relation to traditional and passive hearing materials.
3. Collect comments
Another way of measuring the effectiveness of learning podcasts is to directly ask learners about their reflections on how podcasts contribute to their learning progression. This can be accomplished by incorporating questions at the end of the podcast which cover problems such as quality and quantity of content, stimulation, actual application, etc. Let's see some examples:
- Do you think you learned a lot from this episode?
- Are you confident to apply what you learned in real life?
- Has additional equipment been useful?
- How was the rhythm of the podcast?
Ask auditors to assess these questions on a scale of 1 to 5 will provide valuable information about how to optimize your podcast to have more impact for your audience. It is also important to have a comment section or a direct messaging option, allowing listeners to suggest how the podcast can be improved.
4. Monitor engagement measures
The effectiveness of learning podcasts can be considerably hampered if the learners do not engage with them. This could mean that they do not listen to them in their entirety or do not disengage after a few minutes and do not interact with additional activities or materials. It is essential that you monitor the right measures via your Podcast accommodation platform to make sure your podcasts are committed to learners and, therefore, helping them achieve the desired learning results. Let's see what some of them are:
- Retention rate of the listener. It is the percentage of listeners who listen to episodes from start to finish.
- Average listening time. This indicates how long the listeners remain engaged in the episode. This could indicate that the last minutes of the podcast does not include any engaging activity which maintains the interest of the listeners.
- Repeat the listening. This allows you to know the percentage of listeners who return to an episode. However, it is important to clarify what brings up the listeners. Did the episode share a lot of interesting information? Or did they come back because they had a hard time understanding information with a single listening? These scenarios present different situations, the latter requiring attention and improvement.
- Jump or deposit points. This metric highlights points in the episode that listeners jump or where they drop the episode. Consequently, this indicates uninteresting, repetitive or low quality content.
5. Metrics of community engagement
If your podcast successfully motivates the listeners to interact with their peers in the comments section under the episode or on external channels, you can certainly expect better learning results. The exchange of ideas, questions and information within the community promotes a better understanding of knowledge, allowing learners to explore different perspectives and to see how others apply new knowledge in their daily life. You can monitor the commitment of the community by following the frequency to which each episode is shared or mentioned on social networks and other communication channels. In addition, pay attention to the way learners actively participate in the conversation by asking questions, answering the publications of others and reacting to the content.
6. Monitoring of the implementation of new skills
An important measure of the effectiveness of learning podcasts is to assess their impact on the daily life of learners. More specifically, you should determine whether the learners apply their new knowledge in real life and recognize its value. To assess the implementation of knowledge, plan to ask the learners at the end of each episode how they plan to apply what they have just learned. You can also follow the number of additional exercises, missions and tasks that learners are made, as well as their scores. This will highlight the way learners include equipment and to what extent they are likely to take it in real situations.
Conclusion
Measure the learning efficiency of podcasts Maybe not as easy as the ranking of a quiz, but it is certainly possible to make. In reality, what you need to do is combine the assessment and quiz scores with direct comments from learners and analyze a variety of other measures. If you take these measures with precision and regularly, you will have access to invaluable information on the commitment of learners, the development of skills, the implementation of knowledge and other indicators that demonstrate how podcasts can be useful as a learning tool.
At Learnopoly, Finn has championed a mission to deliver unbiased, in-depth reviews of online courses that empower learners to make well-informed decisions. With over a decade of experience in financial services, he has honed his expertise in strategic partnerships and business development, cultivating both a sharp analytical perspective and a collaborative spirit. A lifelong learner, Finn’s commitment to creating a trusted guide for online education was ignited by a frustrating encounter with biased course reviews.