{"id":38263,"date":"2017-03-21T12:50:23","date_gmt":"2017-03-21T19:50:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/world.edu\/?p=38263"},"modified":"2017-03-21T12:50:23","modified_gmt":"2017-03-21T19:50:23","slug":"ever-thought-podcasting-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/ever-thought-podcasting-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Ever thought of podcasting your research?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"podcasting_tools\"<\/a>Over a year ago, I began preparing to launch a podcast called \u201cResearch in Action<\/a>\u201d as part of my full-time job as the research director<\/a> for Oregon State University Ecampus<\/a> (it\u2019s available in iTunes<\/a> and on SoundCloud<\/a> if you want to check it out). I had never hosted a podcast before, but I was, and continue to be, an avid podcast listener (some of my current favorites, which all happen to be related to productivity and habits, are The Action Army<\/a>, Being Boss<\/a> and Happier<\/a>). I thought that podcasting would be a way to connect with other researchers and also build the reputation of the Ecampus Research Unit<\/a> that had just launched in August 2015.<\/p>\n

While I knew that starting a podcast would be a fun and challenging new project, I didn\u2019t expect that becoming a podcaster would completely reinvigorate my life as a researcher and higher education professional.<\/p>\n

For those of you who may not know, podcasts are kind of like radio shows, with audio (and sometimes video) episodes that post on a regular basis (\u201cResearch in Action\u201d episodes post every week, but other podcasts post monthly or in \u201cseasons\u201d). There are a huge range of podcast topics available and they are usually 10-60 minutes (sometimes more) in length. Some shows are solo shows, others are interview-based, and some have co-hosts. Most are available to be downloaded to mobile devices, so you can listen to them on your commute, while exercising or while doing the dishes (I\u2019ve done all three).<\/p>\n

For most \u201cResearch in Action\u201d episodes, I interview other researchers about a range of topics including writing productivity<\/a>, research collaboration<\/a>, mixed methods<\/a>, data management<\/a>, e-Research<\/a> and more<\/a>. Each episode is about 30 minutes in length and we also often post bonus materials. We also start each month with a preview episode, so you can hear clips about what\u2019s coming up on the show.<\/p>\n

Producing a weekly show has been a serious time commitment not just for me, but also for the team of people who help me with finalizing each episode. I have the fortunate circumstance of having production support from our OSU Ecampus multimedia team to edit the show\u2019s audio as well as student workers who assist me with the transcription of each episode. My administrative assistant also assists with show notes and the instructor guides<\/a> that are produced for each episode.<\/p>\n

We pre-record episodes to make sure that we can keep up with the weekly schedule, so on days when I have access to the studio, I might record up to four different interviews for future episodes. As I write this, we just posted episode 50 and we have recorded interviews to cover us through episode 69.<\/p>\n

In additional to these tasks, there are also several other things that go into creating each episode including coordinating studio time, booking guests, preparing questions in advance for guests to review, recording the episode and editing the episode content, which all occur before the transcript, show notes and instructor guides are created. Then, once episodes are launched, there\u2019s also the promotion of those episodes through social media (come find us on Twitter @RIA_podcast<\/a>!).<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve learned a ton of new skills throughout this podcast project and all the work has been totally worth it to meet the two main goals of the podcast:<\/p>\n