Using Podcasts to Support Students in a Land Law Class

Abstract

This paper describes the experience of creating and using podcasts to support student learning of land law for JD and LL.M. students in Hong Kong. Podcasting involves preparing a series of audio or video broadcast files for download onto a digital media player by students. Four different types of podcast were prepared for the law class in question. Some were simply podcasts, while others were embedded in PowerPoint slides and converted into flash files using ‘Authorpoint’. Together, the podcasts sought to give students an introduction/ review of the main topics and of the problem questions discussed in class.

The aim was to help students to grasp essential concepts before attending class. The podcasts were also intended to allow students to go back over lectures and class discussion.

A pilot survey and a series of focus groups indicate that podcasts are a useful teaching tool in class, particularly for revision, and in assisting students where the language of instruction is not their native tongue. This paper will discuss the motives prompting the implementation of podcasts, outline the utility to students, the teaching and learning implications for the teacher and summarise some reflections on how the podcast series could usefully be extended.