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Podcasting catching on in MUSC classrooms by George Spain Center for Academic and Research Computing Services   With a few dollar's worth of equipment, a tiny bit of technical savvy, and a classroom wired with the right stuff, lectures can be heard later through the process of podcasting.   A recent Catalyst article (http://www.musc.edu/catalyst/archive/2007/co8-31ipod.html) told of creating audio podcasts on various health related topics for public consumption through iTunes or other methods of listening to webbased sound files. These mini broadcasts are popular and an MUSC team recently won a national award for producing them.   Classroom podcasting takes the art a step further: synching the professor’s live lecture with an accompanying slide show (PowerPoint) for later playback through a news feed reader (built into some browsers) or through the popular iTunes music service sponsored by Apple Inc.   Michael Schmidt, Ph.D., professor of microbiology and immunology, an early and vocal proponent of podcasting, demonstrated the fairly simple steps involved in creating a podcast from a lecture using a slide show created in PowerPoint.   In Room 100 of the Basic Science Building, he sets up his notebook computer on the podium, plugs in a microphone receiver, clips on a wireless mic to his tie, drops his prepared PowerPoint presentation onto the icon for Profcast, and clicks Profcast’s record button. From that point it’s him, his material, and his 150 or so students.   At lecture’s end, Schmidt clicks the mouse that stops the recording and creates a file that contains a synchronized version of the lecture with the slide show. With a few more clicks a QuickTime movie is ready for delivery to students via e-mail. Alternatively, when he gets back to his office, Schmidt sends the file to an MUSC Web site (http://netcasting.musc.edu) where further processing turns the lecture into a podcast ready for downloading into iTunes or a webbrowser.   “The quality and scalability of Profcast is amazing. There are several alternatives for students to play the content. We’ve had very good initial response from students and professors about the final product,” Schmidt said.   To get a little technical, Profcast produces a m4b file. This file is also known as an “audiobook” format. The file contains not only a synced version of the lecture with slide show, but a method to jump to any point in the slide and view the presentation from there.   For example, when the students download a one-hour lecture containing 40 or so slides, they can skip to any part of the lecture, back and forth to examine the contents. Podcasts themselves are in the universally available Really Simple Syndication (RSS). The universality of format means a flexibility in distribution. Both QuickTime and iTunes are cross platform, meaning that they can be viewed by those who own a PC or a Macintosh. There’s no requirement for students to spend any extra cash to view these formats, because both programs (distributed by Apple Inc.) are free downloads.   “You don’t need to shell out for an iPod or any other type of RSS feed readers. You can go to our MUSC iTunes site and, using your NetID and password, subscribe to the posted lectures,” said Schmidt.   Several years ago, Apple set up what’s know as iTunes U (http://www.apple.com/education/itunesu/). This is a way for universities around the country to make their content available to anyone. Some universities that have posted their content on iTunes U are Duke, Stanford, Yale, and Berkeley, among others. While MUSC hasn’t yet published it site on the iTunes list, its content is still available to any student of MUSC through http://itunes.musc.edu/. Because of copyright concerns, the course materials offered through MUSC are guarded by NetID login.   From the itunes.musc.edu site, under Guest Login click the link that reads, Take me to MUSC on iTunes U,  where public offerings with access to non-password protected items are available. These are mostly welcoming audio files in mp3 format.   Students can use the itunes.musc.edu site to enter their NetID and password and see all the course materials that are available to them, based on their college of study. Many of the offerings are voice-only (mp3), while some are enhanced audiobooks containing voice and synchronized slide shows captured live during a lecture.   The college to make the most use of audiobooks podcasting is the College of Dental Medicine. CDM currently lists more than 60 content offerings, while the College of Medicine currently list 23. Under CDM, Schmidt lists more than 20 podcasts on the subject of Dental Microbiology alone.   While podcasting lectures haven’t spread throughout the university’s curriculum yet, the popularity of the system and the easy of production by instructors is enticing many to consider experimenting with the process.     Friday, Oct. 12, 2007 Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Island Publications at 849-1778, ext. 201.