WA students are not watching lectures any more. This uni did something about it

University professors are coming up with new ways to deliver information to West Australian students who are increasingly switching off from both online and in-person lectures.

Two teachers at Murdoch University looked into the problem and found the disengagement was largely due to many students working multiple jobs, joining university after having children and life and cost-of-living pressures getting in the way.

Kylie Ridder and Kim Beasley believe students prefer podcasts to lectures.

In an effort to re-engage students and make lectures more accessible, Kylie Ridder and Kim Beasley, who teach early childhood education, have swapped their lectures for something more modern.

“Welcome everyone to today’s podcast, this is Exploring the Early Years with Kylie and Kim. We haven’t recorded one in a little while, so I’m super excited to be here,” Kylie starts.

“What is early childhood education to you?”

“It’s a really big question,” Kim responds, before launching into the importance of getting education from a young age.

Each podcast episode comes with detailed notes so that students can go back and check details and references after listening to the information.

“Many of our students are working while studying, a lot are parents, and all are time poor,” Ridder said.

“So, when we noticed students weren’t accessing the online lectures, we reflected on their circumstances and explored what might work for them and how we could support their learning.”

Beasley said the hope when starting the podcast was that it would support students to feel like part of the conversation and more connected to the topics and herself as a lecturer.

“That’s exactly the feedback we’ve received,” Beasley said.

“We share stories from our own practices and challenge each other on issues, which also conveys to students the importance of critical thinking and questioning.”

One student, Kara Pursell, said she had struggled to find time to sit and watch a lecture, and also found them to be less engaging.

“Having lectures in a podcast format has helped me as it means that I can just listen and I can be multitasking, or on the go,” she said.

“I would listen to the podcasts when driving or catching the train, which was productive for me.

“I also feel as though there is less pressure on it, and it feels more like a conversation. I love to listen to Kylie and Kim talk about what they are passionate about.”

Callan Fazio, another student, also said he struggled to find the time to watch lectures in their traditional format.

“More often than not, I listen to the podcast as I’m driving to and from my hockey games which means I am still able to play my sport and get uni work done, so I wasn’t falling behind,” he said.

“I did feel as though my retention was better because sitting at a desk and in classroom settings, I feel it’s a bit harder for me to concentrate.

“[The podcast] definitely felt more personal, and I took more away from it than I normally would.”

Both Fazio and Pursell said they would encourage more university lecturers to consider a similar format to match a changing cohort of students.

Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.