The case for promoting educational podcasts

Abstract

The number of podcasts and podcast listeners is growing globally. Podcast culture has come a long way since being called "the self-serve audio revolution" (Lindemann, 2000, p. 76). Podcasts became mainstream with Apple's announcement in 2005 that it would include podcasting as a new category in iTunes. Podcasts were then considered a real threat to radio, but the format did not live up to the hype. Gartner's Hype Cycle describes the phases a new technology moves through, from innovation to plateau. According to Gartner, "Podcasting took only three or four years to travel through the Hype Cycle, but mobile commerce has taken 15 years so far and probably has another five or more years to go." After the initial hype, listener interest faded and many early adopters put podcasting on the back burner. The landscape started to change with the success of Serial, which aired in 2014. Podcasting is different from traditional radio and is not a replacement for it. Radio is broadcast live on a schedule to large audiences and is subject to state regulation; podcasting targets an experimental audience and operates in an unregulated space with no clear monetization model (Wake et al., 2020). Podcasting is still in its early stages, and the medium offers a great opportunity to experiment with formats, content and business models. Entrepreneurs should look at podcasting formats that have worked, including in the Chinese educational podcasting market, and try replicating a format suited to their target market.

The five phases of the Hype Cycle. Concept: Gartner, Inc. (Gartner Hype Cycle). Simplified illustration, not Gartner's original chart.

Introduction

Podcasting can play an important role in education, both on campuses and as a platform for continuing education for people who want to build expertise in new domains. Distance or continuing education is not new (Sean Watts, 2020): it has existed since the 1870s (Cornell) and has followed various revenue models throughout its history. Even today, in its online open education format, there is no standard revenue model. According to Chitu Okoli and Ning Wang (Okoli, 2016), these are the eight most noteworthy business models:

Donations and grants: A non-profit organization manages the online education offering and receives donations and grants for continuing funding. Content creators are paid through donations, though in some cases they volunteer without compensation. Unlike the "governmental or foundation sponsorship" model, the education provider retains control, although significant donors may influence its future direction.
Online program of a traditional institution: The online courses division of a traditional university provides an outlet for its educational materials and programs. Funding comes from general institutional resources (free to students), student tuition or dedicated donations.
Community-based production: Members of a community of practice or interest group create materials for each other's use, also called a "prosumer" model (Joe Cullen, 2020). Peer study groups that share notes and practice material online are an example of this model.
Advertising: Paid advertising is placed on open educational content. Students do not pay; advertisements throughout the program fund it.
Cooperative production consortium: A free, open, peer-reviewed collection of online teaching and learning materials and faculty-developed services, contributed and used by an international education community. Institutions and organizations partner to create and distribute educational materials. The edX initiative is a good example.
Governmental or foundation sponsorship: A government, non-governmental organization or non-profit foundation establishes and administers an online education program or resource center. India's National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning, backed by the Ministry of Education, is an example.
Institutional subscriptions: A provider gives educational materials away free to individuals but charges institutions subscription fees to use them across larger populations.
Selling the course experience: The online materials are free, but students pay for the education experience, including a teacher who guides them and answers questions throughout the course. Popular EdTech companies follow this model.

In Asia, education is generally seen as a means to a better life, particularly in countries like Korea, China and India. In 2013, the Wall Street Journal reported on a teacher making $4 million a year by exploiting economies of scale through the internet. Similar stories can be found in China's continuing education market, where the emerging trend is driven by podcasts. As the Chinese economy modernizes, people are increasingly career-driven and fear that their present skills may soon become obsolete. Many are upskilling by listening to classes on various subjects and technologies through podcasts during their long commutes, which makes continuing education popular among working people. The trend is known in China as "Pay for Knowledge" because podcast listeners are willing to pay for high-quality content on EdTech podcasting platforms. In other countries, podcasting mostly relies on advertising, or on paying subscribers in niche segments.

Educational podcasting differs from Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in a few ways. Its major advantage is flexibility: students can listen on demand on mobile or desktop and, unlike with MOOCs, can multitask while listening. This may not look like a technological breakthrough, but good-quality content combined with flexibility can be a game changer. The fast-growing Chinese podcasting market offers some useful business insights.

Method

The paper follows an interpretive methodology and relies on research case studies conducted at Indian medical schools and market research on podcasting trends in China.

Background literature

Podcasting is a method of delivering audio files over the internet for download and later playback (Markman and Sawyer, 2014). It was made possible by Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds for audio, which automated distribution to platforms like iTunes, Spotify and Google Podcasts. This was an important innovation for podcasting (American Sociological Association editorial, 2020): podcast platforms do not store the audio files themselves but connect listeners to the podcaster's content. It simplified the process in two ways: the podcaster uploads content only once to the hosting site, and the RSS feed shares it with podcast platforms and notifies subscribers of new episodes.

Podcasts can be downloaded on many devices, such as phones and desktops: "the on-demand nature and portability features allow users to catch up on audio content while completing other tasks without having to sit at a computer" (Yasemin Kocak Usluel et al., 2009). New connectivity technologies, such as Bluetooth in cars and smart speakers, also contributed to the renaissance of podcasting; in 2020 there were over 1.5 million podcasts globally (Edison Research, 2020). This growth is attributed to smartphones and low entry barriers. Unlike other media formats, most podcasters are individuals working from home studios, which demonstrates the disruptive potential of audio podcasting (Markman and Sawyer, 2014) as an increasingly viable means of disintermediated audio distribution (Berry, 2016). Independent podcasters are free from corporate constraints and follow their own production standards, which vary from one podcaster to another. They look for various funding models, such as crowdfunding, donations and subscriptions, in addition to advertising.

"With free and inexpensive audio editing equipment (including some smartphone apps), practice, and a good ear, a novice can come close to the production quality of the professional." "The variety of conventional production value that each podcaster applies in their podcast can liberate podcasters from a sense that there is one right way to produce a podcast." "Podcasters manage to build audiences and to sustain their productions without support from large organizations." (Shamburg, 2020)

For many independent podcasters, the motivation to start a podcast is love for a subject or self-expression. These podcasts fall under User Generated Content (UGC), which is voluntarily developed and distributed online. Access to low-cost production and distribution tools turned podcasting into a long-tail marketplace (Chris Anderson, 2006), in which traditional media outlets dominate the head of the curve but must compete with independent UGC in the long tail, where creators work on niche topics (Markman and Sawyer, 2014).

For example, podcasting is reportedly booming in countries such as Vietnam and China, where people want to express themselves without interference from the state. "Unlike traditional radio, there are no standards to follow, the podcasters and consumers bend and define the rules to fit their own needs without the need for regulatory change" (Berry, 2016). Independent podcasters also work on niche topics, from education to personal development, which creates highly fragmented audiences whose loyalty can be fleeting. To become successful and retain an audience, a podcaster also has to be a good reader and writer, which helps them script episodes better (Wake et al., 2020).

The most popular genres are comedy, news, society and culture, sports, and true crime (Watson, 2020). Education is under-explored, but people increasingly listen to podcasts to learn new things (Edison Research, 2019).

Podcasting for education

Educational institutions were among the early experimenters with podcasting. With growing acceptance of MP3 players such as the iPod among students, most early adopters among faculty taught in the communication field (Yang, 2010). Faculty took the initiative to teach audio-specific skills, also driven by journalism students' curiosity to learn podcasting techniques that might improve their employment prospects (Wake et al., 2020). Medical schools also took up podcasts to supplement live classes (Kalludi et al., 2013). Podcasts attracted growing interest as a medium of instruction, but instructors took different design approaches based on students' requirements. Podcasts give students flexibility over how they consume content: they can play, pause and rewind at their convenience, and have access to class content on demand to suit their learning style. To keep up with students' learning needs, many higher education institutions have built podcasts into their e-portals.

Different genres are emerging in educational podcasting. Broadly, they fall into three categories (Drew, 2017):

Quick burst: Commonly under 5 minutes, covering a single topic within a self-imposed time limit. The idea is a quick revision of content learned before, or a fast summary of a topic. The short format allows regular publication.

Narrative: The long format lets students hear an entire topic many times over, thanks to pausing, rewinding and replaying at their own pace, which consolidates learning before they move to the next topic.

Chat show: Two or more participants explain and debate concepts one at a time. The genre stands out because it draws on a panel's views rather than a single host. The idea is to bring in experienced professionals to bridge the gap between the learning environment and the workplace.

Observed utility of podcasting for education in Asia's largest economies

Podcasting in Indian education can be understood from two research case studies, at Manipal Dental College, Mangalore (Kalludi et al., 2013) and the Department of Biochemistry at Christian Medical College, Vellore (Prakash et al., 2017).

The Manipal Dental College study assessed the effectiveness of podcasts as supplementary teaching. Participants were first-year dental students (n=80; 60 female, 20 male), divided into two groups. The first group (n=40) had a study session followed by a multiple-choice question (MCQ) test, then a podcast session. The second group (n=40) had a study session followed by the chance to listen to a podcast before the MCQ test.

The audio covered only the main points, not the entire lecture, and was recorded on basic equipment (a laptop and free software). After the MCQ test, participants completed a questionnaire scored on a Likert scale, with scores below three indicating disagreement and above three indicating agreement with each statement.

The results showed that 72.6% of students felt listening to a podcast helped them understand better, and they showed a positive attitude towards podcasts as a learning aid because they could listen to lecture content repeatedly. Participants also felt the lack of images was a disadvantage, since the podcast used was audio only; 63.8% made this observation. The study concluded that podcasting would be a useful supplement to class lectures and reading (Kalludi et al., 2013).

The Christian Medical College study examined students' perceptions of short-duration podcasts, defined as under 5 minutes and called 3-Minute Lessons (3MTLs) by the researchers (Prakash et al., 2017). The 3MTLs were recorded using Microsoft Office tools and consisted of graphical slides with a video inset of the narrator; the script was written in advance to fit the self-imposed 3-minute limit.

Of the 91 students surveyed, 86% (79 students) found the 3MTLs useful, accessing them on smartphones and laptops (Prakash et al., 2017). A follow-up questionnaire with 75 students asked what they used the 3MTLs for, how they accessed them, and whether they found them agreeable. The results indicate that students saw the 3MTLs as useful supplementary learning tools, but only as an addition to daily lectures. The researchers also noticed a spike in visits to the e-portal the day before assessments (Prakash et al., 2017).

In the same survey, students rated the 3MTLs' quality and helpfulness on a 5-point Likert scale. They felt the 3MTLs helped clarify concepts, the teacher's voiceover was reassuring, and the visuals made learning more intuitive. Ease of downloading was rated lower among smartphone users, and the main feedback was to improve video and audio quality (Prakash et al., 2017). The research concluded that short-duration podcasts are useful supplementary tools that help clarify key concepts in medical education, especially in difficult subjects like biochemistry, but cannot credibly replace traditional classrooms (Prakash et al., 2017).

The Chinese podcast ecosystem, on the other hand, is booming, and continuing education has driven its growth: since the mid-2010s, audio content has been the most popular product in this niche market (Jun, 2020). Unlike other markets, where most revenue comes from sponsors or advertising, growth is driven by paying customers. The term "知识付费" ("Pay for Knowledge") was coined to describe the industry. The market is driven by high-quality continuing education content: successful creators turn theories into topics regular people can understand. The digital content players use a platform business model that saves listeners time and effort by curating high-quality content amid an information deluge.

Continuing education providers in this niche cover a wide range of topics, from personal development to product development, and from time management to public speaking. The continuing education content market grew from $0.22 billion in 2015 to $3.93 billion in 2019, a compound annual growth rate of roughly 106% (Jun, 2020).

Content is the industry's main focus. Professionally Generated Content (PGC) predominates in continuing education because customers are willing to pay for high quality. Unlike the long-format educational podcasts used elsewhere in the world, these courses are short, designed to fit customers' fragmented schedules, and cheaper than traditional courses.

Digital content platforms in this segment follow various growth strategies. Online audio platforms are becoming mainstream because audio can accompany many low-intensity activities, letting listeners make use of fragmented time (Jun, 2020).

Dedao, Ximalaya FM and Qingting FM offer audio-only education podcasts, and there is intense rivalry among the three, each following a distinct growth strategy. Ximalaya FM is the top player, with 81 million users in 2018, four times as many as the next player, Qingting FM (Jun, 2020). Ximalaya FM operates as an open platform: it pursues high-quality professional content providers to attract paying customers, and opens its platform to User Generated Content, which is linked to advertisers and offered free to listeners to drive traffic. It is the largest podcast-hosting platform, growing on the back of education podcasting with a paying subscriber base. Dedao offers only exclusive audio content from professionals it invites. Because listeners in the "Pay for Knowledge" market pay for high-quality content, platforms compete for Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs), from economics professors to social media influencers, and platforms with larger user bases attract more content providers, which brings network effects into play.

Jingjing Jun concludes that "The digital content market for continuing education in China became an industry of popularity in the mid-2010s. Companies in this industry provide content products curated to the need of customers who would like to better use the fragmented time for self-improvement. This market was boosted by the rising population of the middle class, the high mobile payment penetration, the growing popularity of content KOLs on social media, and by strengthened IPR protection" (Jun, 2020).

Conclusion

Podcasting has come a long way since the early 2000s. After years of experimenting with formats, it is gaining credibility in education and acceptance as a supplement to classroom teaching at professional colleges. From the research at medical colleges in India and elsewhere, we can reason that short podcasts (under 5 minutes) are preferred by educational podcast listeners.

Among podcast markets, China is far ahead in maturity and product diversity. It is also the largest, with revenues close to $4 billion and 387 million paid users in 2019. The popularity of "Pay for Knowledge" is attributed to wide smartphone adoption, mobile payment systems, and the rise of a middle class that spends heavily on online courses and education. China's rapidly changing economy is also creating anxiety about career development and outdated skills among the middle class, and the rise of that middle class is directly driving new podcast products and business models (Jun, 2020).

India is also a fast-growing large economy with a rising middle class, which brings many challenges in educating and upskilling its workforce. Podcasting in India lags global adoption, and the medium is still experimental, with no generally accepted standards for production, content or episode length. Podcasting enthusiasts can take an experimental approach, see which formats work in the Indian context, and create innovative business models.