Interns Meghan Wall and Mandy Crawford will work with W Course instructors to create customized podcasts for their students, who can download content to a computer or MP3 player.

UWC podcasts can improve writing, teaching

Downloading is the latest way for both students and faculty to get information from the University Writing Center (UWC), which now offers two writing- oriented podcast series, as well as customized podcasts for individual W courses.

The UWC’s initial podcast offering, Write Away, is aimed at faculty. Most episodes feature a brief interview, usually with a W course instructor or visiting scholar who addresses common concerns in teaching writing, from responding to student error to using technology in a writing-intensive course. Episodes last from six to 10 minutes. This fall the UWC launched a second podcast, Write Right, which is aimed at students. One typical episode offers advice on interpreting writing assignments; another takes listeners on an audio tour of Evans library.

“How can we disseminate more information about writing to more people? That’s a basic question for any writing center, and creating podcasts seemed a logical next step in our outreach,” explains UWC Executive Director Valerie Balester. “We were fortunate to have some exceptionally talented interns who took this project on and brought it to fruition.”

Mandy Crawford, a senior telecommunication media studies major, has overseen the podcast endeavor since August 2006. Crawford edits and hosts Write Away, while junior Meghan Wall, a speech communication major, is developing the student-oriented series.

Crawford, noting the popularity of other writing-focused podcasts like Grammar Girl, thinks the UWC material will have broad appeal among students.

“You look around campus, and everybody is listening to an iPod,” Crawford notes. “This generation is used to convenience and entertainment, so we’re presenting information on writing in a convenient and entertaining way.”

But Crawford isn’t looking only to please students; the UWC’s newest podcast innovation is designed to make life easier for W course instructors as well.

Crawford and Wall can now create customized podcasts to suit the specific needs of individual departments or courses. For instance, two W course instructors recently asked the Undergraduate Writing Assistant assigned to their course to develop and record a podcast for their students explaining how to conduct a peer review session.

“A podcast can present material the instructor might not have time to go over in class or provide more detail for students who need additional review,” explains Crawford.

Crawford and Wall are happy to walk instructors through the process of creating a podcast. “We’re here for all the technical stuff, but if instructors need someone to host the recording or develop a script, we can do that as well,” says Crawford.

This fall Crawford also created the UWC’s first video podcast, a demonstration of how to use the MS Word Track Changes feature. Additional video projects are currently in development, including demonstrations of how to revise and proofread assignments, complete with visuals of sample pages.

The UWC podcasts can be downloaded from iTunesU or can be accessed directly from the UWC’s Web site at writingcenter.tamu.edu/podcasts. W course instructors interested in developing a custom podcast can contact Dr. Balester at v-balester@tamu.edu.