(109) Student Perceptions of the Use Secular Podcasts at Three Institutions in Different Learning Environments

Objective : To assess student perceptions of the usefulness of podcasts for learning course material before and after exposure(s) in three different settings.

Methods: Students listened to secular podcasts in one of three learning settings at three institutions: an ambulatory care advanced pharmacy practice experience (APPE), small group diabetes elective, and large-classroom environment. Before the first podcast exposure, students took a baseline survey to describe their current podcast use and perception of usefulness. Students were then exposed to either 1 podcast during a class session, 8 podcast episodes during a small group elective, or at least 1 podcast during the APPE rotation. At the end of the learning experience, they completed a post-survey to assess satisfaction with the use of the podcast, their perception of podcast usefulness on learning material and likeliness to use pharmacy podcasts for continuing education. Descriptive statistics were used.

Results: Fifty-six students completed both pre and post surveys at the three institutions (39, 7, and 10 students for the classroom, elective, and APPE rotation respectively). Sixty-seven percent of students were not regular podcast listeners. At baseline, 83% of students anticipated that podcasts would be very or somewhat helpful for learning course material, and 91% would be very or somewhat likely to use podcasts for continuing education (CE). Post surveys for these questions decreased to 80% and 83%, respectively. Average satisfaction for the podcast experience was 4.5 on a 5-point scale.

Conclusions: While the majority of students were not regular podcast listeners at baseline, at least 80% of students at follow up thought that podcasts were a helpful learning tool and reported that they would be likely to use podcasts for CE.