Podcasting and assessment: Online peer support

The authors presented a paper at ECER 08 (Souter & Muir, 2008) where they described a pilot project that investigated using student produced podcasts as a means of assessment. The results of this pilot were encouraging and the aspect of students' discussion and questioning related to the assessed podcasts appeared to be a particularly interesting part of the project and worthy of further study. The pre-service science teachers who are the focus of this study had already successfully completed school placements and were considered skilled in planning and delivering presentations, so, as in the previous study, one of their assessment exercises was replaced with a student produced podcast which was posted to an electronic conference. The students were given a few days to listen to each other's podcasts, to ask and answer questions and to make comments online. This exercise responds to some of the issues raised by Boud (2000) who was critical of assessment practices in higher education institutions and suggested 'The purposes of assessment should be extended to include the preparation of students for sustainable assessment'