Openness in Education: Utilising Podcasting to provide quality Corporate Learning in the 3^rd Sector in Scotland

In the corporate world, Learning and Development professionals are consistently seeking to be ahead of the rest of the pack when it comes to the quality of their training and how they develop staff. There is a constant battle with those who do not want to release employees from the operation of the business, as they see training as ‘down time’ and therefore additional cost and there is the ancient philosophical battle between ‘what happens if we train them and they leave?’ versus ‘what happens if we don’t train them and they stay?’. The ideal way of training staff is to do so in a way that is enjoyable, accessible, has a low cost base and enhances the knowledge of staff. (Sporn, Chanter, Meehan 2020).

‘Openness in Education: Utilising Podcasting to provide quality Corporate Learning in the 3^rd Sector in Scotland’ aims to achieve all of these goals. The output, a series of podcasts designed especially for the 3^rd sector in Scotland, will be available to all participating organisations. Traditionally, corporate learning is provided to enhance the human performance of employees to achieve a measurable improvement in whatever task it is they perform in order to enhance their customers’ experience and in turn maximise profit (Lewis, 1989). This project will utilise the already existing network established between 3^rd sector organisations and enhance it by providing easily accessible podcasts which will be recorded by subject matter experts and be available to download, listen to, debate and discuss.

Podcasting has come a long way since it was first discussed throughout the blogosphere in 2004 (Bourqui et al, 2012) and allows employees to access information when it is convenient for them (Cangialosi, 2012) rather than having to take time out of their day to read an email, newsletter or a poster on an infrequently edited pinboard in the corporate canteen. Podcasts can be used to transmit a message from one party to another and can be used as part of a blended training programme that includes the learner in the process through engagement with the topics contained within the podcast and the subsequent debate that follows.

The conference presentation will discuss how Open Pedagogy in the 3^rd sector can be mutually beneficial to all those involved and how its benefits overcome the custom of using Learning and Development departments as a profit making arm of the business by selling intellectual property to other businesses. It will also explain why the information on the podcast relates to Scotland only but that the principles behind using podcasts as a corporate learning tool could be adapted to accommodate information in other parts of the world. Finally, it will also show how a blended approach to learning, rather than the traditional learning by rote, is more beneficial for learners and is actually what they are seeking when it comes to their individual development even by those who do not regularly engage with podcasts in their daily life.

References

Tim Bourquin et al. (2012) Podcast Academy: The Business Podcasting Book, Podcast Academy: The Business Podcasting Book. Taylor and Francis. doi: 10.4324/9780080552873.

Cangialosi, G. (2012) ‘Chapter 3 - The Emergence of Corporate Podcasting’, in Podcast Academy: The Business Podcasting Book, pp. 37–61. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-240-80967-0.50008-4.

Lewis, R. (1989) What is ‘quality’ in corporate open learning and how do we measure it?, Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning, 4:3, 9-13, DOI: 10.1080/0268051890040303

Sporn, Z., Chanter, J. & Meehan, D. 2020, "Babbel Language Learning Podcasts", International Journal of Advanced Corporate Learning, vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 43-49. Accessed 4/1/21

Conference Poster

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