March 2012 Archives

Throughout the course, I've been collecting data from students about their experiences with literature "by ear."

I've started to analyze their responses; in this post I'll be sharing a few interesting patterns, and some tentative conclusions.

First, I was surprised to find that 85% of students report accessing the audio files from their home computers, and 15% access materials at a campus computer lab or library. None of the 40 students who took the survey reported listening to course podcasts while mobile! While this contradicts my expectation that students would enjoy the mobility that audio allows, it seems to show that they are choosing experience the audio in less distracting surroundings. (More to come in future posts on the role of distraction in reading and listening.)

Second finding: When given the option of reading only, listening only, or both reading and listening, students are more likely to do both.

Third finding: As they had predicted at the start of the course, students find listening to audio more time consuming that reading text, but also more enjoyable.

Compare their mid-semester responses:

...to their predictions from the beginning of the semester:

Taken together, these results could suggest that the use of audio in this course design has encouraged students to take more time with the texts, rather than less, while also increasing their enjoyment of this labor.

As one student reported, "I will find it more enjoyable while potentially more time consuming as I won't be able to 'skim' through passages." This made we wonder if audio--rather than moving too quickly, as I'd feared--actually slows down the process of reading for students habituated to skimming, and therefore--far from preventing close redaing--in fact facilitates it.

Throughout the course, I've been collecting data from students about their experiences with literature "by ear."

I've started to analyze their responses; in this post I'll be sharing a few interesting patterns, and some tentative conclusions.

First, I was surprised to find that 85% of students report accessing the audio files from their home computers, and 15% access materials at a campus computer lab or library. None of the 40 students who took the survey reported listening to course podcasts while mobile! While this contradicts my expectation that students would enjoy the mobility that audio allows, it seems to show that they are choosing experience the audio in less distracting surroundings. (More to come in future posts on the role of distraction in reading and listening.)

Second finding: When given the option of reading only, listening only, or both reading and listening, students are more likely to do both.

Third finding: As they had predicted at the start of the course, students find listening to audio more time consuming and more difficult that reading text, but also more enjoyable.

Compare their mid-semester responses:

...to their predictions from the beginning of the semester:

Taken together, these results could suggest that the use of audio in this course design has encouraged students to take more time with the texts, rather than less, while also increasing their enjoyment of this labor.

As one student reported, "I will find it more enjoyable while potentially more time consuming as I won't be able to 'skim' through passages." This made we wonder if audio--rather than moving too quickly, as I'd feared--actually slows down the process of reading for students habituated to skimming, and therefore--far from preventing close redaing--in fact facilitates it.

Throughout the course, I've been collecting data from students about their experiences with literature "by ear."

I've started to analyze their responses; in this post I'll be sharing a few interesting patterns, and some tentative conclusions.

First, I was surprised to find that 85% of students report accessing the audio files from their home computers, and 15% access materials at a campus computer lab or library. None of the 40 students who took the survey reported listening to course podcasts while mobile! While this contradicts my expectation that students would enjoy the mobility that audio allows, it seems to show that they are choosing experience the audio in less distracting surroundings. (More to come in future posts on the role of distraction in reading and listening.)

Second finding: When given the option of reading only, listening only, or both reading and listening, students are more likely to do both.

Third finding: As they had predicted at the start of the course, students find listening to audio more time consuming and more difficult that reading text, but also more enjoyable.

Compare their mid-semester responses:

...to their predictions from the beginning of the semester:

Taken together, these results could suggest that the use of audio in this course design has encouraged students to take more time with the texts, rather than less, while also increasing their enjoyment of this labor.

As one student reported, "I will find it more enjoyable while potentially more time consuming as I won't be able to 'skim' through passages." This made we wonder if audio--rather than moving too quickly, as I'd feared--actually slows down the process of reading for students habituated to skimming, and therefore--far from preventing close redaing--in fact facilitates it.

Throughout the course, I've been collecting data from students about their experiences with literature "by ear."

I've started to analyze their responses; in this post I'll be sharing a few interesting patterns, and some tentative conclusions.

First, I was surprised to find that 85% of students report accessing the audio files from their home computers, and 15% access materials at a campus computer lab or library. None of the 40 students who took the survey reported listening to course podcasts while mobile! While this contradicts my expectation that students would enjoy the mobility that audio allows, it seems to show that they are choosing experience the audio in less distracting surroundings. (More to come in future posts on the role of distraction in reading and listening.)

Second finding: When given the option of reading only, listening only, or both reading and listening, students are more likely to do both.

Third finding: As they had predicted at the start of the course, students find listening to audio more time consuming and more difficult that reading text, but also more enjoyable.

Compare their mid-semester responses:

...to their predictions from the beginning of the semester:

Taken together, these results could suggest that the use of audio in this course design has encouraged students to take more time with the texts, rather than less, while also increasing their enjoyment of this labor.

As one student reported, "I will find it more enjoyable while potentially more time consuming as I won't be able to 'skim' through passages." This made we wonder if audio--rather than moving too quickly, as I'd feared--actually slows down the process of reading for students habituated to skimming, and therefore--far from preventing close reading--in fact facilitates it.

Midterms were Tuesday, so I'll comment on my use of testing.

How does testing in an audio-based course look different from testing in other courses?

The short answer is: it doesn't.

That isn't to say that other forms of evaluation don't differ; the podcasting project that I describe in other posts is worth 30% of students' final grades, and is unique to this class format.

However, since part of my aim in teaching this class is to evaluate whether using audio podcasts of literature can achieve comparable results as text, it follows that I should assess these results similarly as I would those in a print-centered class.

In my 44-student literature classes, I typically give midterm and final exams that include one section of identifications and one of short essays based on quotations. From list of seven quotations from stories or poems we have read, students choose four. For each quote, they must identify the source and context, and comment on its literary elements, using the following table as a reference:

I haven't finished grading these exams yet, but my initial observation is that students' exams demonstrate equivalent competencies for retention and analysis as those of other courses.

On the one hand, these results seem to demonstrate the success of using audio podcasts to foster literary study. On the other hand, however, they give the lie to my supposed audio focus, showing that while incorporating aurality and orality, the class has remained quite centered on traditional means of textual analysis and close reading.

There's much more to say about assessment, but I've got to get back to grading those exams!