Podcasting as Pedagogy: A Qualitative Study of Attribution of Worth in First Year Nursing Students at a Private Midwestern College

The purpose of this phenomenological, qualitative study was to describe the experience of first semester Associate Degree of Nursing students using a new pedagogy. The central research question was: How do first semester Associate Degree students describe attributes experienced using podcasts of curriculum? The research sub questions were: (a) What statements describe the first semester students' perception of the contents of podcast presentations? (b) What statements describe the first semester students' acceptance of podcasts? and (c) What statements describe first semester students' perception of limitations of use?;Podcasting has been adopted as pedagogy in higher education by the Liberal Arts and Humanities faculty since 2005 (Duke 2005). Adoption of podcasting has expanded from the Liberal Arts and Humanities curriculum to the Science and Health Care curriculum. During this time technology has continued to advance. The current beginning Associate Degree of Nursing student is tech-savvy and thoroughly comfortable with this ubiquitous technology.;Over a four week period, students listened to course content delivered by a professional speaker via podcasts. Interviews were conducted to learn their lived experiences as they used this new pedagogy. Creswell's (2007) steps of data analysis and NVivo 9 computer software program were used for data analysis. Two major themes emerged: acceptability and utility. The students reported that it would be beneficial to have course content delivered by their familiar instructor rather than a professional but unfamiliar speaker. Although current research reports faculty concerns over the use of podcasting's potential negative effect on class attendance, students reported, that availability of course content podcasts would not influence their decision to also attend class room instruction. Finally, and most interestingly, despite having access to mobile technology which would allow multitasking, students reported a preference for retrieving content using a static personal computer in a more formalized, learning-focused environment.