Podcasting is a widely-adopted mechanism for subscribing to periodically released content. Most often used to pull audio and video onto mobile devices, podcasts are a burgeoning medium in the higher education space, benefitting faculty and students alike. Large, well-designed studies on educational podcasting are still lacking, but experience suggests the following:
Students use podcasts of lectures mostly to review class material, not as a substitute for coming to class. Roger Santos of UC Davis's Academic Technology Services reported no sign of decreased attendance in 2006-2007, even though use of their lecture podcasting service rose 154% over the previous year (http://technews.ucdavis.edu/news2.cfm?id=1562). And Caton Roberts of UW-Madison reported a negligible effect on attendance (https://tle.wisc.edu/solutions/lecturing/will-podcasting-my-lectures-reduce-class-attendance).
Podcasts are particularly helpful to students who speak English as a non-native language; they can pause...