Today I published on DrThompsen.com a podcast of my lecture in COM 212, an introductory course in mass communication that I teach at West Chester University. This is the fourth semester I’ve recorded my lectures as podcasts, but until now I’ve kept the files in a directory on the course’s home page on blackboard.wcupa.edu. By publishing my podcasts on my own website, I’m able to more easily create the RSS feed needed to allow one to subscribe to the podcast series. This was something I was unable to do on Blackboard (although I understand they are working on including more podcasting features in the next version of the software).
Here’s the feed URL of this semester’s series of podcasts:
https://drthompsen.com/podcasts/COM212-S07/COM212-Spring07_20070116_232152-0500.rss
That’s a rather long URL, but it was the one generated by the software I’m using, a great program called Profcast. I used this program last year, and it just keeps getting better. I spoke with the developer briefly last week at MacWorld, and made a few suggestions for the next version. There still seems to be an issue with “back dating” podcast episodes, and there are some annoying transparent dialog boxes that I’d like to be able to turn off. But in general, this software is the best solution I’ve seen for easily creating and managing a podcast of lectures.
Now if we can just get the WCU iTunes Music Store off the ground this semester…