Kylie Sturgess

With the advent of podcasting, broadcast reach has extended to wherever an audio file can be downloaded, saved, or streamed. In educational settings, podcasts have emerged to supplant and compliment lectures, lessons, and instructional texts. This is particularly evident in the shift to online learning during COVID-19 (Wake, Strong and Fox, 2020). However, despite the popularity of well-crafted sonic digital narratives, little investigation and theorising has been undertaken into approaches to podcasting, as part of blended learning and how they combine to contextualise the creation of educational podcasts. This thesis first proposes and then tests a production model for constructing creative narrative audio works for an educational purpose. Secondly, can the model be applied to guide the composition of entertaining and educational narrative podcasts?

There has been discussion of audio codes and their contribution to audio narrative works by numerous academics (McHugh, 2022; Huwiler, 2016; Mildorf and Kinzel, 2016; Shingler and Wieringa, 1998). However, no pre-existing model draws together these codes to guide the production of educational podcasts. This thesis contains a model created by consolidating techniques and conventions such as soundscape, speech, and silence to guide the creation of educational narrative podcasts.

This exegesis explores the creation and the application of the edutaining podcast learning model to create a four-part supplemental educational online podcast radio series for undergraduate university students studying radio production. The series was made for the students of a first-year introductory radio unit at Murdoch University, in 2020. The podcasts include the contributions of four actors and numerous audio samples, including sound and special effects. The exegesis concludes with an analysis of the data collected from surveys taken of the students attending the unit classes, and how that feedback discerns what assisted them with their learning. It concludes with an in-depth discussion about potential areas of interest for upcoming educators and podcast-makers.