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Despite the ability of podcasts to bring free quality content to the masses, studies found that podcast consumption have been identified mostly with the elite class, thus increasing knowledge gaps and digital divides. This study aims to examine whether this trend extends to non-elitist podcast genres by providing the first analysis of sport podcast demographics and uses and gratifications.

A survey was conducted among Israel’s three most popular sport podcast listeners (N = 503), examining the listeners’ demographics, consumption patterns and uses and gratifications driving them to listen to the podcast.

The analysis reveals that most listeners are secular millennials males with above average income, highlighting the elitist nature of sport podcast consumers. The analysis further revealed that information-rich groups were more likely to tune in for information acquisition whereas other groups used it more for entertainment and escapist purposes.

For policy makers and educators who wish to promote podcast-based initiatives to narrow social gaps, the analysis strengthens the notion that the podcast platform mostly attracts those who are already information rich and thus increase knowledge gaps and digital divides. For sport broadcasters, the analysis illuminates sport podcasts audiences’ demographics and their uses of the platform.

The study reflects that the podcast platform is identified with elitist listening even in non-elitist genres; thus it further increases the already wide knowledge gap and digital divides promoted by the advent of the podcast platform.

The study is the first to highlight the elitist nature of sport podcast listeners’ demographics, indicating that the podcast platform increases the knowledge gap also even across non-elitist content genres such as sport content.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-12-2021-0684

Podcasting is one of today's most prominent trends in media and computing, but until now, factors predicting its adoption in higher education settings remain largely unexplored. The purpose of this paper is to examine students' perceptions of enhanced podcasting as a review and exam preparatory tool, through the use of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM).

The responses from a structured, self‐administered questionnaire were used to develop an understanding of the role of perceived ease of use, usefulness and enjoyment on behavioral intention to use enhanced (audiovisual) podcasts.

The statistical analysis indicated that perceived ease of use and perceived enjoyment were positively related to intention to use video podcasts, whereas perceived usefulness was not emerged as a strong prognostic indicator of user acceptance. Results also revealed that perceived ease of use is a strong predictor of perceived usefulness, supporting thus the view that perceived ease of use and perceived enjoyment are the two main drivers in regard to willingness to adopt podcasting as a learning tool.

Although previous research has found positive attitudes towards educational podcasting, most studies were focused on measuring student acceptance without using an established theoretical framework. This paper contributes to a better understanding of the drivers of student acceptance of educational podcasting, by integrating key variables from TAM found in literature concerning technology acceptance in higher education.

This research aims to identify users' goals and strategies when searching for podcasts and their impact on the design of podcast retrieval technology. In particular, the paper seeks to explore the potential to address user goals with indexing based on podcast metadata and automatic speech recognition (ASR) transcripts.

The paper conducted a user study to obtain an overview of podcast search behaviour and goals, using a multi‐method approach of an online survey, a diary study, and contextual interviews. In a subsequent podcast retrieval experiment, the paper investigated the retrieval performance of the two choices of indexing features for search goals identified during the study.

The paper found that study participants used a variety of search strategies, partially influenced by available tools and their perceptions of these tools. Furthermore the experimental results revealed that retrieval using ASR transcripts performed significantly better than metadata‐based searching. However, a detailed result analysis suggested that the efficacy of the indexing methods was search‐goal dependent.

The research constitutes a step towards a future framework for investigating user needs and addressing them in an experimental set‐up. It was primarily qualitative and exploratory in nature.

Podcast search engines require evidence about suitable indexing methods in order to make an informed decision concerning whether it is worth the resources to generate speech recognition transcripts.

Systematic studies of podcast searching have not previously been reported. Investigations of this kind hold the potential to optimise podcast retrieval in the long term.

Purpose – – This paper aims to briefly examine podcasts, from the perspective of usefulness for medical education.Design/methodology/approach This article offers definitions of podcasting and examines a small number of podcasts in greater detail.Findings – From early, promising beginnings in 2005, podcasts appear to be have diminished in popularity. Quality of the broadcasts provided by major journals is variable. There is a lack of research into the effectiveness of podcasts, and student responses are mixed. Podcasts remain, however, a potentially cost‐effective way of disseminating information in a range of areas, from conference proceedings to allowing students to catch up on lecturesResearch limitations/implications – As with many Web 2.0 applications, podcasts for educational purposes appear to remain underutilised.Originality/value – This article offers a brief overview and analysis of the current state of podcasts, with a particular focus on medical and scientific information.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the application of podcast in academic and public libraries, focusing on its purposes and characteristic features. It seeks to measure the degree of adoption of podcast in different types of libraries across the continents.

A content analysis method was used for data collection. Convenience sampling method was followed to select four samples of population, one from each of the four continents. Data were collected along the checkpoints developed by Nguyen and Tripathi and Kumar, and subsequently modified by the researcher. Microsoft Excel was used to analyze data.

The analysis revealed that library podcasts have some basic features and are implemented for specific purposes. It also revealed that adoption of podcast varies along the geographical regions. The study found that extension of implementation of podcast is high in North American libraries whereas intension of adoption of podcast is high in Australian libraries. However, the reason of disproportionate use of library podcast may be attributed to the differential internet penetration rate along the regions. The paper also identifies areas where podcast is being effectively used by libraries across the world.

The present study was limited to North America, Europe, Asia and Australia, and the survey was completely internet‐based, conducted on web sites available in English only. A combination of questionnaire and interview method may enable future researchers to measure the impact of podcast on users' and librarians' attitude and perception, which in turn, will determine the extent to which podcast is capable of motivating and engaging users to harness library facilities.

Based on the research findings, the scope of the present study may potentially be expanded with the inclusion of different dimensions to gain a comprehensive understanding on the practicability and usefulness of podcast in different libraries belonging to diverse socio economical levels. The findings will also guide future librarians and web developers alike in designing library web pages so that traditional library services could be provided in an innovative way to meet the expectations and information needs of the users.

This paper aims to discover how many American research libraries produce podcasts, on what subjects they are produced, and how those podcasts are promoted.

The researchers looked at each American research library's website in December 2009 to determine whether the library had a podcasting initiative and, if so, what topics were covered. General scanning of the website, site search and Google search were used to discover podcasts. Facebook and Twitter pages were also examined to determine whether social media were used for podcast promotion.

It was found that approximately one‐third of American research libraries have podcasting initiatives. Podcast subjects vary widely, and social media are only used occasionally to promote the podcasts. The paper concludes that podcasting is a technology that has not yet reached its zenith and libraries have many avenues left still to explore using this technology.

The paper provides a broad exploration of podcasting by ARL libraries, a perspective that is not yet offered by the literature.

Podcasting is a new mobile technology application for language learning. Drawing upon the stimulus–organism–response model and the interest driven creator (IDC) theory from e-learning, this study aims to develop and test an integrative conceptual framework. This study investigates contextual and environmental stimuli effects (content richness [CR], self-directed learning [SDL] and situational interest [SI]) from a podcast English learning context on learners’ experience states (cognitive absorption [CA], pleasure [PL] and arousal [AR]) and their subsequent responses (continuance learning intention [CLI]).

Using 416 valid responses from five universities located in North Taiwan, data analysis is performed using a structural equation model.

The results show that most of the interest factor stimuli (CR, SDL and SI) have significant impacts on learners’ experiences (CA, PL and AR), which in turn affect their CLI.

The findings provide useful insights for English show podcasters and operators to invest in establishing learners’ interest factor and stimulating experiences to improve their CLI.

This paper contributes to a better understanding of students who use contextual factors of podcast English learning and how these factors influence their CLI via a framework of stimulus–organism–response and the IDC theory.

Despite the recent interest and production of quality podcasts freely available online, there are relatively few podcasts available for K-12 teachers of economics. We see this as a missed opportunity given the real-time and real-world nature of economics. We have created the Econocast (http://econocast.org) website to help spark teachers’ imaginations to leverage podcasting in the economics classroom and to help make the publication process easier. In this article, we offer a definition of podcasting, discuss how podcasting might support the economics curriculum, and present a case study of a teacher's development of an “iReport” economics podcast for her ninth grade classroom. We invite readers to help realize the potential of podcasting to engage students in meaningful learning of economics concepts.

This paper aims to describe how the COVID-19 pivot to online teaching enabled a student-produced podcast assessment to be created and substituted for the final examination in an MBA accounting course.

This paper provides instructors’ reflections and feedback from students on the usefulness of podcasts as an assessment tool in accounting education. Also included are the assignment instructions and a marking rubric which can be adapted as a sharing network.

The pivot to the authentic podcast assessment proved to be a very positive outcome during COVID-19 for instructors and students. The students embraced and enjoyed the task, and importantly it was an efficient learning experience that connected theory to practice, while preserving authenticity.

Podcasts have grown in popularity and have been widely used with students as receivers. The accounting education literature is however devoid of instances where podcasts have been used as an assessment tool. Although the assessment was changed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has ongoing applicability as a useful assignment in future semesters.

To explore the benefits, challenges, and impact of podcasting in higher education and also to provide educators with anecdotal and practical advice and information on how to create and distribute podcasts.

In support of a traditional college course, a biology professor implemented podcasts to explore the value of coursecasting and its role in student learning. Direct observation, attendance counts, and server statistics supplement a survey that was distributed to 246 students involved in the project. Five survey questions focused on whether the podcasts affected the students' attendance of class, students' preferences for listening to and processing of lecture material, and students' perceptions of the academic impact associated with the podcast availability.

Taken together, the responses to the main questions from the survey and the student self‐reported comments strongly suggest that having podcast lectures available to students does not lead to large declines in class attendance. For the specific courses that were examined by this survey, students overwhelmingly preferred the actual lectures to the recorded podcasts. In addition, the large majority of students were using the podcasts to increase their understanding of material covered in specific lectures. All of these findings seem to indicate that students perceive the podcasts as really useful additional resources available to help them succeed in their courses rather than as a substitute for more traditional methods of learning.

In addition to research‐based findings on the podcasts' positive impact on the teaching and learning process, this paper provides practical, “how‐to” information on the creation of podcasts.

This study describes experiences and presents original research relating to the podcasting of college biology lectures. Research and observations respond to the question of whether podcasts detract from the educational process. For the prospective podcaster, this paper also shares specific methods, strategies, and how‐to information involved in the creation of an academic podcast.