In our study, we had four aims. We wanted to investigate whether or not:
- Podcasts before lectures could help students understand conceptually difficult topics in elementary first year undergraduate physics, and how much.
- Podcasts in audio alone could enhance student understanding of these concepts, in a subject context that traditionally relies on visual representation in teaching concepts.
- Podcasts could, as well as providing an introduction to selected conceptually-challenging topics, provoke students to reflect on their understanding of these topics, based on previous study of the subject at school.
- Podcasts created specifically effect of enhancing conceptual understanding would contradict Mayer’s (2001) suggestion that additional instruction via supplementary material can have a detrimental effect on learning.
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