Information about academic programs ranks very high in what high school students are looking for on a college/university website.
This is why the podcasts produced by the department of foreign languages and literatures at Iowa State University are a very, very good idea.
As announced in an article titled “Podcasts are being used to bring in new ISU students” and published in Iowa State Daily, Julio Rodriguez, instructional support specialist and director of the Foreign Language Learning Resource Center has come up with the concept of LangCasts, 10-minute podcasts that explain to prospective and current students why they should major or minor in a specific language.
Produced by students, these lively podcasts give a good overview of the main reasons to study a specific language via several interviews of students, alums or professors.
“So far, there are two series scheduled to be put online. The first 10 episodes will be in English and focus on the programs offered in the department. The other 10 will be like small language lessons,” reports Tess Hannapel in his article.
Personally, I would have enjoyed listening to a few words in the featured language in the first series of podcasts, as well. There were none in the episode about French.
These shows prove that podcasting can be used by academic departments to promote their majors or programs in a very engaging way.
