Podcasting.

Alex Sallis, MA Student, Politics:
I did a module in my final year and all of the lectures were actually up on the Internet, they were recorded, there was a microphone that the lecturer spoke into. That was very helpful because anything I did miss when I was coming around to doing a piece of coursework or exam revision you could go over them and listen to them again...

...and you could really make decent notes and pick out what you needed to pick out (as opposed to useless notes which I normally make).

Christine Carter, Academic Support:
I certainly got a student who was being very positive about the podcasting in the way that it allows her to pause when she needs to. So that if there is a concept or a word that she hasn’t got at any point in the lecture, sooner than the lecture continuing and her being a bit left behind because there’s this word she hasn’t understood, she can stop it and check it at that point and then carry on,

and it seems to make the whole process much more active for her. Plus you’ve got the dual input of auditory and seeing the text as well, and you can manipulate it and stop and start according to their own needs. And repeat as many times as they need to I think is important as well.

Barbara Taylor, Academic Support:
I’ve had students who have downloaded material and then listened to it on their walk in and out of university, and because they’re actually doing something quite physical and active at the time and they’ve got it coming into their heads, they seem to find the combination of movement and learning really productive.

Kate:
Are there any particular teaching methods or teaching and learning approaches that you feel are very valuable for students with dyslexia?

Andy Fisher, Philosophy:
Yes, the stuff about beforehand having stuff online, so lecture notes and things like this, but also audio, I mean people with dyslexia tend to be audio learners and that approach, and I find that podcasts online are helpful as well.

Anna Kidd, MBA student:
I'm very lucky in some ways that I'm doing business because a lot of the key thinkers in business are quite technically savvy, and you get a lot of podcasts of the major journals, so I'm hooked up to itunes to receive free downloads from podcasts from the Times, The Financial Times, Harvard Business Press, just about anything I can and I listen to them and they're usually about fifteen minutes long so I have a habit of downloading them onto my ipod and listening to them as I cycle into the lectures so that's quite good.