How the use of modern techniques such as podcasting can enhance the learning experience.

Education researchers have discovered there is more to learning than meets the eye and that just telling or showing students information in the form of lectures and presentations may not produce as good a performance from them as finding a way to keep repeating that information without boring them to tears.

The basic premise is that when a student is shown information, they will absorb, at best, just 20% of the content. When lectur
rs, for example, combine showing information with giving the same information verbally, the retention rate rises to 30% but when students are able to return to that same information, over and over again, their ability to absorb it more than doubles to 70%.

With this in mind, a growing number of study courses, particularly those aimed at adults re-training or returning to the classroom are introducing Podcasts so that students can return, at their leisure, to lectures they have already attended or may have missed due to other commitments.

Many of the students who sign up for the intensive, year-long Postgraduate Diploma in Residential Landscape Architecture course are switching careers and juggling family and other responsibilities alongside their garden design studies so introducing "anytime, anywhere" access to "repeats" of information will now form a key component of the learning tools available to them.

The tutors at the Oxford College of Garden Design, for example, are currently working on a comprehensive range of Podcasts that, in effect , capture all the lectures given on the UK's top-rated garden design course.

About the author

Duncan Heather is one of Europe's foremost garden designers, to-date having won five gold, one silver & one bronze medal and three best of show awards for his design work.   He originally trained under, and then worked for, top international designer and author John Brookes before concentrating on his own design practice in Henley-on-Thames. Duncan is the director of the prestigious Oxford College of Garden Design which offers a post-graduate diploma in residential landscape architect now widely recognised as one of the best garden design courses in the world (see http://www.garden-design-courses.co.uk for details of taster courses).

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