How do we assess student podcasts?

As podcasting continues to move towards being a mainstream learning technology then people start to wonder how we might actually assess student podcasts.

I found an interesting first stab at providing a rubric for assessing podcasts. The rubric is designed to be used as a self-assessment and a peer assessment tool.

It is available from http://www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/podcastrubric.html

My first point is that I think this is a really good “first stab” at developing a generic rubric that people can customise for their local needs.

That said if I was trying to customise the rubric then I’d to account for the rubric focusing on assessing the production quality of the podcast not the content. Secondly, I was confused whether this is a self assessment or a peer assessment tool, the criteria needs to be developed so that this isn’t blurred. A final observation is to be aware that the use of this type of matrix may well result in the podcasts being very same-ish. For instance, by including a section on interviews, will they all start to include interviews? I’d be very conscious to design the rubric to reward creativity, where the emphasis is on creative / innovative approaches to achieve the learning objectives of the resource.