Blackboard, a popular eLearning platform now supports podcasting through a “Building Block” plugin.

Tegrity Campus Blackboard Building Block enables institutions to automatically capture, store and index every class on campus for later replay by every student. The on-demand content is accessible through Blackboard on any computer, and is now available on iPods as well. Each podcast is automatically indexed and enhanced with instructor audio, slides and annotations from class, making it much more engaging than audio-only podcasts.

During class, instructors press a button to start and stop recording and the software  creates visual podcasts broken down by chapter, that are uploaded after class to the right place on the Tegrity Server. The Tegrity Campus Blackboard Building Block component uses information already available in the Blackboard Learning System to  catalogue the recordings by course. While listening to their podcasts, students can  navigate to specific parts (chapters) of their class..

El Centro College of the Dallas (TX) County Community College District is the first Blackboard enterprise client to adopt Tegrity enhanced podcasting. Tuck Minnett, El Centro’s Director of Distance Learning, says that “iPods are everywhere and their portability is becoming an inevitable part of education’s future. Our students are now able to reinforce their learning while on the way to school, work, home or just juggling their busy schedules.”