Podcasts for Training in an Organisational Setting Research Proposal

Podcasts for Training in an Organisational Setting - Research Proposal Example Podcasting offers consumer appeal, ease of use, and accessibility. The term podcasting, for the purpose of this research, refers to a technological tool that is mobile and has the capacity for internet communication, multimedia playback, and storage. A primary example of such a device is the famous iPod by the Apple Company. Although other podcast-enabled devices are available on the market, iPod is currently the preferred podcasting device (Apple 2006). The advance of technology has an obvious impact on the processes we use in an organization or institution. The suggested research will examine the affects of using podcasts for training in an organizational setting to determine its benefits and drawbacks on the training procedure. The following section of the proposal discusses the perceived relevance of the intended research, as it outlines and challenges the ability of the podcasting method to quantifiably enhance training in a given subject area. The second section presents comparable research studies through the literature review which focuses on podcasting in a first part, on the physiological and psychological aspects of learning in a second part. The third section relates to the methodology to follow in order to reach the research objectives outlined in the first section of the proposal. The details of the methodology utilized to test and measure our experiments are presented in that segment. The perspective of training with information-age technology offers a wide range of possibilities in several fields including higher education, medical and healthcare, business and management. Research Question/Why is the Research Important (300 words) Proposed Question: What do employees at my organisation (Boston Scientific) perceive as the benefits of podcasting Researchers forecast between 30 and 57 million people living in the United States will access and use iPod technology by the year 2010 - This estimate gives a general outlook on the advance of podcast-like technology into our everyday lives (Mindlin 2005). The Podcasting technology has enjoyed and continues to enjoy phenomenal growth in our society, particularly in higher education (Campbell 2005). Several institutions of higher education including Drexel and Duke University have recently introduced podcasting as a supplementary learning tool (Duke 2006). These universities embraced the technology as a way to leverage and improve the quality of their training, and the learning benefits of the technology are manifest. Dr. Lucic from Duke University concluded that the iPod initiative at Duke not only encouraged students to "think on their own", but also increased their level of creativity in how to use the technology to facilitate the learning experience (Dalrymple 2006). The adoption of the podcasting technology in these various institutions of h