Podcasting

"Podcasting" is an easy way to deliver audio files in such a way that people can subscribe, and receive regularly-updated downloads automatically to their computer or media player.

Technically, a podcast is a "newsfeed" with audio files added as "enclosures".

There are two possibilities for podcasting using Moodle:

1. Starting from Moodle 1.6, simply use the discussion forums tool! If you create a discussion forum and activate RSS feeds for the forum, you can simply post messages with media files as attachments. These will be delivered as podcasts in the RSS feed.
2. Use the Ipodcast add-in, which creates a specific podcasting activity type in Moodle. The advantage of this method is that it includes extra metadata designed to work well with Apple's iTunes software (such as keywords and category labels).

You may also like to know that a podcast about Moodle is in preparation, tentatively called "mCast".

Software for receiving podcasts

Apple's iTunes is currently one of the more popular pieces of software for subscribing to podcasts. The "original" program is Ipodder (now called "Juice"), which is open-source and cross-platform.

See also

• Wikipedia article on podcasting