Hooked on podcasts: evidence from a quasi-experimental approach

The podcast is a tool that economic educators can employ in the classroom as an alternative approach to convey content. Using a unique quasi-experimental approach in four undergraduate economics classes, we measure student perceptions of podcast use and the effectiveness of the podcast as a pedagogical tool in the economics curriculum. This experiment controls for demographic characteristics, educational background, learning styles, instructor fixed effects, and class fixed effects while measuring the impact of podcast use on student learning outcomes. We find that exam scores of students assigned podcasts to supplement their learning were statistically no different than those of students assigned printed news articles to supplement their learning. However, in terms of perception, students believed they were learning more from podcasts than news articles.