1. Developing Podcasts To
Assist Students With The
Production Of A Professional
Online Presence
HEA Changing The Learning Landscape

2. My Background
Dr. Thomas Lancaster Senior Lecturer in Computing at
Birmingham City University
Leader of Innovations in
Computing Education Group
Programme Leader Computer
Science
Teach students about
Professional Online Presences
and employability
Have organised and presented
several HEA workshops and
published research on the subject

3. Current employers are very interested in the wide range of
sites that students use to present themselves online
Their “professional online presence”
This can include both directed sites (such as a personal
website or a LinkedIn profile) and unorganised sites (such as
Facebook)
Students need to be encouraged to present a positive view
and portfolio about themselves online
Many academics are not ready to provide this, which is
something that I hope to help with as part of this funded
project
3
My View

4. The HEA have funded this project to develop a series of
eight podcasts to train students on issues related to
Professional Online Presences
The podcasts are to be based on eight existing sets of slides
(Open Educational Resources) which I have prepared, so
this is largely repurposing
4
The Funding

5. 8 Sessions Of Material Available From The HEA:
1. Overview (The Internet and its role in employability)
2. Preparation (Claiming identities and preparing profiles)
3. LinkedIn (Using LinkedIn for marketing)
4. Facebook (Preparing Facebook accounts for public consumption)
5. Video (Using YouTube for self-promotion)
6. Web Sites (How to produce a personal web site)
7. Promotion (Making full use of the social media opportunities)
8. Advanced (Monitoring sites and demonstrating expertise)
5
Existing Resources Available

6. 6
Example – Session One

7. http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/events/detail/2012/08_Jun_HEA_STEM_Employability
_BCU 7
Resources Available At…

8. The personal challenge (and benefit) is a lack of experience
creating podcasts
I intend to explore a balance between best
practices, achievability and the typical academic “lack of
budget”
Repurposing existing resources is useful, but they may not
be presented in the best way for podcast use (and some
updates will be needed)
A particular challenge with this material will be working out
how to change a visual format into an audible one
8
The Challenge

9. A blog has been prepared to track developments and
progress at:
http://professionalonlinepresence.com/changingthelearninglandsca
pe
The hope is that the main site will eventually archive
materials and information related to the wider Professional
Online Presences area
My own details and my Professional Online Presence can be
found at:
http://thomaslancaster.co.uk 9
Follow Along