Podcasting: A New Tool for Student Retention?

In 2004, podcasting--a combination of the words "iPod" and "broadcast"--was an esoteric interest of computer nerds. Yet, within a year, multiple Web sites as well as iTunes carried thousands of podcasts. Due to the proliferation of available podcasts, the editors of the New Oxford American Dictionary (^n.d. ) chose it as the word of the year for 2005, defining it as "a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the Internet for downloading to a personal audio player" (para. 1).

Mobile learning refers to learners taking advantage of learning opportunities offered by mobile technology (^{Kukulska-Hulme, 2005} ). Mobile phones, smartphones, laptop computers, tablet PCs, media players (MP3 or iPods), and personal digital assistants are examples of mobile technology devices. Podcasting uses a form of mobile technology that all students are familiar with and that most own.

Taking a nursing course is often likened to learning a new language. In fact, many programs in health care education offer courses in medical terminology to assist students in mastering this new vocabulary. For students with English as a second language (ESL), this presents a unique challenge. These students are learning the pronunciation, spelling, and correct usage of an entirely new vocabulary. The unlikely match of the use of mobile learning and second-language learning comes from research that shows spaced repetition results in more robust learning. In other words, repetition across time is a more effective way to learn and retain information than during a sustained period of time, such as in a single class (^{Kukulska-Hulme, 2005} ).

Although diversity paralleling the U.S. population is a goal of the nursing profession (^{Benner, Sutphen, Leonard, & Day, 2010} ), the diversity in entry-level nursing programs has not kept pace with the growing diversity of the American population as a whole (^{Sullivan Commission on Diversity in the Healthcare Workforce, 2004} ). Although it will take years for the diversity in the profession to match the diversity of student admissions, there is a disparity between the percentage of diverse students who are admitted and the percentage of diverse students who become RNs. Wells (²⁰⁰³ ) attributes this disparity to student attrition, and Guhde (²⁰⁰³ ) adds that most ESL...