Ext. School Podcast Tops List

A year after its debut, Computer Science E-1, “Understanding Computers and the Internet,” hit number one on Wired magazine’s list of university class podcasts.

“If every undergrad watched this series, IT help desks would be out of business,” Jeff Howe wrote in “Podcast Lectures 101” in the December issue of Wired.

The course, taught at Harvard Extension school, aims to increase students’ computer literacy and to help them understand the roots of computer problems, according to instructor David J. Malan ’99.

“In that sense, we hope that the course’s lessons are not only current but lasting,” Malan wrote in an e-mail.

And since the podcast launched, it has garnered a wide audience outside of the University. According to Malan, the course acquired between 6,000 and 10,000 subscribers when the podcast first became public last fall.

Sixty-two percent of these subscribers were from the United States, while the rest were from over 50 other countries.

Malan said the article has prompted a number of letters from web surfers.

“Just the other day, we received such notes from new subscribers as: ‘Got wind of the podcast for the class out of Wired. I must tell you that it is terrific....I own three Macs and use my computers all the time but I never quite understood a lot of the basics.’”

Student Eric Goodwin listens to lecture podcasts during his commute on the T.

“I think it’s amazing. [The podcast] is one of the only open sources of high-end education, provided you have the right technology,” Goodwin said. “It’s a very user-friendly course on top of the wide range of material.”

Harry R. Lewis, Gordon McKay professor of computer science, also began podcasting his course, Quantitative Reasoning 48, “Bits,” last spring.

“The Extension School may soon be making additional courses (or excerpts thereof) available via podcast,” Lewis wrote in an e-mail.

This fall, according to Malan, the course podcasts saw four terabytes of downloads in just the first 10 days.

Podcasts are one of the ways the course instructors seek to accommodate various students’ needs.

“We don’t view the podcast as a replacement for live classes but, rather, as a supplement,” wrote Malan.

But for those who cannot attend the class at Harvard, the podcasts present an attractive alternative.

“The commute to Cambridge from the Upper Galilee in Israel is a bit too much for me to attend the course in person. Nevertheless, your podcasts have been a great ‘second best,’” wrote one of the podcast’s international subscribers, according to Malan.

Recordings of Computer Science E-1 lectures are available for free via iTunes, at http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=81174875, in both MP3 and Quicktime formats.