At the start of November the OUCS Podcasting Service launched a new web portal to showcase nearly three thousand audio, video and eBook items freely available for download (http://podcasts.ox.ac.uk).
Replacing the previous directory, the improved site presents a rich set of pages displaying podcast series and items. At a glance visitors can see the most recent items added to the site and the most popular. The new portal enables material to be found, grouped and reviewed in a new myriad of ways, including searching by media type, speaker, keyword or department. Each item has its own unique linkable URL, making it easy to link to resources from reading lists, in emails or share via social media channels.
The site is enriched with advanced features to improve the discovery of lectures and talks from across all University divisions. Students can now effortlessly create a library of lectures to be played online in the browser or via a media player such as an iPod or iPad.
Recent series highlights include:
- Alumni Weekend: a series of 80 videos from Oxford experts, this year concentrating on the great environmental and scientific challenges of the 21st century
- The New Psychology of Depression: Dr Danny Penman and Professor Mark Williams discuss medical approaches to dealing with stress, anxiety and depression
- The Elements of Drawing: Stephen Farthing R.A. presents eight practical drawing classes using John Ruskin’s teaching collections
- Pitt Rivers Museum: a series of audio podcasts from the Pitt Rivers Museum, which houses archaeological and ethnographic objects from all parts of the world
- Centre on Migration, Policy and Society: a series on migration and societal change
- Approaching Shakespeare: a continuing lecture series with every talk tackling a specific play
Material is constantly added to the site which now contains over 1,500 hours of talks, lectures, and conference presentations and a series of literature-related eBooks. A special area surfaces material that can be reused openly in schools and education under a Creative Commons license http://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/open.
The web site compliments the Oxford on iTunes U service for those who do not wish to use iTunes software.
The podcast team value your feedback and would like to hear what you think about the new portal and Oxford podcasts.
Contact them at podcasts@oucs.ox.ac.uk, or through the contact form on the web site.
