Podcasting involves four essential steps to create a successful production. These are:

1. Plan
2. Produce
3. Publish

We are going to go over these in brief detail and point you towards resources to assist in the process. So we will begin with planning the podcast.

Planning

All good productions involve some sort of planning whether you are an expert or a beginner content creator. In the end you will produce a better quality podcast. In the planning phase you want to have three parts in mind:

• Podcast topic: Keep in mind your topic at hand and structured. Once you have the topic you will be discussing, whether it be a piece of literature or a film, don’t stray too far from it.

 

• Podcast format: How will you segment up your podcast? Usually a podcast will have an intro, welcome messages, content section, final thoughts/conclusions and an outro. If you do decide to use any music in your podcast, for example section changing, keep to music with a creative commons licensing.

 

• Location: Even if your podcast is only audio, location changing the sound of your voice. Additionally, ambient sounds can play a huge impact in your podcast, in some cases add to the immersion of your show. With that being said: most podcasts are recorded in an enclosed, quiet, environment, so that your listeners can focus on your content.

 

Produce

This is the part where you get your your microphone and begin the recording process! As we have talked about previously you do not need expensive equipment to create a podcast. Any modern microphone will do. We recommend you use the open source software: Audacity to create your podcasts with. Click here to get some basic tutorials on how to use the software.
Publish

Now that we have your content created we can focus on putting the content out there. First you need to convert your file into an MP3. When you export your podcast from Audacity there is an option on how you want to save your audio as, choose MP3 on that dialogue.

Next you need to upload your podcast so that your audience, your instructor and fellow students, can listen. Refer to your instructor for this step as it will be different for everyone.

Finally, you may want to consider creating show notes for your podcast. Whether that is a full transcript of all the audio in the podcast, or just a little note on the main topics you are discussing. Show notes can help guide your listeners through your content.