Podcasts vs video content: When is which one better?

August 18, 2021

In this day and age, even with COVID-19 restrictions, we are still able to continue with schooling and training in an online environment. This is excellent news for those who just finished school and wish to expand their minds and strengthen their foundations with tertiary education towards a brighter future. This is also true for companies who wish to better their employees’ service delivery and productivity through online business training.

The internet provides us with different tools in which to educate those in need, each with their own strengths and drawbacks. It is essential to know the pros and cons of these methods of education depending on your situation and educational needs to ensure that you get the most out of your online courses.

With this blog, we aim to compare some of the strengths and drawbacks of podcasts versus video content in certain situations.

Data Usage

Without even thinking about it, one would suggest that video content automatically has more advantages to podcasts, but under further investigation, one might realise that that is not the case. Although video content might seem all-encompassing, it requires more resources. For instance, data usage; South Africa is not exactly known to have the cheapest data packages. <a href="https://www.cable.co.uk/mobiles/worldwide-data-pricing/">According to a report by</a> cable.co.uk, South Africa ranks 148 out of 228 countries on the price of mobile bandwidth. Depending on your service provider, the average price per 1 GB of data would cost you around R88.

Data usage on videos is much greater than that of podcasts. According to <a href="https://www.pandasecurity.com/en/mediacenter/mobile-news/mobile-data-streaming-media/">research done by</a> pandasecurity.com, audio streaming uses on average between 43.2 MB per hour to 115.2 MB per hour depending on the audio quality. Whereas video streaming averages from 700 MB per hour up to a whopping 7.2 GB per hour depending on the video quality.

When consuming content on the go, unless you are connected to WiFi, podcasts are the better option. But videos do offer a more comprehensive overview of material. Some content can also only be presented with visual aids, meaning that sometimes, video will be the only option. If that is the case, the video will need to be compressed and played back at a lower quality to reduce data consumption.

Device Battery Life & Storage

When data usage is an issue, one could opt to download all your video materials when at home in bulk to be consumed on the go as well. The issue here lies with storage space and battery life. According to androidauthority.com, your device’s screen is one of the <a href="https://www.androidauthority.com/android-ios-battery-drain-708056/">most resource-intensive parts</a> of your phone using most of your battery life, especially if your screen brightness is really high which is necessary for high light environments for visual clarity. Watching videos on your device is more resource-intensive compared listening to podcasts as this can be done without having your screen turned on.

Downloading your educational content to improve data usage can eat away at your storage space as well. Doing so could force you to delete valuable or sentimental content from your device to have enough storage space to accommodate your educational videos.

To ensure you have adequate storage space on your smartphone or laptop and the battery life to consume as much educational content as necessary, it would be best to make use of podcasts rather than video content.

Subject Complexity

Subject complexity also plays a big role when choosing between podcasts and video content. Video content uses visual stimulants to better break down and explain complex subjects. <a href="https://www.cincopa.com/blog/10-reasons-to-use-video-for-education/">According to a report</a> by cincopa.com, after consuming information without any visual aids, the average person remembers only about 10% of the information received whereas information retention increases to about 65% with the use of visual stimulation.

Complex subject requires more time to be explained properly. Visual content does not only better explain complex subjects but it also keeps students engaged. Visual stimulation captures the attention of students and trainees whereas it is easy to get distracted when only listening to a podcast, especially when students don’t fully understand the subject.

Visual stimulation is of high importance when it comes to understanding complex subjects. In this case, it would be more beneficial to make use of video content.

Time Consumption

As visual stimulation helps to better understand complex subjects, it also uses less time to do so. With the use of podcasts, facilitators can only use their words to communicate and explain difficult subjects to learners. Thus, podcasts may be longer than necessary if using words to describe a concept that a picture could teach faster.

Both podcasts and video content give you the option to rewind and revise, but because (as above mentioned) the average person only retains about 10% of information compared to 65% of information with visual aids, more time will be spent on rewinding and revising podcasts as to video content.

If you are on a strict time schedule, it would be more beneficial to make use of video content rather than podcasts.

Equipment Needed to Produce Content

As facilitator or trainer, it is often your own responsibility to create your own content for your online courses. The tools and resources needed to do so also play a big role when creating said content.

Creating podcasts is fairly easy and requires minimal tools and equipment. For basic entry-level podcasts, you need the following:

<ul>

<li>A recording device (a microphone or even the mic on your smartphone)</li>

<li>Editing software and a basic understanding of how to use it</li>

<li>A quiet, preferably soundproof, room in which to record.</li>

</ul>

For a more professional approach to podcasting, according to an <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/podcast-how-to-start-best-equipment-804418/">article</a> by the Rolling Stone, there is a lot of different equipment needed including a mixer (for additional sound effects), noise-cancelling headphones, a buffer for your microphone, and much more.

As for video content, according to an <a href="https://www.teachingeslonline.com/equipment-tools-video/">article</a> by teachingeslonline.com, you will need much more equipment and time to create video content:

<ul>

<li>A camera (either a webcam, DSLR camera or your smartphone)</li>

<li>A microphone if the camera in use does not have a proper microphone</li>

<li>A tripod for your camera</li>

<li>A person to man the camera</li>

<li>Proper lighting</li>

<li>Editing software and a basic understanding of how to use it</li>

</ul>

The list of equipment and tools needed to create video content can be quite extensive especially when using animations as well. Animation and video editing software may need extensive knowledge to produce and may require the help of a second party to produce and edit.

Equipment can be expensive and hiring a second person to help record your sessions adds to the cost. When time, funds and equipment is your main obstacle, it would be better to consider making use of podcasts.

Variation and Enhancement of Content

When creating podcasts and video content, there are different elements that may be used to enhance your content. With podcasts, however, you may feel restricted as you only have the ability to use sound. Facilitators may add sound effects and music to their podcasts whereas, with video content, you are not as restricted.

When creating video content, you have the option to include the following elements to better explain complex subjects and keep students and trainees engaged:

<ul>

<li>Photographs and graphical images with text</li>

<li>Illustrations and icons</li>

<li>Visualisations like charts and graphs</li>

<li>Screencaptures</li>

<li>Animations and characters</li>

<li>Infographics and flowcharts</li>

<li>Visual notes</li>

<li>Music and sound effects</li>

</ul>

Making use of the above-mentioned content to enhance your teaching materials also allows multiple representations of the material. This means that your content won’t be typecast to a specific method of teaching allowing you to meet the needs of all of your students.

For more diverse content, video content has the upper hand in keeping students engaged.

Conclusion: podcasts or video content?

At the end of the day, the answer to the question, podcasts vs video content, is more complex and depends on the needs of the facilitator, student or trainee and the course itself. It is important to consider the resources that you have available and the know-how on how to use them effectively. With more complex subjects, it is better to make use of video content as opposed to podcasts whereas if you don’t have access to the necessary resources (especially when it comes to time management as facilitator), the later may be more beneficial.

Whether you opt to make use of video content or podcasts, SOCO_ED is an online learning management system that not only provides you with the platform on which to teach and the tools to create your content, we also strive to be your partner in online education to assist in the creation of content for your course. To learn more about what SOCO_ED has to offer, visit our website <a href="https://www.socoed.com/">https://www.socoed.com/</a>. For more information, please feel free to contact us on +27 (0) 21 879 2788 or send us an email at <a href="mailto:info@socoed.com">info@socoed.com</a> and we will get back to you.

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Podcasts vs video content: When is which one better?

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