Listen up: why audio assessment needs better design

University educators are increasingly turning to podcasting as an alternative form of assessment. Audio assignments appear to offer students an excellent way to demonstrate learning beyond the confines of the traditional essay, while developing communication skills valued outside academia. 

Yet for all its promise, podcasting frequently underperforms as an assessment method. Students report confusion about expectations, staff struggle to articulate assessment criteria and the resulting work often oscillates between scripted essays read aloud and loosely structured reflective talk. 

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The problem here is not that of podcasting as a medium, but how it is understood and designed within an academic framework. Podcasting is not “just audio”. It carries distinct editorial norms that require explicit teaching, clear purpose and careful alignment with learning outcomes. 

Without these, podcasting risks becoming a superficial format change rather than a meaningful assessment strategy. 

Why podcasting is not writing

A central issue in podcast-based assessment is the assumption that students already know how to podcast. Because podcasts are now a familiar part of everyday media consumption, educators often conflate listening with producing. But recognising what makes a podcast engaging does not equate to knowing how to construct one.

Students arrive at university with extensive experience of essay writing. They understand, often implicitly, how written academic arguments are structured, how evidence is mobilised and what counts as an appropriate academic voice. 

Podcasting conventions, by contrast, are rarely taught. When students are assessed on podcasting without instruction, they are in effect being asked to perform an unfamiliar genre without a rulebook. 

The predictable result is that students default to what they know. Some write essays and read them aloud, producing dense, cognitively demanding audio. Others adopt an informal conversational style that prioritises personal reflection over academic purpose. Neither approach takes full advantage of what audio can do as a communicative medium. 

Podcasting as assessment requires the integration of two distinct but interconnected skill sets. The first is disciplinary knowledge: conceptual understanding, critical engagement with content and the ability to select and organise ideas. This is what universities already assess well. 

The second is communicative craft: shaping content for listening, managing pacing and tone, constructing narrative flow and guiding an audience through an argument. This skill set is often assumed rather than taught, yet it is central to effective podcasting. 

Problems arise when these skill sets are treated as interchangeable or when one is privileged at the expense of the other. Strong content without communicative design produces inaccessible audio; polished delivery without conceptual rigour produces engaging but shallow work. Podcasting only functions as a robust academic assessment when these skill sets intersect. 

Seen in this way, podcasting is inherently interdisciplinary. Not because of subject matter, but because it requires students to move between epistemic knowledge and communicative practice. 

The importance of audience awareness

One of the most common pitfalls in podcast assessment is the slide from communication into reflection. Reflection is a valuable pedagogical tool, but it is inward-facing and retrospective. Podcasting, by contrast, is outward-facing. It assumes a listener. 

When podcast tasks lack clear purpose, students often respond by talking about what they learned rather than using audio to do something with that learning. The result is descriptive or exploratory speech that lacks direction. 

Effective podcasts are purposeful. They explain, argue, persuade, translate or interrogate ideas for a defined audience. Direction is what turns speech into communication. Without it, audio risks becoming performative rather than meaningful. 

This distinction matters for assessment. If podcasting is assessed without explicit attention to purpose and audience, students are rewarded for speaking rather than for communicating. Audience awareness is not an optional extra; it is the organising principle. Decisions about language, tone, pacing and structure are all shaped by assumptions about who is listening.

In written academic work, audience expectations are deeply embedded through repeated educational exposure. In podcasting, these expectations must be made explicit. Who is the podcast for? What does the audience already know? What should they leave understanding differently? 

When an audience remains undefined, students often default to speaking as if to themselves or to the assessor. When audience is clearly specified, students make more deliberate and effective communicative choices. Embedding audience identification into assessment criteria helps reframe podcasting as communication, rather than performance. 

Another common design flaw is the assumption that structures developed for reading translate seamlessly into audio – they do not. Listeners cannot skim, reread or visually scan. They rely on signposting, repetition and narrative coherence. Effective podcasts are structured around how people listen, not how academics write. 

Design podcasting assessments intentionally

Genre matters here. A narrative explainer, a debate, an interview and a public-facing commentary each require different rhetorical strategies and structural conventions. Without guidance, students are left to invent their own hybrid forms, often with uneven results. 

Teaching podcasting as craft rather than leaving students to “figure it out” is essential. Podcasting becomes pedagogically weak when it is introduced as an innovation without constructive alignment. Learning outcomes, teaching activities and assessment criteria must all reflect the communicative affordances of audio. 

When alignment is unclear, students experience podcasting as arbitrary. They are unsure what is being assessed, how quality will be judged or why audio was chosen in the first place. This uncertainty does not foster creativity or engagement – it undermines both. 

Podcast-based assessment therefore requires a form of assessment literacy that educators often overlook. Students need to understand not only what they are being assessed on, but why podcasting is the appropriate medium for demonstrating that learning. 

There is no doubt that podcasting can be a powerful assessment tool. It can support public-facing communication, develop transferable skills and encourage students to think carefully about how knowledge circulates beyond the academy. 

But this potential is realised only when podcasting is treated as a legitimate academic genre. Audio does not automatically make assessment more inclusive, authentic or engaging – intention does. 

Purposeful design, explicit teaching and clear alignment are what transform podcasting from a novelty into meaningful pedagogy. The question for educators is not whether to use podcasting, but how to design it so students are assessed on communication rather than simply their ability to talk.

Eleanor Roseblade is senior lecturer in media production at the School of Media and Communications at the University of Westminster.

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