Article Cristina Almeida- Aguiar†,‡* Ana Am elia Carvalho§ From the †CITAB, Centre for the Research and Technology of Agro- Environmental and Biological Sciences, AgroBioPlant Group, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal, ‡Biology Department, School of Sciences, University of Minho, Braga, 4710-057, Portugal, §Faculty of Psychology and Sciences Education, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, 3001-802, Portugal Abstract Podcasts are digital files very popular in several and very distinct areas. In higher education, they have been explored in a multitude of ways mainly to support teaching and learning processes. The study here described focuses the integration of podcasts in Heredity and Evolution, a course from the Biology and Geology Degree Program at University of Minho, Portugal. It aimed to introduce pod- casts in the teaching/learning context, to empirically study different dimensions of podcasting, and to evaluate stu- dents’ acceptance and receptiveness to the pedagogical use of this technology. Five informative podcasts and three with feedback were produced and delivered. All the stu- dents listened to the audio files and considered the epi- sodes audible and clear, their preference going to episodes of short or moderate length and containing summaries, study guidelines or syllabus contents. Students judged extremely valuable the integration of this technology in learning and showed receptiveness to podcasting in other courses. Curiously, in spite of owning mobile devices, stu- dents clearly favored the use of personal computers to lis- ten to the podcasts. This student acceptance and openness to podcasting has been encouraging its pedagogical appli- cation in other teaching courses. The episodes produced often maintain the characteristics identified as the best by the students of this study but the pedagogical approach has been moving to a more student-centered learning sit- uation, with students as podcasts producers. V C 2016 by The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 44(5):429–432, 2016. Keywords: podcasts; higher education; teaching/learning; Biology Introduction Podcasts are digital media files delivered through the Inter- net that can be subscribed to and downloaded by listeners via RSS (Really Simple Syndication) technology. Podcasts can be exclusively audio files or can integrate video, being in this case classified as vidcasts or vodcasts. Audio can also be combined with image giving rise to new podcasts typologies that have been designated as enhanced podcasts (when audio is combined with pictures or still images) and screencasts (when computer screens are used and associ- ated with an audio component). Due to the ease of production/editing and distributing podcasting rapidly evolved to several areas and applications other than radio shows, its former popular use [1]. Education professionals soon predicted the enormous potential of pod- casting for teaching too. Salmon et al. [2] claim that there is a renaissance of audio and some authors argue that podcasts can be more than simple audio recordings, constituting “a form of expression, of interaction, of community building” [3]. The pedagogical advantages of audio over printed media are also reported by other authors like Durbridge [4], who stated that the spoken word can influence both cognition and motivation, helping in establishing social presence [5]. Podcasts in Higher Education Podcasts have been used and still are being applied in higher education in different courses and with several dif- ferent purposes [2, 6–15]. Volume 44, Number 5, September/October 2016, Pages 429–432 *Address for correspondence to: Biology Department, School of Sciences, University of Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal. E-mail: cristina.aguiar@bio.uminho.pt. Received 19 May 2015; Revised 2 January 2016; Accepted 8 February 2016 DOI 10.1002/bmb.20965 Published online 26 March 2016 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) Exploring Podcasting in Heredity and Evolution Teaching Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education 429