Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
The Transform your Teaching podcast is a service of the Center for Teaching and Learning at Cedarville University in Cedarville, Ohio. Join Dr. Rob McDole and Dr. Jared Pyles as they seek to inspire higher education faculty to adopt innovative teaching and learning practices.
Hey, Transform Your Teaching listeners. We want to hear from you. And so we are currently running a survey, and at the end of the survey, you'll have a chance to enter to win a book giveaway for Uncommon Sense Teaching. So please take some time, fill out our survey, and it'll help us make better episodes in 2026. Thanks.
Narrator:This is the Transform Your Teaching podcast. The Transform Your Teaching Podcast is a service of the Center for Teaching and Learning at Cedarville University in Cedarville, Ohio.
Ryan:Hello, and welcome to this episode of Transform Your Teaching. In today's episode, Dr. Rob McDole and Dr. Jared Pyles are looking to this year ahead in 2026. Thanks for joining us.
Jared:Rob, it is January. We are embarking on year four of this podcast. And, Brian pulled up some ChatGPT stats about podcasts. According to ChatGPT, 50% of podcasts stop before episode 14, sometimes referred to as the pod fade, which is a great name for an episode or a series. The pod fade.
Jared:Median lifespan is often cited as six to twelve months, meaning many shows stop within their first year. Only a small percentage 20% continue publishing regularly after two years. So we have, I mean, we're already like above and beyond.
Rob:I wonder what's the oldest.
Jared:The oldest podcast ever? Oldest running podcast. In podcast form? As in like, the way that we do it now? Because you Yeah, got
Rob:I mean podcasts have been around for a while.
Jared:No, I know that. But like not in this form. I mean, like
Rob:I thought podcast was a form.
Jared:No, I mean, like, what I'm saying though, is that you can go back to talk radio hosts and series and seasons and do it that way. Like American radio show.
Rob:Okay.
Jared:Public radio.
Rob:But anything outside of like not backed by a radio station.
Jared:Or like it, that is how would we define podcasts? It would have to be something that was digital, portable, digital, portable, and not on demand because the podcast got its name from the iPod. Right. That's where that name came from was the iPod. It became podcast because iPod started to use.
Jared:That's what I thought anyway.
Rob:If I do remember right, and I think he's not wrong in terms of RSS, he mentioned RSS, which is really simple syndication is what that stands for.
Jared:I didn't know that.
Rob:Simple syndication. You could latch on to an RSS feed.
Jared:Right.
Rob:And you wouldn't have to go. It would push to you. So instead of you pulling, it pushes. Sure. So anytime something new comes out in a in a feed.
Rob:So if someone publishes, it could have been a video, it could have been an audio recording. It could have been a message. Yeah. You do news that way. So that's how news gets pushed out.
Rob:It's some sort of an RSS feed.
Jared:Right.
Rob:And so that's really where it came from. And podcasting, I think just became the audio version Gotcha. Of that and got formalized into Apple's. I think they were probably one of the I think their podcast platform was one of the first ones, but I'm not sure. Right.
Rob:That's why to me, being an old school tech person, it was kind of like, why are we making such a big to do about something that's been around for quite some time?
Jared:According to ChadGPTV, widely recognized as one of the first and longest running podcasts was Design Matters launching 02/04/2005. But anyway, we're on year four. We are going to set the stage for the year in this episode, going over some goals. So let's officially launch the twenty twenty six year of the Transform Your Teaching podcast.
Rob:And I think it's gonna be an exciting year. I'm looking forward to some of the things that we've got coming. Yeah. Obviously, we always have things that pop up during the year. But I think as a team, we've we've learned it's better to plan ahead.
Rob:Sure. And then we get surprises that are really pleasant. We've had several of those in the past year or two for sure.
Jared:Oh, yeah.
Rob:With guests we've had on on the show. And so we've been talking to folks, talking amongst ourselves, obviously getting feedback as best we can from multiple places. And one of the things that we really have seen is that everyone seems to be enjoying student perspectives.
Jared:Oh, yes. So very popular.
Rob:That's going to come back. Yep. So I'm looking forward to that. We're gonna have try to have at least the same number of student interviews that we had last year. Maybe a few more.
Jared:Oh, why not? I mean, they, they're podcast gold. I mean, my goodness, people love and we love listening to them too because it's been incredibly informative.
Rob:Yes, it has.
Jared:It's giving us insights into, you know, what research says and then versus what students actually say. Yeah. Very, very cool.
Rob:Anecdotal, I know for those of you who are sure you and I included who like to look at studies, do studies as well. But still, there is something to that qualitative side of just talking with someone. Yeah. And hearing what they actually do. It's informative.
Rob:And so that has been the case for us as well. And we're looking forward to some more on those things. But it kind of leads me into what you and I both are really interested in. And we kind of touched on a little bit this past year through self determination theory.
Jared:Yep.
Rob:We keep kind of heading back that way. But really what we're looking at is motivation theory. Want to look into what motivates. I mean, obviously, know about the dopamine stuff.
Jared:Sure.
Rob:Right? And its effect. But I think there's just a lot to be gleaned from that, especially if we can find folks who would be willing to speak, who have expertise in these areas, like in the field of psychology that can help us and help our listeners apply. Yeah, some sound, you know, motivation theory.
Jared:Let's get some science behind
Rob:it. Some science, serious science, serious science, but also embedded in a foundation of biblical.
Jared:Oh, yeah.
Rob:Philosophy. And so I am in theology. And so I'm really looking forward to that. What are some of the ones that you're looking forward to?
Jared:So my preference is online learning. It's always been online education. Think it's because I'm a product of my doctorate as a product of online education going through Boise State, completely online program. So I'm a big proponent of it. And something that had surfaced about a year and a half ago when I was talking with some of my online ID comrades was the idea of online community and closeness versus connection.
Jared:And so we're going to talk with some of our friends at Boise and others because, you know, going back to the student perspectives, you know, best practices would say that online community and fostering that connection between students is tantamount for a student to feel a part of the learning community. And it's a big influencer on their ability to succeed in a course. But then we bring in students and go,
Rob:Yeah, I don't care. You know,
Jared:I can stay the road. I mean, there are some learners like that. They're like, Don't bother me. I'm going to be motivated on my own. I don't need to have a group thing.
Jared:I don't need to have discussion. I don't even touch the course Q and A. Know what I'm doing. Leave me alone. Then you have others who want that connection.
Jared:So we're going to explore that more. My goal in that series is really to come up with a foolproof plan for online connection for students. That is my goal. If I can come across with a no holds barred, perfect, flawless plan, I will be happy. Anything short of that, I will be very angry.
Jared:But I'm saying that now.
Rob:Because you already know you're gonna be very angry.
Jared:Exactly. I am completely ready to be. I am ready to prove a point, as Michael Scott would say. That's one of my favorites that I'm looking forward to us uncovering and talking with some experts in the field.
Rob:I think that was one of the things this past year that kind of hit you by surprise a couple of times, especially when we did those student interviews. But even when we went to some of the conferences, you're sitting there listening to a particular person on the topic and then they turn around and say, Yeah, but it's really not working that way at all. And I hate they're studying it and then they go, and I hate doing these things.
Jared:I know, it's incredible. I mean, you've got Wait a minute! Experts in the field who are writing about online community and then they go, Yeah, but no one really likes doing it.
Rob:Yeah, and it's terrible. I hate group projects.
Jared:Yeah, hate discussions and group projects and everything else.
Rob:What a waste.
Jared:Yeah, really. But then you've got people like researchers working together at different universities at these conferences like this. Yeah. There's an element of online collaboration there.
Rob:Do they also secretly hate it?
Jared:And they're like, well, I have to do this thing with this person. I see them once or twice a year. So I have to we have to do collaborative stuff online.
Rob:Yeah, we have to do a little bit here so we can go out to Disney and ride the Exactly
Jared:right. Ride the water taxi around the Broadway. Yeah, so online community for sure. Big fan of that one.
Rob:Well, then another one that goes along the lines of with motivation a little bit, but more the continuous process of improvement. Yep. We've discussed that. And we're really going to highlight that more this coming year. And we're calling it needle movers.
Rob:So what we mean by that is that we're looking for folks in different areas of teaching and learning that are innovating in a way that it moves the needle in the right direction positively in a particular area. So I think we're going to be able to look at different areas and how some of our guests would be moving the needle in terms of teaching and learning. So I think that's going to be a fun time because we're going to be able to it's not just going to be technology, it's going to be all sorts of things. It could be classroom management. It could be right, you know, what kinds of assignments are you doing?
Rob:How are you making things better? What areas are you looking at? How are you changing something maybe you've done for many, many years? So I'm looking forward to that one.
Jared:Yeah. We always talk about the foundation of this podcast is servant teaching. But then a byproduct of that and sometimes through servant teaching is the innovative teaching strategies. And that's something we really hearken back to often on this podcast is what are teachers doing that are innovative, that our listeners or we as individuals could put into practice immediately to see the greatest impact? So any kind of person that's pushing that needle in that direction by using some stuff we haven't heard of, or it could be old stuff used in new ways.
Jared:I saw a random Instagram reel of someone using PowerPoint and they had redesigned it or they had manipulated it in some way to make it more interactive. Just an old tool. I mean, given.
Rob:Well, PowerPoint has been around for quite
Jared:So some I guess you could qualify it as quantify it as old or qualify it, whichever you want to do. But just using that in a new way. I mean, let's breathe some life back into PowerPoint and make it innovative again. Make PowerPoint innovative again.
Rob:That's why I'm going
Jared:to get a hat and put that on in So front of we're going to be on the lookout for these needle movers. If you know someone who would like to nominate a needle mover, we should have a nomination form that we
Rob:put Yeah, somebody that we're going to interview, somebody that one of our listeners knows about and say, hey, you need to talk to them.
Jared:And we'll give you a coffee mug that says like, I move the needle or something. Don't know, something like that. Oh, we can go Something kind of cool. Yeah. But yeah, that's the needle movers segment we're going to start adding to the podcast this year.
Jared:We're also going to be doing our normal book reviews as Rob and I read books together. We're going to review them. We're also going to do some high quality faculty interviews like we have. We always love featuring our faculty here on campus at Cedarville. Again, that's probably part of the needle movers idea, but if we have some faculty we run into, we'll be more than happy to put them on To give us some to share some insights with us.
Rob:And kind of the final one, which has been something that goes back to your whole thing about wanting to have community.
Jared:Yes.
Rob:I think I think is where it's is a Q and A episode. So so we've tried to do we've tried to do a q and a episode. We did that one kind of quasi live here on campus two years ago, I think.
Jared:Yeah, you're right.
Rob:And I mean, was it was okay. It did. I think it did. All right.
Narrator:Sure.
Rob:Yeah. But it wasn't one of those like ground swells of feedback where people were like, yeah, do that again.
Jared:No, it wasn't. But
Rob:you still have this insatiable desire. This
Jared:desire for a Q and A
Rob:to hear from other people.
Jared:Just one.
Rob:One person.
Jared:Q and A. I bring this up so often on this podcast. It feels like we're speaking into a vacuum.
Rob:Well,
Jared:I mean, technically, if you want to go down the route, we are technically speaking into a vacuum. But I don't care if it's one question. I just the whole episode can be one question. That's fine. Five minutes, the shortest episode of this podcast yet.
Jared:I just want someone to submit a question that we can answer. It's really hard to have a Q and A episode when there's no Qs to A. You can't just sit here and answer at nothing.
Rob:That's why we should probably just do a shareathon.
Jared:Raise some money.
Rob:We could do some matches. Yeah. If we get a question in the next hour, we'll be able to match it with two answers.
Jared:We have a donor that has 20 questions waiting. If every question that you submit, they'll also submit a question up to 20 questions, but it only lasts for this half hour.
Rob:Yeah. Come on, people.
Jared:I was thinking more PBS pledge drive. We'll send you a tote bag.
Rob:I'll make a Suno song for you.
Jared:Oh, jeez. Tell us your favorite hobby and your first and last name and your social security number, and we'll send you a Sunos song
Rob:that we can air.
Jared:So yeah, we've got some goals. We just go into this blind.
Rob:Although it seems
Jared:Although like it seems like it, especially at this point in this episode. But Rob, I feel like we've got our feet under us for year four. We're more comfortable speaking with one another. I think we finally built that rapport between us and
Rob:Yeah. Well, I'm more excited. We're also starting to see what people are actually listening to and finding it seems to us finding helpful because they keep listening to those episodes. Yeah. So either we're really funny.
Jared:Well, well,
Rob:Or these episodes actually have something that interests people. And we've added this before you end. We've added this past year and we'll continue on with it. Yes. Is LinkedIn.
Rob:So we're starting to try to make ourselves more accessible to those who would find us, especially on the professional side.
Jared:Yes.
Rob:And we've seen some some movement there. So hopefully, you know, we'll have more of that to come.
Jared:Hoping to post some articles, stories, some pictures.
Rob:Bring back some coffee drops.
Jared:Bring back we have our own equipment now in our office so we can totally bring back some coffee drops as stuff comes out. So we will do that. I'm looking forward to 2026.
Rob:It's a
Jared:year for the podcast.
Rob:Let's go.
Ryan:Thanks for joining this episode of Transform Your Teaching. If you have any questions or comments about our direction for the year, or if you have any input on what you wanna hear this year, please feel free to reach out to us at CTLPodcastcedarville dot edu, or you can connect with us on LinkedIn. Finally, don't forget to check out our blog at cedarville.edu/focusblog. Thanks for listening.