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. Hello, and
Ryan:welcome to this episode of Transform Your Teaching. Today, Doctor. Rob McDowell and Doctor. Jared Piles chat with me, Ryan Lyming, about our survey results from the winter and fall of twenty twenty four. For our listeners, some of you received a beautiful handcrafted Transform Your Teaching mug made by Scott Huck.
Ryan:Some of you also filled out our survey and sadly received nothing. We care about you deeply. Wow. So in this episode, we kind of wanted to dive a little bit deeper in terms of some of the specific qualitative feedback we've received. And so our hosts actually have not really reviewed this information.
Ryan:I've done a deep dive, but I want for you all, the listener, to be able to hear their honest reactions to how people are thinking through the show, who's listening, all those kinds of things. So let me just run through some of the criteria that we had for the survey. Some of it was demographics. So dealing with who you all are, age, gender, where you're from, what you teach, how long you've been teaching, those kinds of things. And we'll dig into that a little bit.
Ryan:Some of it was an evaluation of the show. So their perception, our listeners' perception of what's going on, how often they listen, what platform they're using, the content that they've really enjoyed, and then even are they willing to recommend our show to other people? And then the last area is kind of the future direction of the show. Where do they want to see us go? And so I feel like each of these is worthy of a segment for this episode.
Ryan:So let's start with the demographics. All right? Okay. So let's talk about age a little bit. Of our respondents, fifty five percent are in the age bracket of 24 to 45.
Ryan:So that's a pretty large number. The other 18% are 45 to 54, which means almost 75% of our respondents are in that 30 year range,
Jared:24
Ryan:years old to 54 years old.
Jared:Makes sense, yeah.
Ryan:The lowest percentage of numbers are those who are 55 and older or people who are younger than 24.
Jared:It's literally a diffusion curve. Like, the the majority is
Rob:Like a normal curve.
Jared:Yeah. It's a normal curve.
Ryan:Yeah. Well, that's good. I feel like that is Distribution curve.
Rob:So what's the lowest?
Ryan:The lowest threshold was under 24 and then followed by 55 and up.
Rob:So So we don't actually know an actual age of someone?
Ryan:We range. Right? Yeah. Okay. That's right.
Ryan:Yeah. That's right. But
Jared:The next one will be down by it'll be so fine tuned. It'd be down to the day.
Ryan:What what how old are you? 2,265 old. Actually, that'd be a really young person. Probably not listening to our show.
Jared:Well, we'll have to put a caveat. You need to have your birth certificate.
Rob:Oh my word.
Ryan:Worry. Your information is safe with us. And your social. Exactly.
Rob:You can trust us.
Ryan:But, yeah, it's interesting. I mean, like I said, 75% are in that 24 to 54 range, that 30 year age range. So, yeah. Talk about gender. Of our respondents, it's basically a fiftyfifty split, male female.
Ryan:It ended up being 52% of the respondents were male and 48% were female. So, but yeah, right in that almost fiftyfifty percentage range.
Jared:Wow. Yeah. Interesting.
Rob:I was actually expecting it to be a flip flop. I expected more. Yeah. I think I expected more females. Yeah.
Rob:Mean, what than
Jared:Well, mean, podcast listeners in general trend to be more female than Yeah.
Ryan:Mhmm. Okay. Mhmm. And I think, you know, like you said, podcast listenership makes sense of the age as well because a lot of people in that age range are more likely to listen to a podcast than maybe somebody who isn't as familiar. Sure.
Ryan:Location. A lot of our respondents are from Ohio. Had others in the Midwest, Pennsylvania. We even had some people out in Washington State, Iowa, and then several people just put USA or America, which, while helpful, was also not super helpful. So We didn't have anyone who at least indicated where they were from from outside The United States, though we do know we have a lot of listeners from mostly English speaking countries like Australia, UK.
Ryan:Yeah. Let's get into teaching experience and talk kind of about where the biggest chunk of listeners seem to fall. Once again, pretty even split across a few demographics, but the highest 31% in eleven to twenty years of teaching. So they've been in education for eleven to twenty years, thirty one They've established themselves. Right.
Ryan:Yeah. Not a new teacher, but not also an old teacher per se who's been teaching for, you know, thirty plus years.
Rob:Okay. So that's 31%?
Ryan:That's our highest. And then 22% are in that the bracket just below that, one to ten years. So newer teachers, newer to the education space, 22% in that And then our least, in terms of percentage, was twenty one to thirty years, followed closely by less than a year. So we had a few respondents who had been in the education space for less than a year.
Jared:Not to make broad generalizations, but it sounds like a generational thing. Yeah. Where older generation doesn't pick up podcasts as much as younger generations do. But could be me.
Ryan:Or don't respond to surveys. Yeah. That could
Jared:be it too. That's the other part we need to consider with this.
Rob:Yeah. I think I sometimes wonder if people have been surveyed out.
Ryan:That's fair. Mhmm.
Rob:I don't have any data for that.
Jared:I mean, wonder. Think about I mean, just on our podcast alone or maybe you guys as podcast listeners, you know, we usually put the promotional stuff at the front or the end of our podcast. And if you're any podcast listener, you're skipping usually the front or the end because it's either promotional stuff, it's ads Right.
Ryan:Or you're like, I wanna get to the
Jared:yeah. Same intro. I know where this starts. I can start it at thirty one seconds, and I and that's where the content is. So, I mean, that could be it too.
Jared:They just and of course, it's also in our show notes, but then how many people actually access the show notes, stuff like that.
Ryan:And if you, the listener, aren't, please do so in the future because we would love for you to get some free merch. That'll come up later.
Jared:So, yes. Free
Ryan:merch. Yeah, free merch. Let's talk a little bit about the level of education that the respondents teach. So we had about 55% say they were in higher education. Wow.
Ryan:So a little over half
Rob:That's good.
Ryan:In higher ed. About 13%, so a lower a much lower number said in K through 12. Yeah. And then 31% actually said other. Now, don't know what contributes to the other per se.
Rob:Non education. What would be? Non education.
Ryan:But it could be educational, just not necessarily in higher education. Maybe their administration. Could be administration. Training. Yep.
Ryan:Training. Even continuing education, maybe they didn't feel that they met the the criteria per se.
Rob:Or HR. I mean, a lot of a lot of corporate HR programs have to deal with corporate training.
Ryan:Mhmm. Yep.
Jared:Or it sounds like whoever designed the questions didn't didn't do a good enough job of
Ryan:Jared.
Jared:Which was me.
Ryan:Doctor Piles. I know.
Jared:It's pretty bad. I gotta check my This is a pilot study. We can do it again. It's fine. Exactly.
Jared:It's fine.
Rob:Were the questions generated before or after he was a doctor?
Ryan:Good question. They were before. They were before. This was ABD.
Jared:But I was already So it was ABD, Jared.
Ryan:That's alright. So let's talk about the the more maybe open ended feedback in terms of the evaluation of
Jared:the show. Yeah.
Rob:Here we Let's get down to the nitty
Ryan:gritty. To the nitty gritty. So how do you all feel about our show? We'll start. How do I feel?
Ryan:The listener, how
Rob:do you feel about on the day.
Ryan:Yeah. Obviously, this, you know, this doesn't incorporate everyone, but at least of our respondents, about 60% said that they listened to all our episodes. Wow. It it may not be the week of. We had some that listened the week of, and then others who said, I don't listen to the week of, I might, you know, listen to six or seven together, for example.
Ryan:But yeah, about 60% said they listened to every episode. And then 40% of those those remaining listen to the ones that catch their attention. So sixty forty split in terms of that.
Rob:Okay. That makes sense. Mhmm. Yeah.
Ryan:You kind of have the needs based approach.
Rob:Yeah. Mean, you only have so much time.
Jared:Mhmm.
Rob:And the fact that we would think that everything like, even today in this podcast that we're recording
Jared:Mhmm.
Rob:There are gonna people who are gonna skip over it because it
Ryan:And that's okay. That's okay.
Rob:I mean
Jared:If if you've been listening this far out of guilt, please just go to the next episode. Okay. I'm also, like so that's intriguing to me that that we have to me, that shows we have active listeners that are listening every week. Mhmm. That's pretty cool.
Rob:Mhmm.
Jared:Yeah. So I'm very thankful for that. It's not like you know, obviously, we from the very beginning, we talked about the length of episodes, but we also talked about if no one listens, that's fine because we wanna curate something that people can use as a resource.
Rob:Mhmm.
Jared:Yeah. And so, like, the fact that it's kind of being actively listened to but also could serve as a resource for someone later down the road is great.
Ryan:Absolutely. Yeah, definitely. One area that's also kind of helpful is to think about how do people usually listen in terms of like at what point during the day or through their week. 45% said that they're listening on their commute. So there
Jared:we go.
Rob:45%.
Ryan:Close to 50%. Yeah, to half those who responded said it's while they're on a commute. Another 23% this was our second highest said during free time. So, you know, kind of leaving it open ended. And then 14 said while doing chores, and then while doing teacher stuff, which, you know, there's plenty of things to do there.
Jared:Again, great question design.
Ryan:Teacher things. And during workouts. So it's good to know some of us are working out unlike myself. Self. Thank you, listeners who
Rob:are working. I am so sorry. I mean Yeah. Whoever's working out to us.
Ryan:Some some do intense music. Others, the the the words of Rob and Jared.
Jared:But but again, like, I'm just very thankful that we started from the beginning talking about the length of episodes. We talked about this is something we want people to listen to and to start and finish an episode on their commute.
Rob:Yeah. That was that was one of our main aims.
Jared:And it's not like we're telling you to listen on your commute. Your People are listening on their commute.
Rob:It's crazy. The We put it into a package that made it easy.
Ryan:Yeah. Yep. Yeah. 100%. Pretty cool.
Ryan:All right, let's talk about what they've enjoyed in terms of content. So in this part of the instrument, they were able to select multiple. But of those selections, the highest was actually content delivery and active learning. So trying to think through better ways to deliver content to students, make things more accessible in that sense, depending on the needs of the learner. And then our active learning series as well, that being kind of the highest performing in terms of that.
Rob:What was the next one?
Ryan:Next was communication techniques, tied with philosophy of Ed. That's shocking. Yeah. Where was AI? AI was tied with competency based right after this.
Ryan:So it went content delivery and active learning tied, communication techniques and philosophy of ed tied, and then competency based and GAI were tied. Kind of third place, if you will. Tied for third.
Rob:So in terms of percentages?
Ryan:I could pull it up, but I think it was I mean, we're talking because they could select multiple, I think it was like 16%, fifteen %, fourteen %. Like, tight,
Rob:but active learning. So it was a tight one, two, three.
Ryan:Yes, most certainly. Yeah, most certainly. Yeah, competency based and GAI being high, but maybe not our highest
Rob:performing Lower than the other two. That's a little shocking.
Jared:Yeah. I think about this a lot when we cover generative AI. I feel like people are tired of it. I could be wrong, but I feel like it's like, here we go again. But it's like, it's one of those things that I feel like we have to talk about it because it changes so often.
Jared:Yep. It's a lasting thing.
Rob:I'm tired of it.
Jared:Yeah. Yeah, me too.
Ryan:Rob loves
Rob:it. I would say I love it.
Ryan:I enjoy it.
Rob:I feel like I have to serve in that way. Mhmm. I mean, I do use it because it's something that we're gonna have to face as educators. But the reality is it seems like every day you're turning around and somebody's developed something new. They're they're putting something new out there and just the rate of change is is crazy.
Rob:Mhmm. And so yeah. I mean, it gets to a point where you're like, okay. Yeah. Can I just go eat breakfast like a normal person Mhmm?
Rob:And do something that I feel was worthwhile for the day. That's fair. Just me I get tired of
Ryan:it. That makes sense. So I think what it does say is, ultimately, people are enjoying hearing us talk about it, but it's by no means, you know, should be the forefront. I think our integrated approach, where it comes up naturally, is helpful. And then some, kind of like we did at the beginning of the year, a shorter series thinking through the ethics of it, but then taking a break for something that's maybe more relational in this upcoming series on serving the new college student as Yeah.
Ryan:That was followed up by tech integration and flex learning. So those were, I guess, the lowest performing. By no means are any of these poor performing in terms of that, but based on the instrument, tech integration and flexible learning were the last. Finishing up kind of how the perception of our show currently: willingness to recommend. This one's interesting, so we'll just dive into it.
Ryan:38% of people who responded to the survey said they were extremely likely to recommend our show, which I feel like is pretty good. Yeah. You know, it went sliding scale, Likert kind of thing. Extremely likely, somewhat likely. Neutral, somewhat unlikely, extremely unlikely.
Jared:I was really I nailed this part.
Ryan:Yeah, the guy that did the instrument on this one.
Jared:Whoever he was.
Ryan:You're welcome. Almost a doctor.
Jared:Almost a doctor at the time.
Ryan:So, yeah, 38% said extremely likely. Another 29% said somewhat likely. So that's 67% when you combine it Two thirds. Yeah, two thirds said that they're pretty likely to recommend the show. 5% said neutral.
Ryan:And then 29% fell in that final category, either extremely unlikely, which was the lowest percentage, or somewhat unlikely. So there's several factors. 29%. Yes. Said either somewhat likely or extremely likely.
Ryan:I can get this
Rob:Unlikely too.
Ryan:Unlikely. That's right. Yes. Yes.
Jared:Now, is it because they don't recommend podcasts to people? I'm trying to justify why 29% would be.
Rob:I think it has to do with the number who are actually listening who may
Jared:Oh, yeah.
Rob:Who may actually not be educators. And so the field that they're in is probably one in which they're like, yeah, no, I wouldn't recommend this to anybody.
Ryan:Sure. Yeah.
Rob:Like listening to it. Mhmm.
Ryan:Yeah. But It's true.
Jared:It is very specific, very niche. Well, and I
Ryan:think about I think about myself, there's podcasts that I listen to that are for me and for others like me, but not in the same area. For instance, like, I listen to Bengals podcast. I'm not gonna recommend that to either of you at all. You wouldn't benefit from it. You wouldn't enjoy it.
Ryan:And that's okay. But I still like the podcast. So I might recommend it to some people, but not all.
Jared:I
Ryan:mean, Jared, you listen to a Formula One one. I do. Yes. So you're not gonna recommend that to me and Rob. We're not gonna care.
Jared:It's mine.
Ryan:But it's still you enjoy the show yourself. So I think that's certainly a contributing factor in all of That's interesting. So thinking about the future, kind of where do we go from here? One thing that Jared and Doctor. Pyle's ABD had included in the instrument was how interested are you in other content?
Ryan:So obviously, we're doing kind of a passive approach where you can just listen, whether you be on your commute or mowing your lawn or doing the laundry, whatever. What other resources might you be interested in? So just kind of an open ended component to this as well. But at the start, 43% of people said they would be, Yes, I'm interested in other content that you all might produce. Another 33% said maybe.
Ryan:So if math serves me well, 76% are either yes or maybe. And then 24 said no, they're not interested in other content that we're doing. So what that included in kind of the open ended component and then what Jared put together is resources. So I think some of those things that we're tailoring in terms of the show notes, including links to books or articles or even other podcast episodes from other shows is helpful. But then also, book reviews came up as a thing that some people wanted to hear and see, which we've already tried to fulfill that this year, and we'll be doing more of that.
Ryan:And then feature articles from either you all or some of the guests that we have on the show.
Rob:Oh, yeah, yeah.
Jared:Mhmm. Yeah, we do that too. Think
Ryan:those are our good Those ideas. LinkedIn, absolutely. So then topics that people would like to hear us cover in the future. Once again, we had a scale, but then also an open ended component, And we are considering some of these. One is content delivery.
Ryan:You know, that came up, that's something that people are enjoying, but also want to hear more of. So for instance, one open ended feedback that we received in this category is: How do you move away from traditional lecture? How do you incorporate ideas for non lecture delivery of content? Contained within this as well, they want to create small group learning activities within the classroom. And then Christ centered communication.
Ryan:That was one that someone, How do I have the kind of communication in my classes that's Christ centered? So those were three of the open ended ones we received there on content delivery. Cool. Thoughts on those?
Jared:Let's do it. Cool. Let's do it now.
Rob:Okay. No. I would I would would agree with Jared. I I think those are excellent ones and ones that we'll probably naturally get to given our current topics. Mhmm.
Rob:Essentially, what what we're asking maybe, how do we help move users from, you know, depending on me for their fish, and how do we move them towards being able to fish?
Ryan:Yeah. Exactly.
Rob:So to supply their own needs and showing them how to how to make that get that done.
Ryan:That's great. Well, that kind of leads into We had a few people as well who wanted to hear about GAI. One was on plagiarism. They didn't apply all the specifics or describe all the specifics, but plagiarism related to artificial intelligence, how to use it for grading. That's one that came up in some of our open ended feedback.
Ryan:And then what's gonna be the future impact on education broadly? Which, I mean, jeez. My goodness. That's easy. Yeah.
Ryan:We can tell you. Robots everywhere, for sure. So those are some of the things related to GAI that we received in terms of where they want us to talk in the future.
Rob:Okay.
Ryan:So another one was Gen Z students, which I found this very encouraging. Just kind of think through the student that's currently in the classroom, and I think not too far away from higher educators is Gen Alpha. So I know students are mean, if you were born in 2010, you're probably two or three years away from being in the higher ed classroom.
Jared:Yeah, I recall the twenty ten year well. I finished with my master's degree and couldn't get hired because schools had
Ryan:no money to hire people. Another person said game based learning, which I think is really cool. That's something we've talked about a lot.
Jared:I'd love to. I have a good friend that can talk about that. Another Boise grad.
Rob:We also have our own faculty here, doctor Landon, who could speak to game development as well as, you know, potentially what what gaming has to do with education.
Ryan:We've talked about that a little bit in in our offices in the future. Someone asked about competency based learning, that seems to stick in the crawl of some.
Jared:I still wanna It stuck in my crawl too, so I'm all for
Ryan:it. Okay, I like it.
Rob:I think we'll have opportunity.
Ryan:And lastly, stuff we should change. So some of our open feedback here. We had several who were like, NA or, you know, there's not really anything I would change. Which, you know, is nice and all. But it's honestly nice to get some some helpful critiques as well from you, the listener.
Ryan:You know, we wanna hear how we can improve. Sure, yeah. But somebody did say, could we start inviting students onto the show? And that was something we attempted back in the fall with three episodes, trying to get a sense for Gen Z, but then also we're planning to keep doing here. Yeah,
Rob:we've got more.
Ryan:Have with some
Jared:students
Narrator:as
Jared:Very excited.
Ryan:And then these ones are two comedic ones. One was We Need More Episodes with Evan and Drew, which are two of our student workers. Did they fill out the survey as I think one of them may have done
Rob:that. Yes.
Ryan:I think based on the results and how we had, you know, like I said, a handful that were 24 or younger, I'm gonna guess Evan pointed Yeah, you're probably right.
Jared:Job, Evan.
Ryan:Way to skew our statistics. Thank you, Evan. We do love you though. And maybe we'll have you and Drew in on the future. And then the final one is add a merch store.
Ryan:Somebody I don't know who, but somebody wanted I'm teach merch. That'd be hilarious. I agree. So, that's kind of where we land. I do like the merch store idea.
Ryan:We do like to give out free stuff as well. So what I will say is our survey is still in the show notes. Right now we're not doing any promotionals, but we would love to hear from you, the listener. So please check out the show notes for that. And like I said, we conducted this in the fall and winter of twenty four.
Ryan:So now here in 2025, we're already trying to put some of these things into practice. So as you guys keep listening, please feel free to like and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. Don't forget to connect with us on LinkedIn or shoot us an email at CTLPodcastcedarville dot edu. Don't forget to check out our blog at cedarville.edu/focusblog. Thanks for listening.