Your learning journey
About this course
In this course, you’ll learn how to bring podcasting into your classroom as a powerful tool for inquiry, storytelling, and authentic communication. Whether you’re looking to amplify student voice, build content knowledge, or design engaging performance tasks, podcasting offers a flexible, high-impact way to get there.
You’ll explore the “dual benefits” of podcasting, examining how audio functions as both a jumping-off point for learning and a tangible outcome of student mastery. You will master a “Before, During, and After” instructional approach, using strategies like anticipation guides, vocabulary previews, and strategic pausing to transform podcasts into rigorous educational texts. By analyzing WAGOLLs (What A Good One Looks Like), you will help students decode how audio storytelling uses structure, conversational tone, and evidence to communicate complex historical and contemporary ideas.
From there, you’ll move into designing your own podcast-based learning experiences—scaffolded, standards-aligned, and adaptable to your specific classroom context. You will gain hands-on experience with user-friendly tools like WeVideo and learn to guide students through the four phases of production: research, writing, recording, and editing.
Finally, the course addresses the practicalities of implementation, from managing collaborative student roles (such as Lead Researcher and Production Manager) to establishing safety and privacy protocols for sharing student work with authentic audiences.
Details
Includes
Shareable PD Certificate
Aligned With
Assessment Types
Course accessibility
Along the way
Master Core Concepts
- Define podcasts with a focus on classroom application.
- Explain the benefits of integrating podcasts into your teaching practice as educational texts and student projects.
Develop Your Skills
- Evaluate a range of podcasts types and WAGOLLs.
- Acquire hands-on experience through practical exercises designed for your classroom context.
Apply Your Skills in Context
- Design impactful classroom activities around podcasts.
- Learn how to implement and assess podcast projects in line with curriculum goals and learning objectives.
Demonstrate Your Learning
- Complete assessments that demonstrate your new capabilities and document your progress.
- Leverage a diverse range of supplementary resources.
Skills you’ll gain
Strategies and Frameworks you will encounter
Reflection moments
Our moments echo our methodology—these are a ‘pause’, and take the focus temporarily away from the core content of the course to think deeply on the details—but are nevertheless connected to the subject matter.
Think²
A pause from the core content to reflect on a research-backed pedagogical strategy that you can use today to deepen student learning.
Think² Shared
Consider your students’ perspectives and empower them to take charge of their own learning.
Literacy
Connect course content to broader reading and research. Literacy moments bridge theory and practice through curated texts and scholarly resources.
Ready to give podcasting a try?
Join educators discovering how podcasting can transform research, writing, discussion, and storytelling in any classroom.
Modules
This introductory module orients you to the course structure, accessibility features, and overarching goals. You will meet your host, experienced podcaster Conor Molloy, and review the course objectives.
This module explores the history and impact of podcasting as a “revolutionary” educational tool. You will examine the dual benefits of podcasts—considering students as both listeners and creators—and identify the key characteristics of high-quality audio content (WAGOLLs).
Focused on consumption, this module teaches you how to source, evaluate, and integrate existing podcasts into your curriculum. You will master a “Before, During, and After” approach to listening, using strategies like active listening and scaffolding to support diverse learners, including those with hearing impairments or language learning needs.
This module shifts from listening to creation, focusing on the foundational skills students need to produce their own content. You will learn to design age-appropriate projects, use WAGOLLs to build rubrics, and manage the four phases of production: research, writing, recording, and editing.
A deep dive into the practicalities of implementation, this module covers curriculum integration and scheduling. You will explore specific frameworks for student research (such as Purpose-Driven Inquiry) and learn to guide students through script-writing and technical editing using user-friendly tools.
The final content module addresses the ethical and technical side of sharing student work. Key topics include maintaining safety and privacy, finding authentic audiences, and troubleshooting common audio quality issues with hardware and software.
In this module prepare for the final narrative assessment where you will document your progress and future vision for podcasting in your classroom. The narrative assessment is the final step before course completion.
Course Feedback Survey
Help us improve! Please complete this anonymous survey once you have finished the course. We’d love to hear from you!
A microcourse is a short, focused learning experience designed to be completed in manageable segments — so you can fit professional development into your actual schedule, not just your PD days.
Course length varies, but most microcourses are designed to be completed in five hours — and you can pause and return whenever it works for you.
All courses are developed by teachers in collaboration with William & Mary faculty researchers, museum professionals, and other experts. Courses are grounded in learning science and backed by William & Mary’s decades of leadership in civic education. Content is designed to be rigorous and immediately applicable in the classroom.
Five courses are available for free during the public beta:Artifact Analysis, Civil Discourse, History Inquiry, Nonfiction Reading Strategies, and Podcasting in the Classroom. More courses will be added soon.
When you complete a lilyPD course, you’ll receive a downloadable certificate worth 5 hours of professional development, accredited by William & Mary’s School of Education.
We ensure all our courses meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). This includes:
- Behind the scenes: semantic HTML, full keyboard (tab) navigation, and screen-reader compatibility.
- In the user experience: transcripts for non-text content, ALT text for images, and clear, comprehensible site navigation.
If you have concerns or suggestions for how we can improve our accessibility features, we’d love to hear from you. Please email us at lilypd@wm.edu with the subject line “Accessibility.”
Discover more courses
Continue your professional development journey with these related courses.
Civil Discourse in the Classroom
Transform your classroom into a microcosm of democracy with this course which positions civil discourse as a foundational teaching tool, proven to enhance content knowledge and literacy skills for all students. You will develop a diverse toolkit of strategies to guide students through complex conversations with academic rigor and emotional safety. In the processes, you will equip them with lifelong skills: the ability to listen deeply, reason together, and disagree constructively and respectfully.
Historical Inquiry in the Classroom
This course provides social studies educators with the practical tools and structures needed to shift from delivering a set of information to facilitating deep, student-led investigation. You will walk away with a comprehensive plan and ready-to-use resources that make meaningful research a daily reality in your classroom, ensuring every student has the skills to analyze information and thoughtfully develop their own conclusions.
The Horizon of Independence
As the first course in our three-part series on the American Revolution, the Horizon of Independence helps educators deepen their understanding of early America and the build up to the American Revolution (1607-1776) by exploring inquiry-driven, primary source-based strategies for teaching the complexities and enduring significance of the founding of the United States of America.
Nonfiction Reading Strategies
Pull back the curtain on the reading process by equipping your students with a permanent toolbox of practical strategies to navigate any text with purpose, confidence, and clarity. By turning invisible mental work into visible, repeatable routines, you will empower your students to move beyond literal retelling and start making real meaning from everything they read.
Artifact Analysis
Transform your classroom into a site of active, inquiry-driven discovery with this course on artifact analysis. Use artifacts as dynamic evidence that empowers students to question, interpret, and debate history. Through a focus on culturally responsive teaching and practical sourcing—including museum digital collections and 3D printing—you will gain the tools to make history feel tangible and engaging for every learner.
