Over the last few years, Web lectures and podcasts have become an integral part of universities' eLearning portfolios, and the number of recordings and media files to which the recordings are exported is constantly growing. More and more students, as well as learners from outside the universities, are asking for lectures to be available online. Lecturers have developed new didactic concepts and produced podcasts including additional material, while students have produced audio-visual content as user-generated eLearning objects.

For universities, it is not easy to decide whether popular websites and systems are an appropriate place to include or present high-quality learning content. Platforms like Apple's iTunes U or YouTube EDU are good marketing venues for universities to attract prospective students and partners for projects and to promote the university itself. For many universities, however, producing open educational resources is a challenging process that is presently hotly disputed.

Besides legal issues, e.g. related to copyright issues, there are concerns on the lecturers' side about the way their content will be used. It is often quite unclear what benefit open educational resources actually offer.

This year's conference offers panels on a wide range of subjects including capturing in lecture rooms, Web lectures, the recent rise of podcasting, didactic solutions for the successful application of podcasting in universities, and concepts for using Web 2.0 technologies for teaching and collaboration. The organizers are well aware that general concepts for integrating podcasts in a specific field of activity are more sought after than field reports about a single podcast experience.

Opportunities to Participate:

• Lead a paper session: twenty minutes of presentation followed by a panel discussion
• Run a workshop or tutorial. Proposals should clearly indicate the topic, background knowledge expected of participants, objectives, and the qualifications of the instructor.
• Organize a thematic session.

To apply, please submit a one-page abstract to kontakt@podcast-university.com by 15 June 2009.