Listening to podcasted versions of university lectures seems to be better for students than simply going to class, according to new research by State University of New York (SUNY) Fredonia psychologist Dani McKinney. Her study, titled "iTunes University and the classroom: Can podcasts replace Professors?" suggests that students who download the podcast version of a class tend to achieve better academic performance than those who don't, though it's more about what the students do when they download the podcast than the existence of the podcast itself.

In order to study how students soaked up information, McKinney and her team gave a psychology lecture to 64 students. The students were then split into groups after the lecture, one group receiving printed slides and the other being instructed to download the podcast, which was synchronized with video of the slides. The students were instructed to keep notes, as they were to be tested on the material a week later.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the podcast group performed better on the test (an average of 71 out of 100) than those who only went to the lecture (62 out of 100), and those students who listened to the podcast more than once and took notes averaged a 77.

Clearly, the note-taking factor contributed to the overall scores. As someone who was in college before podcasting became popular but after sending students home with PowerPoint printouts became all the rage, I know from experience that many students think that printed slides are merely notes in prepackaged form.

McKinney acknowledged that the students who downloaded the podcast simply seemed to do better with taking notes and paying closer attention to what was being said, as they were able to go back and repeat parts of the lecture they had trouble understanding. "It isn't so much that you have a podcast, it's what you do with it," she told New Scientist.

As for whether podcasts can replace professors, McKinney stops short of suggesting that all classrooms become virtual. She refers to them as a supplemental tool to a traditional lecture that can help students gain a better understanding of the material and also help free up professors from answering repetitive questions. The takeaway? Go to class, take notes, listen to the podcast, and take more notes.