In addition to the theoretical courses taught, on which the students are evaluated at the end of the year through a written exam, this course offers them the opportunity to learn how to analyze podcasts. Students listen to podcasts, found on the Internet, dealing with environmental issues and critically analyze them using an evaluation grid provided beforehand. This same grid will be used to evaluate the podcasts that they will produce, this exercise allows them to appropriate the rating criteria.
They then produce their own podcast in groups of three, the preferred number to reproduce the standard journalistic format of a journalist, a sound recordist and an editor. This approach allows students to develop an important skill: teamwork. The content of the podcasts is built on the basis of a written proposal that is monitored and validated upstream by the teaching team. In order to allow the sound recording at the base of the creation of these podcasts, the teaching team is equipped with professional quality recorders called "zooms".
In order to master these technological tools (recorders and editing software) and to obtain advice on editing and journalistic scripting, students follow two days of training given by two radio professionals. The first one proposes to the students a training on sound recording, the use of zooms, the use of Audacity software (open source software) and the starting of the project. The second, a journalist by trade, provides training on how to edit a good program in terms of scripting, structure and genre. He makes himself available to coach the students on writing a script and editing the collected rushes.
The evaluation of the course is 60% based on the podcast evaluated using the same evaluation grid that the students experienced when listening to podcasts from the Internet and 40% on a written exam based on the presentations in class and the articles to read.
