How to Start an Educational Podcast (That Actually Helps People Learn)

Of the 4.5 million podcasts currently available, there is no exact number for how many educational podcasts there are. But it’s safe to say that podcasts in the education space are very much here to stay.

Educational podcasts range from podcasts hosted by some of the top universities, shows aimed at children, language learning, history, science, self-help, Ted Talks, growth-mindset, podcasting…you name it, there’s probably an educational podcast show made about that topic.

But how do you go about starting an educational podcast? Is it like starting any other type of podcast?

In lots of ways, yes, starting an educational podcast is just like starting any other podcast.

After all, no matter which category your podcast falls into, every podcaster needs a microphone, recording and editing software, a podcast hosting platform, and some sort of a plan to get started.

But beyond the absolute basics of any podcasting show, educational podcasts come with their own set of unwritten rules that support your listener to actually be educated by listening to your show.

And this is the stuff that most podcasters won’t tell you about.

You’ll be told to get a microphone, start planning your episodes, and start recording.

But educational podcasts need a bit more work than that. They need some planning that actually makes them, well, educational.

And that’s all very well if you’re a big university or educationalist creating a podcast show. You already know about educating people. But everyone else? It’s hardly stuff you’re taught in school.

So in this blog post, I am drawing on my experience in education and training to put together this guide to support you to develop your own educational podcast.

In this blog post, we will:

• Break down the differences between training and education
• Define the differences between deep learning and superficial learning
• Share tips for encouraging deep learning with your listeners
• Understand the additional things you can do to support your listeners’ learning

And we will link all of these points back to podcasting so that you can create the best educational podcast possible.

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Training and Education: What’s the Difference?

The terms training and education are often used interchangeably, but there’s actually quite a big difference between the two.

In short, training is teaching someone how to perform certain skills.

Education is about gaining knowledge that does not necessarily require practice in order to apply it to your field of work or interest.

Therefore, education often includes more theory behind WHY something is happening or being carried out.

Both education and training play an important role in online courses and helping people develop in life and become better at their jobs.

But, when you get into the education and training game, it’s important to know the differences between the two and which one you’re providing for your students.

Although sometimes used interchangeably, the terms ‘training’ and ‘education’ actually mean two different things.

Let’s dive into the two terms in a little more detail.

What is Training?

Before we dive into what makes training different from education, let’s take a minute to define each term.

You may also see these terms interchangeably. In some instances, they’re basically synonyms; in others, training is done only, while education is used more broadly.

When you train someone, you’re teaching them to do a particular task or to use a particular skill. Examples might include learning how to drive a car or how to host a podcast interview. These are skills that you can be taught through training.

Educational podcasts that focus on training someone are therefore looking to teach a skill. This could be:

• How to set up a Pinterest account
• How to write a blog post that is SEO-optimised
• How to set up your WordPress website

In each of these examples, within your episode, you’d be giving someone the skills and tactics to perform the task you’ve promised in your episode title.

You aren’t necessarily giving your listener a history of WordPress or the deep-rooted psychology behind why someone clicks on one Pinterest pin over another (that would lean more towards education). Instead, you’re giving a step-by-step guide or information to achieve the task you’ve set out to achieve within that episode.

What is Education?

In a slight contrast to training, education is more of a general term that refers to learning in a broader context. The purpose of education is normally to deepen someone’s knowledge on a topic or subject.

If we use the examples above about writing a blog post that SEO-optimised or setting up a WordPress website, an educational take on these topics could be:

• The history of WordPress and the types of websites people create on WordPress
• Why SEO-optimised content is so important for blog posts

See the subtle difference?

And yes, you can have both education and training within one episode, depending on how you structure your episode, or you could have one without the other.

Providing Training Through Your Podcast

At one point in time, accessing any type of training was challenging and limited. Nowadays, you can learn how to do anything from writing a novel to fixing a leaky tap within minutes thanks to online educational resources.

Some skills won’t translate very well to being taught on a podcast. For example, trying to walk someone through fixing a leaky tap without being able to show them is likely going to be more challenging than teaching someone the steps to writing a novel.

Therefore, when providing training via a podcast, you really need to remember that your listener can’t see you.

Without getting into the argument as to whether or not your podcast needs video, you need to bear in mind that the majority of your listeners are likely listening to your episode and not watching your episode.

Therefore, whatever you deliver within your educational podcast needs to be easy to describe, and then come with that description.

If something isn’t easy to explain without physically showing someone, then either it’s too complicated to teach via podcast, or you need to figure out how you can teach the same content slightly differently to take into account the format of podcasts.

Providing Education Through Your Podcast

Having an educational podcast and providing education through your podcast, in some ways, is very similar to any type of training or education provision.

When providing training or education through your podcast, though, you need to bear in mind that you’re likely not teaching in real-time. That means that unless you’re hosting your episode live, your episodes are likely recorded and published without your audience being present.

And therefore, your audience can’t ask you questions as you go if a piece of information is difficult to breakdown or understand.

Your best way around this is by providing listeners with a way to follow up with you and ask questions after your episode. This could be through contacting you via your social media, email, or a contact form on your website.

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Which Is Better? Education or Training?

I’ve been asked this question a lot in my career: is education or training better?

And the answer is always the same.

It depends on what your end goal is.

There are some skills and careers which you can only get via training, and others via education. Some need a blend of both.

For example, for an individual to go into nursing, neither education nor training on their own is enough.

Instead, both are needed.

In the UK, to become a nurse, you would need a university education. Within that course, you would receive training to apply your theory and learn skills for certain healthcare situations.

Trainee nurses could use an educational podcast to support their nursing education by helping them learn certain theories and learn about different conditions, etc. However, they can’t use a podcast to be trained in medication administration which involves an actual ‘doing’ activity.

In another example, for someone wanting to start a podcast, training is probably the best solution.

A new podcaster needs to know how to set up and use their microphone to get the best sound. What they don’t need is to be educated on how sound travels in different environments and achieves different outputs on recordings.

Supporting How Your Listeners Learn

Each of your listeners will learn very differently. Most (hopefully) will learn well by listening because they’re choosing to listen to your show for your educational content.

But, it’s important to remember that most people are not actually auditory learners.

In fact, more people are visual learners than any other learner type. This means that your listener is most likely to learn through seeing.

And trying to teach someone through seeing when you’re hosting an audio show isn’t the easiest.

But in order to make an impact on your listener and reach as much of your target audience as possible, it is worth bearing in mind how different people in your audience are likely to learn.

In broad terms, people’s learning styles are broken into the following categories:

• Visual learners
• Auditory learners
• Reading/writing learners
• Kinaesthetic learners

However, it’s important to remember that some people have a combination of learning styles, and that learning styles can shift with topic and as the person grows throughout their life.

Visual Learners

Visual learners learn through seeing; something that’s slightly problematic for an audio podcast.

Ways in which you can support visual learners to learn whilst listening to your podcast might include:

• Giving detailed descriptions to help learners imagine what you’re talking about
• Provide a visual checklist or another downloadable resource that your listener can visually look
• Create a document containing images that demonstrate what you explained
• Create a how-to video to go with your episode

Kinaesthetic Learners

Many people learn through doing, which is not a learning style that lends itself well to learning through listening to podcasts.

To support your kinaesthetic listeners to get more from your educational episodes, you could:

• Encourage them to write down notes as they listen (the doing on the writing can support learning)
• Provide a step-by-step guide or download so the listener can practically follow a demonstration after your episode
• Create a worksheet or workbook to accompany an episode or group of episodes that the learner can complete

Auditory Learners

An auditory learner is someone who learns through hearing. It’s an ideal listening style for podcast listeners!

Really, your podcast episode alone is an ideal resource for an auditory learner. But you could also support further learning by creating bonus content, such as a bonus episode to listen to.

Read/Write Learners

A read/write learner is what it says on the tin. It’s someone who learns best through reading and writing.

To support a listener who best learns this way, you could:

• Encourage your reader to create notes whilst listening to the show
• Provide in-depth show notes that detail what you’ll be discussing within the episode
• Have downloadable notes and checklists which learners can review after they’ve finished the episode
• Suggest some extra reading, perhaps in the form of books or blog posts

Creating Additional Content

Ok, I get it. Producing a podcast is a lot, especially if you’re a one-person show.

Because of this, I’d never say that any podcaster providing any sort of education or training on their show needs to try and accommodate every type of learning style a listener might have.

That’d not only be impossible, but also unsustainable for you.

The above suggestions are just that. Suggestions. You don’t need to implement any of them. You can leave your podcast episode as it is and without additional content.

If you wanted to start off with a small addition, though, I’d recommend easy to create ones such as downloadable checklists, worksheets and workbooks. These can quickly be created in Canva and then used to grow an email list.

Deep versus Superficial Learning

Ok, now that we’ve covered if you’re delivering training or education (or both!) on your educational podcast, and we’ve looked at how your listeners might learn, we need to consider how deep you want your audience to go with their learning.

In short, deep learning happens when a listener actively engages with an idea and applies it beyond the episode. Meanwhile superficial learning happens when information is consumed by your listener more passively…and possibly quickly forgotten.

As we know (and just discussed!) we all learn differently, and what we want to learn via a podcast will determine how much we want to take onboard whilst listening.

Think about it: If you’re listening to a podcast about a Pinterest marketing strategy for your podcast, you might listen to the episode more than once or take notes whilst listening.

This is because you’re really invested in the outcome from taking on board this information. You want to put what you’ve learned into practice and therefore you will be learning on a deeper level.

In comparison, you might listen to a history podcast because you have an interest in a certain time period.

But if you’re listening whilst driving and only half paying attention because you’re also concentrating on other things, you’ll only be learning at a surface level, or what educators call engaging in superficial learning.

You don’t necessarily know how deep into their learning your listener is going to go with your episode or your show, but if you do have an episode jam-packed full of actionable points, you might want to start the episode by telling your audience that they might want to grab a pen and paper and make notes whilst listening.

Quick Tips to Encourage Deeper Learning

To encourage deeper learning from your audience, you can:

• Let your listener know what you’ll be covering in the episode
• Suggest they get a pen and paper or open the Notes app in their phone to jot down learning and ideas
• Tell you audience about other resources they could use to further their learning. This could include episodes from your own show, other podcasts, YouTube channels, books, etc
• Remind listeners to listen back to the episode again later, especially if the first time they’re listening they’re doing another activity, such as driving the car

As a podcaster, your responsibility isn’t to either know how deeply someone wants to understand or learn about a topic, nor is it to force this depth. Your responsibility is simply to design your episodes that mean your listener can engage with your content at a depth that works for them.

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Final Thoughts on Starting an Educational Podcast

In this post, we have covered a whole tonne of information relating to creating an educational podcast, including:

• Breaking down the differences between training and education
• Defining the differences between deep learning and superficial learning
• Sharing tips for encouraging deep learning with your listeners
• Understanding the additional things you can do to support your listeners’ learning

Ultimately, like anything in podcasting, having an educational podcast will require you to experiment with different podcasting formats, interview styles, presentation techniques, as well as learning to use different podcasting equipment and tech.

You can’t (and won’t!) be able to educate everyone in your niche with your podcast show. But you don’t need to appeal to everyone, you just need to appeal to your audience and have fun whilst doing so.