The main reasons people prefer audio-learning
Nowadays, digital audio makes up a large part of our time. Whether listening to music playlists, morning-shows, or podcasts: it is very much interwoven with our daily lives. Not only for entertainment, but also for informational and educational purposes.
To demonstrate: There are over 383 million podcasts-listeners worldwide, and in the US alone, over one-fourth of the population listens to podcasts weekly. Interestingly, podcasts are most popular amongst people between 12-34 years (Ruby, 2022). These numbers clearly demonstrate the popularity of using digital audio for informational purposes amongst young people.
Unfortunately, audio-learning is still rarely incorporated in education, despite the fact that studies have found a clear favour for it. It has been shown that almost all (97.1%) students find podcasts to be an effective way of learning, 80% ranks them better than the use of conventional resources (e.g. textbooks) (Narula et al., 2012), and 86.2% of students prefer educational podcasts to other educational resources (Riddel et al., 2017).
Thus, numerous statistics clearly show the popularity of audio-learning, and most students prefer it over traditional educational resources. But, where does this preference come from?
It’s interesting
One of the main reasons for this preference, is the entertaining nature of audio-learning (Riddell et al., 2017). Studies have shown that 80% of students find educational podcasts interesting to listen to (White et al., 2011). They are rated significantly higher in level of enjoyability, maintaining interest and entertainment compared to written materials (Roth et al., 2018).
It’s convenient
“Lecturers can effortlessly broadcast interesting audio information using podcasting, which students may listen to at any time and from any location.” (Staff, 2021)
Another main reason for the preference for audio-learning is its ease of use (Riddell et al., 2017). Nowadays, we have our phones nearby almost all the time, which is basically all we need for audio-learning. Thus, instead of planning your study-time ahead, all you need to do is plug-in your earphones to start learning. This means that, whenever you do feel motivated to study, it is easily accessible. But also, at times you do not feel very motivated to study, listening to an audio-course is much more low-barrier than reading chunks of texts.
It’s efficient
Last but not least, audio-learning has the advantage of being time-efficient. 70.3% of students endorse podcasts as a beneficial use of their time, which is lower for textbooks (54.3%) and journals (36.6%) (Mallin et al., 2014).
This time-efficiency is thanks to the fact that audio-learning allows for the ability to listen while doing something else. Audio-learning allows you to combine learning with activities such as running errands, going to the gym, or cooking. In addition, it allows you to efficiently use ‘wasted time’: people who travel to their university or work can easily combine their time spent cycling, walking, or waiting for the bus, with studying. This, in turn, makes audio-learning much more time-efficient and could lead to less stress. Because, while studying, students can take a walk or exercise which reduces stress levels (Harvard Health, 2020), and time-efficiency allows for more time to recover. In fact, in one study, students reported that the availability of audio-learning materials reduced their stress and anxiety (Pilarski et al., 2008).
Conclusion
To summarize, multiple statistics and studies show that audio-learning is already used amongst students, and that it is even preferred over traditional study materials.
Studies have shown multiple reasons for this preference: audio-learning is perceived as significantly more entertaining, enjoyable, and beneficial than studying from written texts. This, combined with its convenience and the ability to learn while doing something else, allows it to turn learning into a more fun, efficient and healthy activity.
