Adnan Fakir is a Senior Lecturer in Economics at the University of Sussex and is currently the Course Director for BSc Economics. Adnan received his PhD in Economics from the University of Western Australia and MSc in Economics from the University of Sussex. His research interests are in development economics, focusing on health, political economy, labour, and gender. Adnan has a decade of prior teaching experience as a lecturer at BRAC University, Bangladesh, and the University of Western Australia. He has also worked as a consultant for the Mind, Behaviour and Development (eMBeD) Unit, the Social Protection & Jobs Global Practice, and the Education Global Practice at The World Bank, focusing on social safety nets, social registries, and female empowerment in Bangladesh. 

What I did 

As is common in Higher Education, students in my postgraduate module, Econometric Methods 1, are assigned scholarly articles to read in preparation for teaching sessions. I sought to enhance these readings for students by providing them an accompanying podcast. Each podcast consisted of an interview with the author of the paper during which we explored the main themes of the article. 

Why I did it 

A common problem that teaching staff may face is students’ lack of enthusiasm for reading assigned research papers and is one of the factors that can lead to instructor disappointment in students’ comprehension of assigned readings. This problem has been explored extensively in the literature (see: Doolittle et al., 2006; Khusniyah and Lustyantie, 2017; Kulhavy and Swenson, 1975; Starcher and Profitt, 2011), however most of this focusses on reading comprehension rather than encouraging reading in the first place.  

From speaking with my students it seemed that the human element was lacking and that providing this component and further context would enable them to engage more fully with these resources.  

Some (selected) quotes from students: 

• “I understand how the readings are important but they are immensely dry.” 
• “…All these numbers and graphs in the reading make me feel like we are turning people into numbers.” 
• “…I am thinking about what I read and am cognitively involved but I don’t feel the discussion.” 
• “The readings are great but would love to know more about what the authors thought about when doing the study and what was their motivation. What is their story?” 

How it works 

The process began with selecting papers that aligned with the syllabus and utilised relevant economic methodologies. After selecting the papers, the next step, coordinating interviews with the authors, proved to be the most challenging as many of the authors were located across different time zones. 

I approached the interviews with a dual perspective, thinking not just from my point of view but also anticipating what questions my students might have. I invited students to submit questions beforehand, which allowed me to tailor the interviews to their interests, and added a layer of personalisation to the podcasts. 

The interviews themselves typically lasted around an hour, during which the authors discussed both the technical aspects of their research and the broader implications of their work. The editing process was time-intensive, often taking 6 to 7 hours per episode. The episodes were then uploaded to YouTube, where they were made available not just to my students but to a wider audience. 

I also dedicated the final 15 minutes of selected seminars to a live Q&A session where students could directly interact with the authors whose papers they had studied. During these sessions about 60% of students’ questions were technical, however the remaining 40% were personal questions about the authors’ motivations and experiences. This direct engagement brought the research to life, humanising the academic content and significantly increasing student participation and enthusiasm in class discussions. 

Impact and student feedback 

The impact of this approach was noticeable in student engagement. While previous discussions around assigned readings were often subdued, the addition of podcasts significantly increased participation. Students were not just listening passively; they became curious and asked a broader range of questions during seminars.  

Interestingly, the podcasts gained unexpected traction, particularly in India, where several of the featured researchers were either from or had ties to. This allowed the series to extend beyond the classroom, making economic research accessible to a much broader audience in an accessible format. 

Future plans 

In response to the feedback, I plan to extend this project by incorporating a more diverse range of papers and authors, particularly from regions like Sub-Saharan Africa. The goal is to make the papers more relevant to the students’ backgrounds while providing a wider perspective on development economics. 

Another improvement I am considering is better timing for author-student interactions during seminars. Currently, these interactions take place at the end of the class, which leaves little time for reflection. Moving this discussion to an earlier part of the session would allow for more dynamic conversations, and possibly, more immediate reflection from students. I also intend to shorten future podcasts to around 15 minutes, given the natural engagement drop-off I observed at the 20-minute mark on YouTube. 

Top tips 

• Focus on human stories: Bring out the human element in the research to increase engagement. Students are more likely to connect with the material if they can understand the real-world impact behind it. 
• Know your audience: Tailor the content to your students. Conducting a pre-course survey can help you align the material with their backgrounds and interests. 
• Integrate networking: Including opportunities for students to interact with researchers not only improves engagement but can also help students build valuable professional networks. 

Resources 

Listen to the podcasts on YouTube 

Doolittle, P.E., Hicks, D., Triplett, C.F., Nichols, W.D. and Young, C.A., 2006. Reciprocal teaching for reading comprehension in higher education: A strategy for fostering the deeper understanding of texts. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 17(2), pp.106-118. 

Khusniyah, N.L. and Lustyantie, N., 2017. Improving English Reading Comprehension Ability through Survey, Questions, Read, Record, Recite, Review Strategy (SQ4R). English language teaching, 10(12), pp.202-211 

Kulhavy, R.W. and Swenson, I., 1975. Imagery instructions and the comprehension of text. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 45(1), pp.47-51 

Starcher, K. and Proffitt, D., 2011. Encouraging Students to Read: What Professors Are (and Aren’t) Doing About It. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 23(3), pp.396-407.