The Closer! pilot is a new educational podcasting initiative being run at Sheffield Hallam. It will run in the 2007-08 academic year and will evaluate the Podcast LX Building Block in Blackboard. The pilot will be supported by Academic Innovation in the Learning and Teaching Institute and e-Learning support teams in the faculties. Podcasting, audio and video are relatively new media and Academic Innovation are particularly interested in working with people who are interested in taking the opportunity to introduce innovation into their own practice. The pilot seeks to encourage ideas that introduce either new voices or new ways of sharing voices in the learning environment. The pilot is called Closer! because one important area for innovation is how the learning community can be brought closer together through the use of audio. Here are the 10 points I propose in the recording that will help podcast designers to create a good educational experience with podcasting: 1. Relevance is clear to the students 2. Recording quality is adequate and represents the significance of the podcast to the course 3. Embedded amongst, and integrated with, other course material appropriately 4. It informs or leads to other learning activity 5. Engaging format appropriate to the audio medium 6. It does not create a burden on the students (time, access, technology) 7. It does not create a burden on the academic (production time, technology) 8. Academically rigorous (ethically and legally appropriate, participants consent, basis of claims to knowledge are clear) 9. It does not exclude some students 10. It connects to related information through its 'show notes' . An introduction to the Closer! pilot can be found at: http://teaching.shu.ac.uk/podcast/pilot/intro.mp3 Check the Show Notes at http://ltapodcast.blogspot.com