Frequently Asked Questions

Works like this: PODCAST: iwantcandy.mp3

In order to make changes to the blog entries or to add podcast files, the server first has to know who you are (and if you're allowed to do the things you want to do). Everything is arranged around courses on the server, so you have to go to the specific class you want to edit, and then login.

You login by clicking on the login tab on the header of the page. You will then be asked to supply a login and password. The login is your UIUC netid and your password is the ICS password. This is the password you enter on ICS computer lab machines or to release your print job from an ICS printer.

If you need to set your ICS password, click here to go to the CITES password home page. You will have to login to the password page with your netid and bluestem password first, and then you can change any of your other CITES passwords. If you don't know your bluestem password, you will have to go to the CITES Help Desk in room 1211 DCL with your ID to get it reset.

Once you have changed your ICS password on the password page, it will become valid on the podcast server and ICS computer labs in about 10-15 seconds.

As with all UIUC passwords, you should not share it with anyone.

Welcome to our first go at a podcast server for the UIUC campus. Podcasts are sprouting up everywhere from alternative radio shows to extensions of commercial programming. It seems logical that they will soon be used for teaching. The purpose of this server is to provide an easy to use place for instructors to put their podcasts and an easy to navigate place for their students to find them.

If you are looking for podcasts your instructors have made available, you can browse for them by clicking on the [ Browse All ] tab above.

If you want to to make audio files available to your students, you will need to register your course and upload your podcasts.

We will add a section to our FAQ about making podcasts soon.

Brought to you by CITES/ICS, , and

Our weblogs are arranged by relevant course name (such as psych400 or econ100) rather than the author's name (such as professor smith or t.williams. If you want to make weblogs available here, you must register the course, instead of your name, so that we can provide you with a place to put your podcasts.

It's possible to give multiple people access to your course, so that several instructors could upload podcasts for a single class.

It's also possible for one instructor to have several courses on the server.

To register click on the "Register My Course" link below and then login (see our "logging in FAQ" for details). At the registration page, you must provide the following information: blog id (timetable course name), blog name (the long course name), description, and department. For example, Spanish 101 would have the following:

• blog id: span101
• blog name: Spanish 101
• description: Beginning Spanish
• department: Spanish

The short course/timetable name (blog id) should be simple and only contain letters and numbers.

The description should be short so that it fits inside the graphic header at the top of the page (the italicized "about podcasting" on this page, for example).

note: Registration is currently a manual process. ICS staff will check for registration requests daily and set them up. You will not have immediate access to your course area. Please be patient.

Click here to start the process ----> Register My Course

The audio files on the podcast server are nothing more than mp3 files recorded by an instructor instead of a band. As long as your browser is capable of playing mp3 files, you can simply click on the filename and listen (right now!) with your browser. Alternatively, you could click on the file and select "save as.." to save it to your hard drive and use your favorite mp3 program. This is fine for playing the occasional one time podcast you want to check, but the real strength in podcasting is to subscribe to a course, and automatically receive the podcast files as they are added to the server.

One popular way to listen to the audio files stored on this server is to download the files onto a portable MP3 player with iTunes. iTunes has the ability to subscribe to a podcast automatically downloading new or updated podcasts to your computer. If you have an iPod, you can configure iTunes to also copy the new or updated podcast to it. This means you can have iTunes subscribe to any course on this server and have the audio materials delivered to your computer (and iPod if you have one) automatically.