According to an article in New Scientist, a recent psychological study was conducted  at the State University of New York – Fredonia. The study by psychologist Dani McKinney, shows that students who listen to class lectures in podcast form score better when tested on the lecture material than students who heard the lectures in person.students who listened to podcasts of lectures scored higher on tests. 

To examine the effect of podcast-listening on test scores, McKinney enlisted 64 students. Half of them heard a basic introductory Psych 101 visual perception lecture in the classroom, and took home a printout of the lecture slides.  The other half of the group were given the lecture in “enhanced” podcast form: they heard the same lecture, with the slides synchronized to the classroom talk.

Average scores of podcast listeners were not stellar – they averaged a “C” grade (71 %). But this bested the “D” average (61%) score of students who only heard the test material in the lecture hall.

It is worth note that the test score advantage disappeared among podcast listeners who did not take notes while they listened. Those podcast users who did take notes averaged even higher scores (77%).