About Podcasts and How to Listen or Subscribe

What is a podcast?
A podcast is a media file which is distributed over the Internet using syndication (subscription) technology, for playback on portable media players and personal computers. Sacramento City College provides access to the audio files (podcasts) hosted on this site as a method for enhancing student learning, student success, and building community.

How can I listen to a podcast?
There are several ways to listen to our podcasts. First, our entire podcast directory is published in the player located on the Podcasts Home page. You are welcome to scroll through the listings there to find content of interest to you. By clicking on the title of any podcast within the player, you will instantly be able to listen to the podcast file. To advance forward within the audio file, click on the sliding time indicator and advance forward or in reverse. You can also link to our directory of podcast "departments" (these are the categories or podcast series). By selecting a department, a listing of all available podcasts within that series will be displayed, along with brief program notes. Clicking on the icon will allow you to play or download the podcast audio.

How can I download a particular podcast episode without subscribing?
There are two ways to download individual podcast episodes.

First, from the "Sac City Podcasts" player on the left, select the podcast you which to download. You can scroll through the list to see what podcasts are available. Then, click on the downward pointing arrow icon to the right of the podcast title to download the episode to your computer.

The second method for downloading podcast episodes without subscribing is to use the podcast directory and select a podcast department. This will bring up all episodes for a selected podcast department (or series) along with a brief description. You may click the icon to play or download the podcast.

How do podcast subscriptions work?
Through subscription technology called RSS (Real Simple Syndication) you can subscribe your computer or portable device to automatically download information about new podcast episodes. This means that your news reader or aggregator will know every time a new podcast is added to this site. Some will even download the podcast files for you automatically, depending on your preferences. The SCC Podcasts site offers two kinds of content subscriptions using RSS.

Whenever you see the orange XML button on this site, that indicates that a subscription to the associated content is available. (This button does not have an active link--for demonstration purposes only). XML is the language used to provide updated content to an RSS reader or aggregator. Subscribing to the feed typically involves copying the URL link associated with the button and pasting it into your RSS aggregator.

The first option is to subscribe to all podcasts posted to this site. We refer to this as a site subscription. Each time a new podcast is uploaded, regardless of the podcast department (or series), you can receive information via your RSS news reader of aggregator. Some aggregators, including Apple's iTunes for the Mac or PC, will automatically download new podcast episodes for you. In order to subscribe, you will need to provide your aggregator with the URL of the XML 'feed' for the SCC Podcasts site.

For a site subscription, right click on this icon and select "copy shortcut" then paste the url into your RSS aggregator or news reader. (Mac users: CTRL+Click then "copy link location.) This will subscribe you to all SCC Podcasts posted to this site. Or, copy this URL into your aggregator or news reader: http://web.scc.losrios.edu/podcasts/xml/rss.xml

The second subscription option is to subscribe to podcasts within a department (or series) within the site. For example, you could subscribe to all podcasts from the Counseling department or the Biology department.

To subscribe to a particular podcast series, go to the Podcast Directory, then right click on the 'XML' icon for the department (podcast series) of your choice, and select "copy shortcut" then paste the url into your RSS aggregator or news reader. (Mac users: CTRL+Click then "copy link location.)

This will subscribe you to all podcasts posted within that department or series.

Sacramento City College
3835 Freeport Blvd * Sacramento * CA * 95822
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