When I was an undergrad, my “intellectual conversation crutch” was bringing up something from Jon Stewart’s Daily Show. After moving to Chicago, that crutch morphed into inserting something I read in The New York Times or New Yorker.

Now? “I was just listening to a podcast about that…” is something I say with annoying frequency.

Thankfully, I’m not alone, as I notice many other people parroting back something they’ve recently heard in a podcast. But even though it feels like most of us are listening to podcasts, and most of us are learning interesting things from podcasts, I still don’t see podcasts as a top option when faculty are designing online courses. Why might that be?

Content- and context-wise, podcasts would make sense for an online course. A key characteristic of podcasts is that you can engage with them in spaces that would otherwise feel like time-wastes: commuting, completing errands, etc. Even things I enjoy, like running, feel better because I’m simultaneously enriching or exercising my mind.

And doesn’t that feel like the perfect fit for an online course? If we presume that students might be taking online courses because they’re trying to fit education into busy lives, providing course content that can be listened to “on the go,” so to speak, makes sense.

Plus, if we think about one of the key ways content is also shared in a face-to-face class—the lecture—a podcast would be one of the most direct digital translation options, especially for faculty who eschew death-by-PowerPoint or chalkboard use.

So why aren’t podcasts more prevalent in online courses (or at least in online courses designed within a typical university model and not as a MOOC)? I think I’ve cracked it: it’s because podcasts are almost always conversations. One person speaking by themselves, without any visual element, is boring. Conversations (even when you’re only hearing half of the conversation) are interesting, but they take much more time to craft.

If you’ve designed an online course, you know that creating course materials in a digital learning environment is a huge time commitment, and if you decide to use video lectures, the production of those lectures frequently becomes one of the largest tasks.

The thought of adding another person to that already-daunting process probably feels like a bridge too far. Plus, you might not be able to control the circuitous route a conversation could take (those pesky humans—they present a lot of variables!), so in addition to selecting someone to have a conversation with, prepping them for the conversation, and scheduling a time to talk to them and record, you’d also need to be thinking about a much more intense editing process.

It’s not hard to see why “online course content as podcasts” hasn’t taken off.

Even though I think I’ve landed on one of the key reasons podcasts haven’t yet become a staple of the online courses I’ve helped design, I don’t have a brilliant solution to that problem because there aren’t really brilliant solutions to “need more time.” (And if I had a solution to that problem, you’d be coughing up money for my book/speaking tour/waitlisted seminar.)

Still, I’m considering what strategies might work to bring the podcast format to an online course. Perhaps an instructor having a conversation with a student about a tricky concept or assignment. Guest speakers would, of course, work well. Or, maybe conversations between the instructor and other department faculty. With the right content, planning, and lead time, podcasts may yet make their way into my course design bag of tricks.