University of Otago e-learning in medicine senior lecturer Dr Phil Blyth said teaching in a lecture theatre was fun, but he was not convinced it was best way for students to learn.
To mix things up he has taught from a plane, a mountain and a great walk.
The wild locations worked as an "Easter egg" which helped keep students who were stuck at home engaged with the class, he said.
When he started at Otago in 2009 he used to give hour-long lectures, but in recent years he had been assigning short audiovisual podcasts for students to review before coming to class.
He started before Covid-19 but has not let the pandemic stop him, recording his most recent podcast on the Milford Track on Sunday.
Because the podcasts he sent out were prerecorded it was possible to make them in interesting environments.
He found when students showed up after watching the podcasts, the lecture slots could be geared towards answering questions and having students interact with each other.
Dr Blyth had recorded them from locations such as an airplane seat, a chairlift and a multi-day tramp.
He recorded his first one on a plane when he was headed to Dunedin from a conference in Auckland.
He realised if he did not give students the podcast he had promised before the lecture, then they would not be able to do the work he was expecting.
Some students got a kick out of hearing the pilot’s voice in the background, even though the sound quality got a few complaints.
At one stage during the pandemic he decided students needed their lives livened up a bit so he hatched a plan to record a podcast on the chairlift at Coronet Peak.
His son recorded him teaching while a stranger sat at the other end of the chair.
He would not be drawn on what future locations he had in store.
