Blogs

• Blogging requires students to write for a wider audiences, a useful transferrable employability skill.

• Blogging can increase writing confidence by requiring students to write more frequently, and to use writing as an aid to thinking (Farmer et al, 2008).

• Writing posts, and reading peers’ posts, develops students’ understanding, argument, and reflection on the topics of the course.

• Posts can function later as aids to revision.

• Blogs allow for the presentation and discussion of a wider range of material than (for example) essays (including film and audio).

• Online discussion allows quieter students to contribute to course debates. Students reading each other’s blogs helps to build a learning community among course participants (in Farmer et al, 2008, students reported this as the most valuable aspect).

• Students can be expected (or required by the marking criteria) to comment on one another’s posts.

• Blogging may increase interaction during contact hours (Davi et al., 2007).

• Students will require clear guidance, and ideally some examples, to understand and use an appropriate level of scholarly discussion.
• Writing in a less formal style is a new skill for many students, particularly those with English as an additional language.
• Regular writing could take time from other academic work (although setting blog tasks which directly relate to weekly readings can minimise this, and potentially increase student preparation).
• Poor time management and a large blog workload could lead to token posts or comments.
• Depending on the platform, students may require training so as to reduce any user fears.
• If blogging publically, students may experience negative comments from the public (it may be best to blog within a contained environment such as Moodle).

Students may feel that the skills required by blogging (accessible, concise, specialist writing) are more transferrable than those developed by essays or exams and a well-written blog can be used as a showcase for future employers. Public blogging can bring students into contact and conversation with a wider community around a specific topic, including practitioners, academics, and members of the public. However, students who feel proficient at essays and exams may be anxious about failing a less familiar assessment task and impacting their overall results.

The process of assessing through blogs can be enhanced by setting clear criteria and communicating them to students in advance, with models/examples. If peers are expected to comment on one another's work, guidance on this should also be provided. It is important to consider the fairness of the word count: 10 posts of 300 words each may well be harder to generate than a 3000 word essay, as each post requires specific reading and an original argument or point. A greater range of word count than is normal for essays is suitable for blog posts (it allows students to adapt to a new style of writing, and a variation in the length of posts is normal in blogs). Decide on deadlines and mechanisms for checking blogs early on and share these with students (a single end-of-term deadline may lead to students writing all their posts in a short space of time). Writing in a less formal style may be challenging to students for whom English is not their first language.

As with other written work, marking and moderation should follow departmental practice, but the volume of writing may pose a challenge. Early feedback from an academic can ensure students work at the right level from near the start of the course, and could give students additional perspective on their posts. The content of blogs at the time of assessment should be captured, in case of future queries or appeals.

Grounding blog writing tasks in other aspects of the course (readings, lectures, class discussion or student research) makes comparable material harder to find or purchase. Blog posts can be submitted to Turnitin, but this may require students or staff to paste the text into a new document.

MG492 Data Governance: Privacy, Openness and Transparency

Full report on AN300 including marking criteria and examples of student responses

IR321 Revolutions and World Politics

PB101 Foundations of Psychological Science

GY438 Cities and Social Change in East Asia

LL210 Information Technology and the Law

MG483 eHealth: Policy, Strategy and Systems

HP412  Global Health Security

Davi, A., Frydenberg, M. and Gulati, G.J. (2007) Blogging across the disciplines: Integrating technology to enhance liberal learning. Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 3(3). Retrieved from http://jolt.merlot.org/vol3no3/frydenberg.htm

Farmer, B., Yue, A. and Brooks, C. (2008) Using blogging for higher order learning in large cohort university teaching: A case study. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 24(2): 123–136.

LSE Eden Centre (when TLC) Guidance on Blogging for learning and assessment.