Case Study Analysis: Blog for Learning in a University Course

Using blogging for higher order learning in large cohort university teaching: A case study Brett Farmer, Audrey Yue and Claire Brooks. University of Melbourne, 2007.
The author’s experience using a blog for a large group of college freshman liberal arts majors shed light on the potentials of educational blogging as well pitfalls that can be avoided with foresight, planning, and ongoing communications. The blog was an intranet blog and IT staff managed the rights and security of the special software used. Instructors were given administrative rights which allowed them to set parameters, views, and gather usages data as well as download content for assessment purposes. The software was set up to work like BlogSpot or other commercial social networking software. Aside from the technical issues and learning curve required by instructors to become proficient at managing the blog and proactively prompting students as a technology scaffolding tool, blogging did occur and data was collected.
Students were required to write entries on their blogs and write comments to others’ blogs as part of the course grade. Some of the posts were used for formative assessment purposes and became part of the content grade. Guidelines for the posts were open because the instructors wanted to give the students a wide berth to allow for creativity and independence in their ways to use this tool to build a body of knowledge as a support for students and to allow students to interact with the content; perhaps taking away a greater depth and appreciation of the subject studied.
Criteria for posts were simple. Students were to blog about content in the course at their own discretion. Guidelines outlined a certain number of entries within a specified time as well as regular responses to other students’ blogs. The posts were to relate to the current course content but students were free to write as they chose as long as it was in English and maintained a respectful tone. Grades were given on the blogs based on number of entries posted and the quality of responses to other student blogs. Beyond that, students were free in the form they used to write, taking any perspective they chose. In general, the posts were reflective in nature as well as meant to provoke thought or Instructors and students posted comments and shared insights on the posts.
Participants completed three questionnaires to provide qualitative data and comments for evaluation. There was a paper questionnaire at the beginning and end of the course and an e-questionnaire at the end as well. The general information gleaned from the early questionnaires provided expected information. Most students had done some blogging but not a lot; however, they were are familiar with social networking sites and were web-savvy students. The questionnaires at the end of the course provided results that I would expect. Most of the students thought the blogging was a good experience and the more someone used the blogging tool, the more they felt they learned through the process of reading and responding to content. Those students who did not participate much felt the tool was not helpful for learning the material and a few students felt the entire exercise is a waste of time.
User comments and staff reflections yielded interesting suggestions for use of blogging in a university course setting. Below is a summary in list form of recommendations by a blog administrator and another list of comments users shared in the questionnaires.
Administrator recommendations:
• Provide a mandatory tutorial to be sure each student is able to access the software and navigate through it.
• Provide tech support systematically from the very beginning and throughout the course.
• Provide an optional structured writing prompt or provide some sort of scaffolding for students who choose to use it.
• Provide a model of a blog that is useful so students have access to a positive example of the quality expected.
Student lessons:
• Students do not necessarily know how to write reflectively and / or critically about something they are learning.
• Freshman students are adjusting to university life and all it encompasses and their writings will mature over time. For these students, consider providing a prompt that includes an appropriate structure such as assigning a point of view or prompt the writer to communicate the perspective as well as an explanation.
• All students agreed the learning was most powerful in the interactions between students with the content. As blogging matures, providing student just-in-time scaffolding will yield more concise thoughtful responses.
Interpreting and applying the case study... my opinion
Students’ annotations in the comments section of the questionnaire provided interesting insights for education blog use. Those who felt the blogs were very useful commented that it was powerful to have peers respond to the opinions they wrote in their blog entries. Students found that it was useful to have the freedom to read as much or little as they had time to read and was interested to read. This self-decision component provides powerful practice for a student to feel ownership of the content mastered in a course. Long term learning is more conducive to self-selection and ownership. Blogging obviously provides both elements in the very nature of the activity. Rather than searching for specific facts that may be tested, students are free to build meaning and refine their understanding as they interact with their blog and other students’ writings.
I find this case study indicative of my experience teaching upper class high school students. In general, students were not comfortable choosing a section of a topic and responding with their opinion on the topic while substantiating their comments with information they had learned in the course. I expect this is a skill that requires practice and because it involves intellectual risk-taking, also requires the student to feel comfortable that who reads the writing will respond with respect. In my experience requiring quick writings as a class wrap up activity on the days learning, I found students became more comfortable and more forthcoming as the activity became part of the class routine. I expect this will be true in blogging, as well. As a dialogue forms between the teacher and students and vice-versa students will naturally relax and begin to write more fluidly. It must be noted, however, that the success of these types of activities requires consistent teacher interaction for two reasons. First, if the teacher is not reading them students will assume it is not required and write poorly, if at all. Secondly, As a teacher writes her blog comments she is modeling academic writing that students have little experience generating or responding to. Teachers must lead the way if reflective writing is to be part of learning content in their course.
How would I use blogging in a course? I would use it for reflective writing and would set my blog up as the course home. I would identify critical features and vocabulary, arranging them in graphical form and post them on the blog (Corder, 2005). Then, I would link to activities and puzzles that provided practice with the content critical features. I think it would be interesting to have a place for students to post interesting activities, puzzles, simulations, virtual worlds, or other pertinent web content that can be integrated into the learning experience. Finally, I would structure the blog-sphere so we would celebrate a classmate’s creative idea, great activity, or unique application of the content. I think blogging is only useful if the dialogue is content-centered, dynamic, and timely. It is important to structure writing prompts to guide students as they formulate a written response (Wilson, 2006). It seems to me that the ‘teachable moment’ is even more elusive in an e-learning environment. It is possible, I think, that blogging has the potential to allow critical and creative thinking challenges, build writing skills that are useful that include writing and supporting an opinion, writing a rebuttal, or perhaps writing a critique.
Resource List
Corder, G. D. (2005). Graphic Organizer Resources. Retrieved June 29, 2009, from http://faculty.trinityvalleyschool.org/corderg/go
Farmer, B. Y. (2008). Using blogging for higher order learning in large cohort university teaching: A case study. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology , 123-136.
Wilson, K. (2006, September 14). Academic Skills Program . Retrieved June 29, 2009, from University of Canberra Australia: http://www.canberra.edu.au/studyskills/learning/critical