The use of a group blog to actively support learning activities

Abstract

Despite the widespread use of blogs in higher education, there remains a lack of knowledge and consensus about the use and value of blogging in higher education, particularly when used for long periods. This article investigates the use of a group blog to assist traditional teaching activities and foster collaborative learning through the development of a sense of community. It describes how the blog project was implemented and the experiences of administrators and students in using the blog providing insights to educators. To assess students’ experience, a survey was administered to a sample of 135 undergraduate and graduate students. The results show that students find blogging a useful learning tool and that blogs can effectively be used to support learning activities for longer than one semester based on the blog visitors’ statistics and feedback. However, its capacity to build and sustain a sense of community was not as strong as expected. Students were more positive about the use of the blog as an information and promotional tool to share marketing news and information and publicize the degree, rather than for community building. Findings suggest that although the majority of students thought the system was helpful for sharing discipline-related knowledge and information, they are reluctant to participate in a regular and active way by posting – a resistance that applies also to teachers. Nevertheless, the findings also indicate that students’ participation levels can be successfully increased by means of the grading system.