Blog Assignments Research Articles

Enhancing the community of inquiry in online courses: Making the case for blogs

The purpose of this article is to advocate for blogs as a method of building social presence, to present options for administering blog assignments, to provide feedback from students who completed blog assignments, and to contrast the practice of teaching with blogs to teaching with the frequently utilized discussion boards. Blogs create community, encourage dialogue, and inspire metacognitive processes leading to an authentic learning experience. Blogs can be effective and efficient tools for activities such as class bios/introductions, case studies, class reflections, or student assignment feedback, whereas discussion boards can be more effective in instances that necessitate genuine two-way dialogue such as asking for instructor assistance. Additionally, guidance for obtaining student satisfaction with using blogs in class is presented.

Connecting in-class and out-of-class learning: Integrating online resources and blog writing for EFL proficiency enhancement

The paper presents a study that addresses common issues in the EFL context, specifically the lack of student engagement and limited exposure to the language. The study implemented a flipped classroom approach to enhance learner engagement and improve language learning outcomes. This study involved 32 non-English majors and utilized 6 Minute English Podcasts and TED Talks as core materials, supplemented by blog writing assignments to connect in-class and out-of-class learning. Students engaged with online course materials before attending in-class discussions and worked on their blog assignments after class. Research tools included pre- and post-language proficiency tests, an end-of-semester questionnaire, student blog writings, and their reflection papers.
 The results of the Wilcoxon signed-rank test indicated a significant improvement in students' listening skills (z=-4.099, p<0.001). Regarding their performance in speaking and writing, the results of the paired t-tests showed that students demonstrated varying levels of improvement, with the most significant improvements in the writing test (p<0.001) with a large effect size (d=1.94). The findings highlight significant progress in listening, writing, and listen-to-write skills, resulting from the synergistic integration of high-quality online audio and video resources, blog writing assignments, and the flipped teaching approach. This research offers valuable insights for practitioners seeking to enhance language acquisition, particularly within the EFL context.

More than just child's play: Enhancing the class experience through role‐playing in children's law

Issues impacting children, families, and communities involve an array of weighty interests rooted in a variety of consequential historical, legal, and political precedents. For more than 30 years, students in the course Child Rights and Remedies have explored these precedents while honing their critical thinking and advocacy skills through role play. Students are each assigned a role for the duration of the semester—a child advocate/child's attorney, a parent advocate/parent's attorney, a state attorney, among others—from which to analyze cases relevant to children. Students are asked to identify the strongest legal and policy arguments supporting the position of someone in their assigned role and to prepare to raise and defend the position in class. A recent innovation—developed as a result of mandated virtual instruction— expands student exploration of child- and family-related topics through contribution to a current events blog. This article will briefly discuss the benefit of role play in legal education followed by detailed guidance on using the approach to explore four key child rights cases. The article also includes the blog assignment description as well as example blog entries and responses.

Blogging Your Way to a Research Paper: The Benefits of a Semester-Long Blogging Assignment in the Political Science Classroom

Although the benefits of undergraduate research for students are broadly understood, implementation of undergraduate research in the college classroom can be challenging. In this article, I explain how blogging assignments can be used to enable students to successfully complete course-long research projects and achieve many of the content and skill development benefits of undergraduate research, even in courses in which undergraduate research is less common—such as those with high enrollment numbers, those at earlier points in a political science major, or those with many non-major students. I draw on several forms of student feedback and assessment to identify the strengths and weaknesses of using blogs as a way to build a research paper. Additionally, I outline the components of one set of blogging assignments and provide suggestions for implementation of blogging research projects in other courses.

Pre-Service Educator Preparation to Teach Children with Disabilities Through Service-Learning

The purpose of the multi-year study discussed in this article was to investigate the impact of preservice educator participation in a community-based service-learning program for children with disabilities. Pre-service educators who were enrolled in either an adapted physical education or introduction to special education course participated in the Children’s Adaptive Physical Education Society!, a skill-development program for 35 children (ages 5-12) with developmental disabilities. Two measures—a modified regular education initiative survey and a reflective blog assignment—were administered to the participants to identify changes in their beliefs and attitudes toward teaching and including children with disabilities in their future classrooms. The results revealed statistically significant gains in their understanding, confidence, willingness, skill set, and educational satisfaction. Responses in the reflective blogs further supported the statistical findings, suggesting that a community-based learning program provides pre-service educators with sufficient experiences to positively and effectively change their beliefs and attitudes toward teaching and including children with disabilities in their future classrooms.

Learners' Perceptions of the Effectiveness of Blogging for L2 Writing in Fully Online Language Courses

The study explores how the application of blog assignments facilitated the L2 writing process and how blogging affects the way students view blog-based L2 writing instruction and peer feedback. The results showed that beginning students had a positive attitude toward the use of blogs because it gave them agency over their learning, and engaged them in co-construction of knowledge with their peers. While scaffolding through peer feedback affected students' self-regulated efforts to make improvement on written content and increase language accuracy, strategies for effective use of feedback from the instructor was important. This study concludes that blogging not only empowers students to be creative with the content, but also promotes attention to language forms. L2 educators are strongly encouraged to take full advantage of the widely available blog technology by incorporating it into their teaching methods to further promote critical reflection and collaborative interaction within socially bounded online learning environments.

EFL Learners' Perceptions of Blog Assignments and Instructors' E-Feedbacks

The use of blogs in EFL settings considerably supports learner-centered interactive learning and constructivist environments. Moreover, using blogs to provide instructor's feedback has a crucial role in the language learning process. The present study aimed to explore Iranian EFL learners' perceptions of blog assignments and instructor's e-feedbacks thereof. To this end, assignments were established and teacher's feedbacks were transmitted via the blogs for a period of one educational semester. Data were triangulated and collected using think-aloud protocols and reflexive journals during the semester, as well as semi-structured interviews at the end. Data analysis through grounded theory further revealed six major categories: educational effects, psychological effects, technological effects, social effects, teacher's traditional feedbacks vs. e-feedbacks, and students' preferences of e-feedbacks. Accordingly, implications are discussed in light of EFL settings.

Using a class blog for student experiential learning reflection in business courses

ABSTRACTReflective observation is an important component of experiential learning that allows students to draw meaning from their experiences and incorporate that meaning into new learning conceptualizations. However, the present study indicates that business educators rarely incorporate reflection after concrete experiences into curricula. This research explores the use of a class blog as a medium for students to engage in social reflective observation. The authors include a case study of two marketing classes that used class blogs for reflective observation after semester-long group projects. Results from a survey of student attitudes toward the blog assignment indicate positive affective responses and perceived effectiveness of the blog task as a tool for reflection.

Students blogging about politics: A study of students' political engagement and a teacher's pedagogy during a semester-long political blog assignment

Many scholars have written about the Internet’s potential for engaging youth in public issues, but there has been little empirical research on the political engagement outcomes from students’ classroom-based use of web 2.0 tools, such as blogs, or the pedagogies involved in designing such experiences. This paper begins to address this gap by analyzing the development of political engagement among several dozen high school students who were required to complete political blogs for their required U.S. government course and by exploring their teacher’s pedagogical strategies and challenges. We analyzed data from 22 classroom observations, 15 student interviews, three teacher interviews, and surveys from over 300 students (including a large comparison group) given at the beginning and end of the fall 2012−13 semester. Quantitative and qualitative analyses indicate that students in the blog-focused classes developed greater political interest, internal political efficacy, and self-efficacy for political writing than other students. We also found that the teacher did not actively encourage interactive posting in order to avoid heated exchanges – but that many students expressed an interest in seeing more responses to their online writing. We discuss implications for practice and research.

Using Blogs to Stimulate Reflective Thinking in a Human Behavior Course

This paper reports results of a study that examined whether participation in a blog assignment promoted the development of reflective thinking skills in a human behavior course. Weekly blog entries completed by 14 students over a semester, self-analysis papers, and a survey that was designed to evaluate the blog assignment were analyzed. Descriptive statistics were used to identify levels of reflective thinking represented in the transformed blog entry scores and to summarize select survey items. In addition, paired samples t-test was used to assess change in blog entry scores. Qualitative content analysis was used to identify factors that facilitated or hindered theory integration as reported in the students' self-analysis papers. The results suggested that the percentage of students with blog entries that demonstrated reflection increased from 21% to 57% when scores from the first and last entries were compared. Paired samples t-test results showed statistically significant changes in students' reflection scores at Time 1 and Time 2, t (13) = 2.280, p = .04. As instructional methods for stimulating reflective thinking skills in social work education and practice continue to advance, blogs can play an instrumental role in fostering this development.

Class blogs as a teaching tool to promote writing and student interaction

<p>Blogs are a useful teaching tool for improving student writing and increasing class interaction. However, most studies have looked at individual blogs rather than blogs maintained by a whole class. We introduced assignments involving participation in class blogs to four science communication classes with enrolments of between 15 and 36 students. We administered paper-based surveys to obtain student perceptions of the value of the blogging assignment. Based on feedback in semester one, we increased commenting requirements and spent more time integrating the blog with coursework in semester two. In semester two, students had significantly improved perceptions of the blog assignments. The most commonly cited benefit by students in both semesters was that the blog helped to improve their writing. Most enjoyed the opportunity to have increased intellectual exchange with other students and the majority agreed that knowing other students read the blog motivated them to write better. Students disliked being forced to comment and they felt that they benefited just from reading other students’ posts. However, we recommend that weekly commenting should be mandatory, as this increased involvement and perceived value of the assignment.</p><p> </p>

How Do Student Blogs Compare to Short Research Assignments in Achieving Some Traditional Teaching Goals?

Two major goals of teaching include educating students to communicate effectively and encouraging students to critically engage with information. To what extent can blog assignments help us to achieve these goals? In this pilot study, I use student surveys and assignment performance to compare student performances on blog assignments to traditional research short papers. I compare the amount of time students devote to each assignment, how many and what sort of sources they tend to use, how many drafts they prepare on each assignment, and student self-reports on their engagement with the information and whether the assignment encouraged further interest in the topic.

Investigating the Impact of Weekly Weblog Assignments on the Learning Environment of a Secondary Biology Course

A weblog, or blog, presents an intriguing way to create a collaborative space within a traditional classroom structure. Well-constructed blog assignments may provide a safe environment and encourage a collaborative learning culture. This study explores the use of blog-based assignments on student participation in a high school biology course. Data collected from field notes, surveys, student interviews, and quiz scores provided evidence that the blog assignments had a positive impact on in-class participation rate, self-directed research, achievement, and classroom environment.Keywords: weblog; blog; blog-based assignments

Drawing on technology: An investigation of preservice teacher beliefs in the context of an introductory educational technology course

This study investigated entering preservice teachers' initial beliefs and ideas with regard to the role of technology in teaching and learning. It also examined specific technology-integrated pedagogical strategies and their potential to help preservice teachers begin to shift from traditional teacher-centered beliefs to a more student-centered mindset. The work was conducted in the context of an introductory educational technology course for preservice teachers in a Mid-Atlantic University in the United States. Data sources included pre- and post-course drawings where participants depicted themselves as technology-using teachers, drawing reflections, and weekly reflective entries submitted in response to a blogging assignment. Findings indicated that preservice teachers enter their training programs with traditional, teacher-centered beliefs about the use of technology and the roles of technology-using teachers and students. Analysis of post-course drawings, however, indicated that participants' beliefs began to shift from largely teacher-centered to more mixed teacher- and student-centered. Analysis of reflective blog entries also demonstrated that participants reflected predominantly on how technology can provide opportunities for students, teachers and parents to collaborate. To a lesser extent, participants reflected on how technology can enhance teaching and learning. Based on these findings, implications specifically related to stand alone technology courses and teacher education programs are discussed. Highlights? We investigated preservice teachers' beliefs about the role of technology in teaching and learning. ? Pre and post drawings showed initial changes in teachers' beliefs. ? Teachers' beliefs began to shift from teacher-centered to mixed teacher-centered/student-centered. ? Teachers reflected on the role of technology in teaching and learning. ? Teachers reflected on the role of technology in fostering collaboration.

‘Economics with Training Wheels’: Using Blogs in Teaching and Assessing Introductory Economics

Blogs provide a dynamic interactive medium for online discussion, consistent with communal constructivist pedagogy. The author of this article describes and evaluates a blog assignment used in the teaching and assessment of a small (40–60 students) introductory economics course. Using qualitative and quantitative data collected across four semesters, students’ participation in the blog assignment is found to be associated with student ability, gender, and student perceptions of the blog. Importantly, students with past economics experience do not appear to crowd out novice economics students. Student performance is positively associated with the quality of their blog participation after controlling for student ability, suggesting that a focus on quality of student engagement could further improve learning outcomes. Students generally report overall positive experiences with the blog assignment.

Real Problems, Virtual Solutions: Engaging Students Online

In this article, the author explains how she used online blogs with more than 263 students over a period of four semesters in an introductory social problems course. She describes how she uses blogs to enhance student participation, engagement, and skill building. Finally, she provides an overview of students’ qualitative assessments of the blog assignments, highlighting the drawbacks and limitations of integrating technology and, in particular, blogs as a course writing requirement.

Blackboard Or Blog? Some Thoughts About Creating And Assigning On-Line Components In College History Courses

As colleges and universities have adopted course management software such as Blackboard and WebCT, more and more history faculty have added on-line discussion components to their face-to-face classes. There are many reasons for this, not least a perceived need, expressed by many administrators and legislators, for more flexible class schedules, and a desire to fulfill that need by replacing traditional contact hours with hybrid and on-line courses. Some faculty have turned to weblogs, or "blogs," as alternate locations for collaborative classroom assignments. On-line formats can offer rewards, but they also present challenges for both students and faculty. For example, some institutions require that blog assignments be placed on private or password protected domains in order to protect student privacy, whether or not the assignment is deemed to fall under the broader umbrella of FERPA regulation. Others regard blogs as a sort of presentation open to the public, where students learn to write for audiences beyond the classroom. There are advantages to both approaches and ultimately the decision rests in the hands of the institution. Apart from technical and legal issues, using any sort of on-line discussion requires different pedagogical strategies, some of which are addressed below. Despite these challenges, blogging offers ways to engage students and to access and incorporate different media into student presentations that require the same levels of academic rigor as traditional printed and oral presentations.

Exploring Ways to Enhance Student Learning During Study Abroad: Landscape Exploration of Brazil

A study abroad trip to Brazil was conducted by the University of Delaware's Department of Plant and Soil Sciences in Jan. 2008 to study diverse ecosystems in three major regions: Mata Atlantica (Atlantic forest), Pantanal (wetland), and Amazon (rain forest). Students spent time in Cuiaba, Manaus, Brasilia, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Different garden styles were studied throughout Brazil. Student learning occurred through student presentations, blog assignments, site visits, interaction with local contacts, observational exercises, reflection exercises, immediate feedback assessment test quizzes, cultural experiences, and a culminating project. Thirteen students attended the program with three faculty directors. Two courses were offered: Field Sketching of Landscape Subjects (PLSC 167) and Arts and Ecosystems (PLSC 267). Class goals were to understand the differences between ecosystems within Brazil and more familiar ecosystems in the mid-Atlantic United States; to learn how natural ecosystems inspire landscape design; and to become aware of major environmental issues in Brazil. An effective study abroad program not only exposes students to unique experiences, but also helps students use those experiences to change their perspectives and understanding. Because of the variety of human learning styles, offering a range of educational activities is important so that all students have an opportunity to respond favorably.

Exploring Ways to Enhance Student Learning During Study Abroad: Landscape Exploration of Brazil

A study abroad trip to Brazil was conducted by the University of Delaware's Department of Plant and Soil Sciences in Jan. 2008 to study diverse ecosystems in three major regions: Mata Atlantica (Atlantic forest), Pantanal (wetland), and Amazon (rain forest). Students spent time in Cuiaba, Manaus, Brasilia, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Different garden styles were studied throughout Brazil. Student learning occurred through student presentations, blog assignments, site visits, interaction with local contacts, observational exercises, reflection exercises, immediate feedback assessment test quizzes, cultural experiences, and a culminating project. Thirteen students attended the program with three faculty directors. Two courses were offered: Field Sketching of Landscape Subjects (PLSC 167) and Arts and Ecosystems (PLSC 267). Class goals were to understand the differences between ecosystems within Brazil and more familiar ecosystems in the mid-Atlantic United States; to learn how natural ecosystems inspire landscape design; and to become aware of major environmental issues in Brazil. An effective study abroad program not only exposes students to unique experiences, but also helps students use those experiences to change their perspectives and understanding. Because of the variety of human learning styles, offering a range of educational activities is important so that all students have an opportunity to respond favorably.

Investigating the use of social networking services in Japanese EFL classrooms

In this study, we investigated 92 university students’ perceptions toward the use of social networking services (SNS) in English classes based through a survey consisting of 30 items based on Warschauer (1996). Participants enrolled in three EFL courses offered at two universities responded to the questionnaire after they completed a one-semester course which included blog assignments on a SNS. Thirty items of the questionnaire were factor analyzed and three factors were extracted: (a) Communication and Empowerment through the Use of Computers, (b) Recognition of the Value of Computers, (c) Reluctance to Use Computers. Based on the results of the factor analysis and additional comments provided by students, various aspects of pedagogical practice and research in the use of SNS in English classes are discussed.