Steve Corbett's reflection post on "Course Design for Using Weblogs" article

By: Steve Corbett
Article: “Personal Learning Journal – Course Design for Using Weblogs in Higher Education”
Electronic Journal of e-Learning
Volume 6 Issue 3 2008 (189-196)
Stefanie Hain and Andrea Back

The article summarized the results of a study of weblogs in a university environment. A weblog (usually referred to as a blog) is a knowledge sharing technology that enables a person to record their thoughts in diary form and publish it on a web page. The results of the study were used to develop a framework that outlined how blogs can best be used as learning journals.
The study resulted from data obtained from three different courses over four semesters. The main objective was to examine the impact of blogs on individual learning processes by evaluating how much students fulfilled the following three interdependent dimensions when using blogs in a learning environment:

• Content dimension is characterized by the how much the post presents facts, experiences concerning the relevant topic, individual reflection, and reflections in dialogue.
• Networking dimension is characterized by the how much the post presents internal or external web resources, as well as links to other students or reflective dialogues, and links in the text itself.
• Technology dimension is characterized by the how much the post used personal weblog design elements in terms of layout (e.g., style, pictures, personality) and activated functions (e.g., polls, music, RSS, tags, chat).

The study revealed that the content dimension best supported the learning process by means of reflection. This dimension also effectively moved learners beyond just building a basic knowledge about topics, enabling them to expand on those topics through collaborative creation of additional learning resources.

The study revealed that the technology dimension did not seem to be relevant for individual learning unless it was used to support the networking dimension. For example, they found that the introduction of RSS positively affected the students’ interaction.

The study particularly revealed how important scaffolding was to ensure the networking dimension added to the use blogs in the learning process. It found that interaction and discussion between students differed during the various semesters based on each learner’s motivation, and that this was particularly affected by the use of posting deadlines. Students tended to wait until the posting deadline (like I am doing today) to make their posts, thereby giving the other students very little time to post replies or compare it to their own posts. It was found that the introduction of RSS helped increase interaction by making sure students were less tied to publication deadlines and instead motivated to look at what their classmates posted on a case by case basis. Students who had not posted yet were motivated by the posts of other students to make their own reflective posts earlier than the deadline.

Although the study revealed that the use of blogs cannot act as substitutes for lectures and learning materials in the learning process, they are useful for creating a blended learning environment. Furthermore, the researchers proposed the following strategy when using blogs as part of the learning environment:

1. Use a kickoff event during the first lecture where the facilitator communicates the expectations, etiquette, and requirements for using the blog in a learning environment.
2. Initiate the first post during the second lecture and maintain the engagement of first time bloggers by providing them access to a hands-on seminar on how to use the technology. Emphasize that students are not expected to generate qualitative best posts; instead coach them on how to effectively achieve the three dimensions: content, networking, and technology.
3. Ensure the course has several modules arranged over a period of time so you can restrict the scope of topics over time.
4. Create an increased sense of community by dividing the learners into fixed groups with common goals and assigning the groups to a particular topic for a restricted period of time. Changing the groups for each module will increase interaction.

My thoughts: I found this article particularly relevant to the 700 courses I have taken this year. In these classes, we have been expected to make posts in a forum about various topics. Although a discussion forum is not exactly the same as a blog, the dimensions covered by the article still apply. I think we are doing very well at achieving the content dimension with our posts, but we are not really achieving the other two dimensions much. There is very little interaction between students and most of the posts tend to arrive near the posting deadlines. Furthermore, there is no e-mail digest or RSS feature driving us to look at what others post. If we are to move beyond ADDIE where individual learning receives more focus than group-based learning, learners will need to learn from one another through interaction. To achieve this, it will be important to properly scaffold the use of blogs and forum posts to increase interaction between students. Without this interaction, individual learners will likely feel a strong sense of increased transactional distance.