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Students’ perceptions on using blogs for reflective learning in higher educational contexts
Presenters : Irshad Ali and Dr Kevin Byard
Introduction
Growing use of blogs for teaching and learning
Blog use provides exciting opportunities for:
engaging and assessing students
competence development
Blogs (weblogs):
are online journals with dated entries (‘diary’)
provide an achieve of postings (newest on top)
can be viewed as personal web-site
Most common use in higher education: collaborative learning
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Purpose of this Paper
Research gap: potential use as personal page/assessment tool/in business education
Study aims to fill that void
Purpose of study-to explore students’ perceptions on:
using blogs as a reflective learning and assessment tool in a business education programme
the ease of using blogs (for such purposes)
the impact of blog use on learning and skills development
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Structure of Presentation
Literature review/Background
Research method
Discussion of results
Conclusions
Limitations of study
Suggestions for future research
Literature Review
Emerging literature on use of blogs (since ~ 2000)
Numerous benefits
Engages students in course material (Davi et al., 2007)
Students become proactive in learning (Du & Wagner 2007)
Enhances learning & critical thinking (Duffy, 2008; Halic et al., 2010)
Better communication tool than other CMC technology (Kim, 2008)
Commonly used for collaborative learning:
Facilitates interaction with peers (Farmer et al., 2008)
Facilitates intellectual exchanges (Williams & Jacobs, 2004; Kerawalla et al., 2009)
Significant research attention
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Literature Review (continued)
Drawbacks of collaborative use:
Non-participation (Kerawalla et al., 2009; Halic et al., 2010)
Preference for reading others’ entries (Halic et al., 2010)
Feedback from peers not valued (Halic et al., 2010)
Personal blogs
Students more interested than in shared blogs (Kim 2008)
Secure and safe environment to express feelings etc (Hemmi et al. 2009)
Students take more responsibility (Deng & Yuen 2009)
Assessment tool
Group assessment problematic (Chen & Bonk, 2008; Smith et al., 2009)
They recommend personalisation of blogs
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Blog use in study
Personal space created for each student
Students provided with weekly task/s
Students completed and uploaded tasks
Tasks had deadlines (marks lost if deadline not met)
Students reflected on learning using triggers for reflection
Regular formative feedback given by lecturer
Students had opportunity to improve work
Final in-class reflection (supervised)
Summative feedback
Research Method
Online questionnaire survey
Ethical approval (AUT University)
Survey Monkey (results on Excel)
Three sets of questions
Demographic
Ease of using blogs
Impact on learning and achievement
Sample
First year business paper
350 students
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strongly agreeagreeneutraldisagreestrongly disagree
}
Results
Demographics
Male/female equal split
18% international
98% had access to computers at home
82% used computers more at home than on campus
Ease of use of blogs
Majority agreed blogs easy to use (75%)
66% thought sufficient instructions were given
Hyperlinks were easy to create (70%)
Uploading work was easy (83%)
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Results (continued) – Impact of using blogs
Results (continued) – Impact of using blogs
Conclusions
Positive
Students generally positive about ease of uploading files
Students felt personal blogs increased ownership of work
Some flexibility in completing tasks
Able to check work regularly/make improvements
Feedback from lecturers gave opportunity to improve work
Blogs are a good assessment tool
Overall improved quality of work
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Conclusions
Challenges
More information was needed by students on blog use
Motivating staff to provide good online feedback
Feedback needs to be timely and constructive
Lack of consensus on:
o whether blogs improved student writing skills
o increase of dialogue between students and lecturers
o Increased student interest in learning
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Limitations and Future Research
Limitations
Only closed question used
No exploration of students’ reasons for responses
Phrasing of questions may be confusing
Suggestions for future research
Use open-ended questions
Explore rationale behind students’ responses
How does blogging support student learning of content?
Lecturers’ perspectives on blog use
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