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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