Instructional Models for Using Weblogs In eLearning: Case Studies from a Hybrid and Virtual Course
- By J. David Betts, Stuart J. Glogoff
- 08/02/04
During the past academic year, faculty members at the University of Arizona
have integrated blogging into their courses. The courses have been offered either
totally online or as hybrid instruction where students met in a traditional
classroom environment but other coursework and communication occurred virtually.
Blogs were used in conjunction with other instructional technology tools such
as a learning management system, threaded discussion forums, e-mail, and chat
rooms. At the end of the course, students completed surveys to assess their
use of blogs for skills acquisition as well as their general acceptance of this
technology. This article presents models for using blogs and offers recommendations
for faculty who are considering using blogs in their courses.
Introduction
In recent years, the professional literature has been filled with calls for
faculty to better engage students in learner-centered applications. Reports
on the learning and behavioral tendencies of the Network Generation1
and most recently of the Millennials2 emphasize that these students
have grown up in the information age with technology, and have developed skills,
aptitudes and attitudes that differ from many faculty active in instruction.
For example, the Millenials look to the Internet for information and
are comfortable interacting online with their peers; they work collaboratively
and thrive on interactivity; and they have an expectation of immediacy not just
in problem-solving and knowledge acquisition but from their instructors as well.
What pedagogical models might faculty design that cater to self-directed learners?
A first step toward developing models of scholarship aligned to innovative teaching
is to pilot approaches that blend technology with the skill sets being developed
in core subject areas. As best practices are identified, they can be incorporated
into revised pedagogical models.
Blogging and Instructional Techniques for eLearning
In their book eLearning and the Science of Instruction: Proven Guidelines
for Consumers and Designers of Multimedia Learning, Ruth Colvin-Clark and
Richard E. Mayer identified three instructional techniques for eLearning:
- Receptive: information acquisition
- Directive: response strengthening
- Guided Discovery: knowledge construction3
The receptive technique emphasizes acquiring information and involves
building instructional modules that open avenues to greater amounts of information
while limiting application and experimentation. In contrast to this, the directive
technique emphasizes frequent responses from learners with immediate feedback
from the instructor. Guided discovery places the instructor in the role
of expert who leads students toward solving real-life challenges and identifying
the appropriate "conceptual codecs" to support student knowledge acquisition.
Blogging is a simple technology that can be used to construct learning environments
that fulfill these three instructional techniques.
The Hybrid Experience
Learning, Reading and Culture (LRC551) was taught as a hybrid course
through the College of Education. LRC551, Reading, Writing and Text, addressed
"readers and writers as users of language; reading and writing as language
processes; and what makes a text a text." It drew students from the College
of Education, Department of Linguistics, and a specialized program called Second
Language Acquisition and Teaching (SLAT). SLAT is an interdisciplinary doctoral
program designed to provide advanced training for researchers, teachers, and
administrators concerned with second language acquisition and teaching.
A blog was introduced as a formative experiment to give students a way to experience
so-called "New Literacies" and to help build a classroom community
of learners. It was used for class assignments, reflections, and journal entries.
In addition, the blog served to extend discussions between class meetings and
helped in collaborations. Many students used it often for course activities:
literacy inventories, such as lists, purposive reading, observation notes, and
linguistic analysis. Other students brought in ideas, terminology and methodology
from their other courses. Many were coming directly from their own classroom
and brought issues from that environment. Students used their blogs to chronicle
the development of their class projects, which they also regularly presented
in class. These students for the most part knew what their classmates were working
on and bringing to the class. The blog was discussed during class time so aspects
of the class as a community were present in a more obvious way. We observed
ways in which the experience affected the relationships among readers, writers,
and text.
A Virtual Course Environment
During the summer of 2003, Decision Making for Information Professionals
(IRLS613) was a virtual course offered in the University of Arizona School of
Information Resources and Library Science. IRLS613 emphasizes an understanding
of the various technologies and systems utilized by information professionals
to make informed decisions when recommending a system for purchase or use by
a client. Approximately thirty students, dispersed from Alaska to Ohio and California
to New Mexico, were enrolled. Some students already were working in libraries
in a staff or professional capacity; others came from different disciplines,
such as education. Ages ranged from early twenties to early fifties. The one
common thread was that all were working towards a Master's degree in the same
discipline. The characteristics attributed to the Network Generation and Millenniums-
facility with online interaction, preference for rich and immediate collaboration,
expectation of faculty in the role of problem solving "guides" more
than "experts"- simply did not apply.
Blogs were used in IRLS613 to share learning experiences, provide feedback
to the instructor and fellow students, and to demonstrate an understanding of
particular learning principles developed during the course. Sharing information
about new technology was at the heart of the Technology News blog.
In Technology
News, students made direct observations of uses of technology, provided summaries
with links to complete articles, and added entries relevant to their discipline
or personal interests. The IRLS613 blog was initially intended for postings
that could help students use the course's different instructional resources.
It evolved into a blog where students posted entries about topics of interest
and serves as an example of a virtual community in practice because these changes
were derived totally by student actions addressing a perceived need.
Survey Results
LRC551
The survey used was an informal instrument to see how the blog was viewed as
a part of this course. Thirteen students (of 17 present) responded to a survey
that was distributed on the last night of class with the University Student
Evaluation Forms for the course. Most respondents had not had experience in
Web publishing. Only one person indicated that she had participated in "something
like a blog" before. Six individuals indicated that they wanted to continue
using blog551, although in point of fact, no messages were posted the following
semester. Responding to a question about whether they would use a blog in a
future class (either teaching or taking), five said "yes," and three
indicated "maybe." Students in LRC551 were asked what they liked most
about using the LRC551 blogs. Comments included: "It was an opportunity
to participate," it was "easily accessible" and "user friendly."
The blog "extended class discussions …without taking class time."
It was a "'safe' way to participate." One student noted that she liked
being able to "participate in writing, not necessarily verbally."
Asked how they might use a blog themselves, responses included: "as a journal,"
"for notes," and "to post examples." One student wrote that
she saw it as a way to introduce "new technology as a way to study new
literacies." Another suggested using blogs as "a way for scholars
to discuss articles." Several mentioned that it could be a "place
for students" that could promote "interactivity." A small number
of students were negative on the value of blogging as a good way to learn or
to participate in class. One student wrote that blogs invaded her privacy.
IRLS613
The end-of-course survey revealed that although the vast majority (95 percent)
of students responding were novice blog users, 90 percent agreed that the "Technology
News Web log was a good way for me to learn more about technology." Twenty-nine
percent reported that they joined another blog since the course began, 70 percent
of the students planned to join at least one blog in the coming six months,
and 76 percent "would like to continue using the Technology News Web log."
One student commented that the best thing about using a blog was its "casual
sharing of information." She wrote: "I almost got the feeling I was
sitting in a coffee shop somewhere and the person next to me poring over the
newspaper casually said, 'Hey, did you hear about this new thing that just came
out…?'" This is the sort of sense of place that we do not realize
fully with threaded discussion forums, e-mails and chatrooms.
Faculty Observations and Recommended Next Steps
Betts
I found the blogs to have a great deal of potential for making more of an integrated
experience of the weekly graduate course. Those students who authored lengthy
blog entries but generally did not talk in class were particularly interesting.
The ways students used blogs was also enlightening. Some submitted almost all
of their assignments on their blog. Others included attached files and some
used the blogs as an extended entry gate. We started the blog as an experiment
related to the subject of the class, New Literacies, and we ended up actively
participating in them.
Most of my students are teachers and I am very interested in helping them put
these new affordances to work in their classrooms. A student in my seminar established
a blog for her eighth grade English classes the following semester. Starting
from scratch, and dealing with her school and district and limited on-site support,
she wasn't completely successful. However, she reported that she was able to
establish a Web-based presence for one class by using NiceNet (www.nicenet.org).
She created an author study research assignment and provided the threaded discussion
tool for students to publish and read their work. The students who used the
Web tool "had a higher level of assignment completions." Like me,
she plans to try it again next year. The next time I teach LRC 551, I will organize
it a little differently. By assigning weekly blog reading and response at the
beginning of the semester, I hope to get people using blogs as they work on
their collaborative projects and share resources. I would like my students to
use blogs to give their students authentic literacy experience, and for classroom
community-building.
Glogoff
Blogging is a tool well-suited for decision making sciences because it can be
constructed to emphasize declarative or procedural forms of knowledge, where
learners either come to know the basic knowledge schemas of the discipline or
describe how to apply their knowledge. Because the students taking the course
came from different disciplines and professional backgrounds, there is potential
to attract interest from a wider audience of teaching faculty in whose disciplines
information acquisition, response strengthening and knowledge construction are
important.
Faculty considering using blogs should weigh whether individual student blogs
should be assigned, or if "community" blogs will serve the purpose.
My observation from the Summer 2003 course was that far too many students lurked
rather than participated, even though participation was required and points
towards the final grade were assigned based upon the quality of ones participation.
During Summer 2004, each student in the course has been assigned a blog and
is required to post on assigned topics each week. My goal is for this technique
to strengthen participation and draw the more reluctant bloggers into stronger
information gathering practices.
1 Tapscott, Don. Growing Up Digital: The Rise of the Network Generation.
New York & London: McGraw-Hill, c. 1998.
2 Oblinger, Diana. "Boomers, Gen-Xers, and Millennials: Understanding
the 'New Students,'" Educause Review (July/August) 2003, p. 37-47.
3 Clark, Ruth Colvin, and Mayer, Richard E. (2003) eLearning and
the Science of Instruction: Proven Guidelines for Consumers and Designers of
Multimedia Learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer, p. 28.