Idea 11: Blogging to Encourage Student Interaction in Lecture Courses

Instructions

• Break students into groups of around twenty.  If the class is already in sections, those work perfectly for this.
• Assign each student two separate dates to add an original post to the group blog.
• Try to make them random, and that roughly the same number of students post each week.
• When they are expected to add an original blog post, students may either respond to the prompt for the week, or post on a course-relevant topic of their choosing.
• Each week, require students to reply at least twice with substantive posts to the original blogs of the week.
• Everyone is expected to reply twice a week – even the original blogger for the week.

Best Practices

• By default, the blogs should be private, especially if you intend to grade them.
• However, if all the students are in favor, they can be made public.
• Before the first students are expected to blog, model how to do so properly (both an original blog and how to comment).
• Text-only blogs can become boring to read week after week.  Consider requiring students to add a visual component.
• Reiterate that students are writing these to their fellow students.

• While the professor is grading them, they are not the intended audience.
• If using a third-party or public blogging tool, check for FERPA compliance.*

Adapted from:

Queen, R. (2012). Increasing Student Interaction in a Large Class via Blogging. Retrieved from: https://www.crlt.umich.edu/node/707

 

*For more information about FERPA compliance, check out the FERPA Toolkit.

 

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