Presentation about JISC funded blogging project on student blogging. Showed increased confidence about academic writing, deeper engagement, liberal learning. The findings led to adaptations on the MA L&T module on Curriculum Design.

1. “You can’t write a load of rubbish”:
Why blogging works as formative assessment
Prof Tansy Jessop, SLTI
PG/Professional Away Day
@tansyjtweets 14 June 2016

2. Do you blog?
Do you read other people’s blogs?
Do your students blog?
What is a blog??!!

3. Session Aims
Understand how blogging can be
transformational for learning and teaching
Explore an evidence-led approach to group
blogging tasks in two scenarios
Find solutions to challenges which influence
the pedagogical success of blogging

4. Love it or hate it
• Groups of three
• Please take a pack of
statements and your very
own Likert scale.
• You have ten minutes to
come to consensus about
the statements.

6. The Assessment Challenge
• Poor take up and /or design of formative tasks
• Lack of ‘time-on-task’
• Privatisation
• Disconnected tasks
• Lack of risky, playful assessment

7. Defining formative
• ‘Definitional fuzziness’ (Yorke, 2003)
• A fine tuning mechanism for how and what
we learn (Boud 2000).
• Required, does not count, elicits feedback
(TESTA)

8. “Innovations that include strengthening the
practice of formative assessment produce
significant and often substantial
learning gains”.
(Black and William, 1998, p.40).

9. Challenge: The Silent Seminar
Challenge: Are they reading?
Challenge: Focused on summative
The Cohort : Final year students on an English Module
The task: Formative writing on a shared blog platform:
1. Write one blog post per week, linked to reading, post on
Sunday.
2. Write 3 comments (on peer blogs) by Wednesday
3. Discuss the blog content in weekly seminar groups
Case study
One:
BA Primary
Education

11. Think Aloud Data Collection
Interviewed 6 students
Tracked progression at 3 x intervals during the module ( Wk1, wk4, wk10)
Camtasia Recording Screencast (audio and screen capture)
Transcription and Coding
Advantages of Think Aloud:
• Powerful way to capture engagement with a digital artefact
• Quick, easy recording method
• The visual element prompted a richer discussion and gave
depth to student responses

12. Headline
Findings
Increased Confidence in
Academic Writing
• Blogging gave students a voice – literally.
• They transitioned from being uncomfortable and
private about their writing to confident and proud
about their blog posts.

13. I know how to write now…
I’ve seen how other people write compared to
mine and actually mine isn’t as bad as I thought,
(…) I always had a lot of difficulty with my
sentence lengths and looking through other
people’s I thought ‘Actually, I know how to do it
now’.

14. Headline
Findings
Deeper engagement
• Students spent more time-on-task
• Production of writing deepened understanding
• Discussion cemented it

15. Out of the silent seminar…
You have to evidence that you have read it
compared to a seminar reading. You are reading a
lot more as well as the set ones.
I go more in depth with the reading than with the
reading pack when I’d just highlight. It helps.
We sit in blog groups, all talk about it. Discuss the
readings. I think the discussion is more focused.

16. Into engagement…
Over the whole three years this is the most
engaged I’ve been in my readings. I really
liked doing this. I wish we had done it
more. Maybe start it in the first year.
.
…it is also a bit chatty and
informal. Even though I’m putting
in readings, it’s different. It’s a
nicer relaxed way of talking
about literature

17. Headline
Findings
Into liberal learning
Students wrestled with and revised their thinking in the
light of new knowledge
This is liberal learning!

18. Into liberal learning…
You change your ideas, and maybe something will
influence your next post. It opens your mind up to
new ideas. It gets you thinking.
If someone else reads it you’re going to be giving a
different view to theirs and developing their
understanding – also when you read theirs they
develop your understanding.

19. But it wasn’t perfect…..

20. But it wasn’t perfect…
• Too much work for one module
• Lack of confidence commenting on posts
• Lack of personalising blogs
• Synthesis with summative?

21. MA L&T Curriculum Design in HE
• In-class writing activity
• One hour per week of three hour session
• Community of writers
• Individual blogs
• Fortnightly blog post
• Alternate week comment on three
• Formative, required x 4 posts

22. Module Evaluation 2014-15
It grew on me Brill – confidence building. I have
a voice and through the blogging
it was a voice that had to be
heard.
I appreciated the dialogical aspect, and found some people’s
blogs as informative as they were entertaining
Loved it, felt comfortable
blogging worked well for
sharing ideas/thoughts.
Not mad about the mix
of off-the-cuff thoughts
and them being public….

23. 2015-16 Informal
Module Feedback

27. Four challenges: choose one
1. Getting students to value work that doesn’t count
2. Managing tutor and student workload.
3. Building a community of writers.
4. Linking formative to summative assessment.

28. References
Farmer, B., Yue, A. & Brooks, C. (2008). Using blogging for higher order learning in large cohort
university teaching: A case study. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 24(2), 123-136.
Available at: http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet24/farmer.html
Williams, J.B. & Jacobs, J. (2004). Exploring the use of blogs as learning spaces in the higher
education sector. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 20(2), 232-247. Available at:
http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet20/williams.html