So far I have covered the main types of assessments used in education, exams, coursework and group work. This week I want to look into the psychology behind blogs as a form of assessment…
Up until last year I hadn’t even heard of using blogs in education. I always thought that people blogged for personal reasons like putting views across or using it as a form of diary.
Now to look behind the actual writing of them, and see the driving force of why they are implemented and why they may be effective as assessments…
Blogs encourage you to work with your peers, your work is on public display for others to read and comment on in order to create debates. From this experience you not only learn the topic you are blogging about but you then engage in other topics written by your fellow peers. This then creates a range of learning, as you actively seek out research for your own blog, and in reply to other blogs.
The fact that your blog is on display for other peers to read and comment on may give you more motivation to put your best effort into the work. Therefore, decreasing the level of criticism (theoretically). It is found that when there is an audience, or someone aware of what you are doing, your performance increases compared to when you do the same task alone (Triplett, 1898). This is suggested to be due to competitiveness and not wanting to fail in front of peers. Blogs are openly seen, however, coursework is commonly marked anonymously taking this level of social encouragement/competitiveness out of the equation, therefore in this sense blogs may have an upper hand in motivating students to create their best work and really push their learning to further realms.
In contrast, Kirk &Johnson (2009) found that as peers would be reading their work, they felt less able to communicate their own thoughts and opinions through the blog for fear of ridicule. This may reduce the performance as they don’t want to put their full effort and opinions in and be slated in the commenting section (not that we slate anyone’s blogs when we comment).
Using blogs in the statistics module last year I slowly began to love it as a form of assessment. However, I find it very time consuming. Studies have found that people find blogging and comments overwhelming (Kirk & Johnson, 2009). The more time you feel you have to spend on writing the blogs, the more likely it is to be rushed and the effort level may decrease. If you don’t put in as much effort, you are less likely to get the maximum benefits (in most cases).
Nevertheless, I find blogs a very interesting and interactive way of being assessed. I personally feel that I really learn from blogging and am thoroughly surprised that I have grown to love writing them (sometimes)!
Science of Education blog. 
Great topic, over this module I have also seen the benefits of weekly blogging, I feel as if I’ve learnt alot more than other from other modules where I attend lectures but never really take in any knowledge until a week before exams where I cram like crazy.
Potential reasons I myself believe weekly blogs are an effective form of assessmnet is that they involves weekly assessments.Mcdaniel, Roediger and Mcdermott (2007) found that frequent testing has positive effects of keeping students motivated and leading them to space out periods of study. Furthermore retention of information has also been found to be higher when regular testing is used as opposed to one of testing (Guskey, 2003) further outlining the advantages of weekly blogging.
Really good blog once again. I believe that through this blogging experience I have learnt to focus my attention and learning on aspects of the course that I find the most interesting and from reading other peoples blogs can see that they have done the same. The process of reading other peoples blogs has also taught me about the areas I haven’t done as much research into myself, and the commenting process has allowed me to evaluate and critically argue points for both myself and other people to consider. A comment left with a question always motivates me to conduct some more research so that I can answer the questions being asked and strengthen my opinion. I decided to focus this comment on the negatives of blogging and whether there are other methods that could be implemented but still allow individuals to motivate and teach themselves. Johnson (2005) carried out research into The Use of Blogs as a Knowledge Management Tool, his studies involved students completing blogs using different methods and then commenting on how they found the process. The main disadvantage was that students felt uncomfortable commenting on other people’s blogs. Divitini, Haugalokken, & Morken (2005) also suggested that blogs do not motivate students (something I actually don’t agree with). Do you think that introducing an assessment in the form of a project, spanning over a number of week, and with regular feedback from a supervisor or teacher could be a better form than blogging? Students would still be able to pick a topic they are interested in, but instead of producing weekly blogs with research, would have more time to put together their projects and include every aspect of research they had found. Regular feedback would also allow for improvements to be made and be better than a simple grading system.
Divitini, M., Haugalokken, O., & Morken, E. M. (2005, July). Blog to support learning in the field: lessons learned from a fiasco. In Advanced Learning Technologies, 2005. ICALT 2005. Fifth IEEE International Conference on (pp. 219-221). IEEE.
There was an interesting piece of research by Anderson et al. (2001) that I stumbled across earlier which is very relevant to the topic of blogs as a learning tool. In it, they evaluated the use of peer critiquing assessments (similar to the blog comments) and their effect on levels of critical thinking in the form of reasoned argument justification. Students involved in the process learned the importance of backing their claims with evidence and justified their arguments more frequently and with greater efficacy than the control group. However, it became commonplace for many students to choose weak findings to support their claims, indicating that their reading of the research was not thorough (perhaps due to a lack of motivation?). Furthermore, when strong research was used it was often misinterpreted. This research does not discount the use of critical evaluation tools such as blogging, but highlights the need of students to retain a high level of scrutiny, engagement and awareness whilst involved in the process.
Anderson, T., Howe, C., Soden, R., Halliday, J., & Low, J. (2001). Peer interaction and the learning of critical thinking skills in further education students. Instructional Science, 29(1), 1-32.
I thought I would provide support for the use of blogs as an educational testing method. It has been found that using multiple deadlines (such as within this module) that procrastination levels are decreased (Fischer, 2001). This is supported with studies finding that when there is a pacing schedule (such as weekly blogs) , students proceed to complete the task at a faster pace than a control group (Reiser, 1984). This finding has been replicated with research showing that students who have to complete daily quizzes proceed to finish the course faster and with higher achievement rates than students who set their own pace (Wesp, 1986). However other research suggests that self pacing creates higher levels of interest in comparison to students who are given external deadlines (Amabile, DeJong, & Lepper, 1976). A method suggested for satisfying both the instructor paced and student input is proposed in Jones (2009) MUSIC Model of Motivation. This can be achieved by the instructor setting multiple deadlines across the semester in which they want a particular amount of tasks completed. The student then has the freedom to choose which tasks they complete at which deadlines (Jones, 2009). This idea is supported with research suggesting that breaking deadlines up is more effective than having one singular deadline (Fischer, 2001).
Overall it appears that multiple external set deadlines can be effective in reducing procrastination levels. Research does suggest that self pacing leads to enhanced interest, however completion rates have been shown to be reduced. Therefore perhaps the most benefit can be gained from a lecturer setting deadlines in which a student can then choose the order in which they complete tasks. By allowing this element of choice you can also provide the student with a form of empowerment, which has been shown to increase motivation and learning (Jones, 2009).
References
Amabile, T. M., DeJong, W., & Lepper, M. R. (1976). Effects of externally imposed deadlines on subsequent intrinsic motivation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 34(1), 92.
Fischer, C. (2001). Read this paper later: procrastination with time-consistent preferences. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 46(3), 249-269.
Jones, B. D. (2009). Motivating students to engage in learning: The MUSIC Model of Academic Motivation. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 21(2), 272-285.
Reiser, R. A. (1984). Reducing student procrastination in a personalized system of instruction course. Educational Technology Research and Development, 32(1), 41-49.
Wesp, R. (1986). Reducing procrastination through required course involvement.Teaching of Psychology, 13(3), 128-130.
Another aspect of psychology linked with blogging could be discovery learning, particularly in this module. We have to find out information for ourselves, rather than just being told what to learn. Although there is research which suggests that discovery learning is not effective (for example, Klahr and Nigam [2004] found that more children learn from direct instruction than discovery learning), I found one study which may be able to explain why this is. Gijlers and de Jong (2005) found that prior knowledge about a subject influences the process of discovery learning. So, discovery learning is more useful when students already know something about the subject they are learning about. This makes sense, as if you leave a child to teach themselves to read, they have no prior knowledge to go off so they won’t be able to do it (unless they’re Matilda…), but with these blogs, we’ve learned a lot over 2 years in university (and longer for those of us who studied psychology at a level or even GCSE), and this module gives us the chance to expand on that knowledge, so discovery learning works for us. I think taking this into account; blogs can be an effective way of applying discovery learning to education at a time where it will be most effective. I think, if this module was given to us in first year, we’d probably have a very different opinion about it!
You come up with some really good points in this blog, especially when you mention how time consuming they are. I feel the same, as I assume many others do, that as much as I think they are a better way to learn they do take up a lot of my time. However, I still much prefer them to lectures simply because I actually have to think about what I am doing. Greenstreet (1993) suggested that debate causes us to read around a topic more and therefore gives us a more in-depth understanding of what we are trying to learn. Because of this we understand more and feel as though the time we spend is more worthwhile. I think this is why blogs and comments work better than lectures, we get to comments and debate and talk about so many different topics. In a lecture we simply sit and listen. Bloom (1953) found that in lectures student only spent 1% of thought on problem solving whereas 78% was passive thoughts on the topic or simply irrelevant thoughts. In our blogs we do not have this problem as we have to engage in the topic in order to get involved in the debate.
References
Greenstreet, R. (1993). Academic Debate and Critical Thinking: A Look at the Evidence. National Forensic Journal, 11, 13-28.
Bloom, B. S. (1953). Thought processes in lectures and discussions Journal of General Education, 7, 160-169
Hi, I really enjoyed your blog and it does tackle some relevant issues, and can really be generalised to us as students. Hopkins (2003) states that journal writing has been used as a useful tool across grades and the curriculum in education. Sad (2013) studied into low motivation Arab male students, using blogging as an intervention in oder to increase motivation in the students. In this instance, participants did improve their motivation through blogging in their curriculum, although type of assignment did vary the results and motivation of the students. Teelucksingh-Birju () used similar research to test blogging and social networking in Trinidad. The results again showed that students enjoyed blogging with the informality and convenience being big factors, with further levels of engagement and motivation appeared as a result of the blogging work. These pieces of research therefore show the positive motivational aspects of blogging and how engagement increases in a educational activity.
Teelucksingh-Birju, S. V. (2013). Stimulating student engagement and motivation: An investigation into the use of social networking and blogging as a homework resource in CAPE Communication Studies.
Sad, A. (2013). Motivating low-performing 11th graders through blogging A Case Study.
Hopkins, G. (2003). Journal writing every day: Educators say it really works! Education World. Retrieved February 1, 2007, from http://www. education- world.com/a_curr/curr144.shtml
Hi an interesting blog. According to Richardson (2006) the advantage of using blogs in education is that it can erase the limitation of classroom as it offers students more opportunities to connect with others outside of the classroom. Additionally he claims that by encouraging students to be more actively engaged in knowledge creation and sharing their ideas and viewpoint in writing with others. However according to Liu & Chang (2010) there is insufficient evidence of the effectiveness of using peer feedback to improve students writing through blogging. Therefore there are evidence showing the beneficial and limitation of blogging on a whole I believe it is a good idea as I have learnt a lot on a variety of subjects over this semester through using blogging in this module.
Blogging is a great new way of assessing people. I really like it and think it works especially well – I’ve learnt a lot about topics that I probably would never have thought about. Anyway, on with the science!
Murray, Hourigan and Jeanneau (2007) conducted a study looking at blogging as a new form of assessment and found that, much like we had in second year, some liked it and some didn’t – what was noted across the board though was that it was it encouraged a creative form of academic writing amongst students.
Richardson (2004) suggested that learning by blogging is closer to how we learn in real life, and that this style of learning could be the tool that makes education less individual. He argues that blogging is the connection amongst the educational disciplines that has been missing, and as Murray, Hourigan and Jeanneau (2007) suggest, it encourages personality and individuality in academic writing and instant feedback that is missing in other forms of education.
It was suggested by Kirkup (2010) that blogging for academic work has enormous potential, and that it could well herald the dawn of a new age of publicly available intellect which encourages deeper investigation into a topic. It’s a great method of assessment and really does develop writing skills and encourage further investigation into a topic.
As for Kirkup’s suggestions, I’d have to agree.
Kirkup, G. (2010). Academic blogging: Academic practice and academic identity. London Review of Education, 8(1), 75-84.
Murray, L., Hourigan, T., & Jeanneau, C. (2007). Blog writing integration for academic language learning purposes: towards an assessment framework. Ibérica: Revista de la Asociación Europea de Lenguas para Fines Específicos (AELFE), (14), 9-32.
Will Richardson, “Blogging and RSS—The ‘What’s It?’ and ‘How To’ of Powerful New Web Tools for Educators,” Information Today, January/February 2004, http://www.infotoday.com/MMSchools/jan04/richardson.shtml.
I agree with you about blogs, I have also come to like writing academic blogs every week. Blogs have become more and more popular over the past decade and may now be as popular and as influentioal as other online publishings (Deng & Yuen, 2009). Deng and Yuen (2009) suggest that blogs allow for improvements in various skills. These skills range from individual reflection to collaborative learning. Huette (2006) describe some of the benefits of blogs and blogging. Huette says that blogs can promote critical thinking, creativity, analytical thinking and many more skills. Blogging also increases the exposure to various sources of information. I think more research needs to be conducted into blogging within education to see other benefits and to see if there are negative aspects to blogging. I quite like blogging but I am sure there are some that hate the idea of others being able to see all of their work at their own will.
Links:
http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=EJ847100&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=EJ847100
Click to access BlogsInEducation.pdf
I always thought blogging was a personal thing people did to get their thoughts out there and I never thought you could learn effectively from it. Blogging introduces a flexible way of learning (Barrett, 2000), teaches us skills like how to manage your workload and promotes engagement (Wade, Abrami & Sclater, 2005) which can motivate us to continue in the process. I do think that blogging would be most effective on first years in university as I feel I barely learnt anything in my first year. I like blogging I just don’t like doing comments but I understand the need for them.
I completely agree with the point that you made about working with other students, in which we learn about different topics. This will effectively enhance our knowledge about different topics. Blogging is not simply writing; it takes time and effort to accomplish the final piece of work that you will publish. Reflection, criticising, questioning and reacting are a vital aspect of blogging during the research and evaluating that takes place (Downes, 2004). Again, this will enhance our knowledge about that specific topic, although we only include a portion of what we have read into the blog. Writing the actual blog is only a small part of the small process.
You mentioned the fact that some students find it difficult to transfer their ideas and opinions to others through blogs (Kirk & Johnson, 2009). The fear of being evaluated by others really scares some students. An interesting topic I researched previously was writing anxiety; fear of writing information onto paper due to evaluation. If students are suffering from this, blogging in an educational environment will not benefit them. High levels of writing anxiety results in a negative attitude towards writing, whereas lower levels of anxiety results in a more optimistic approach to writing (Popovich, 2008). Therefore students will eventually WANT to blog. A positive attitude also resulted in higher grades for students.
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