Enhancing Student Engagement Through Assessed Blogs | Research Insights

USING ASSESSED BLOGS TO ENHANCE STUDENT ENGAGEMENT Nina Morris @_NinaJM Hazel Christie @christiehazel

PTAS RESEARCH MOTIVATION Keen to re-think the standard assessment policy and practice Desire to reflect changing disciplinary interests Wanted to help students become more confident, considered and skilled at writing

WHY BLOGS? Important new communication tool for academics Numerous positive teaching and learning outcomes documented: improve critical reading skills empower and motivate students develop reflective skills encourage regular reading greater engagement encourage students to make connections between theory and wider world

RESEARCH AIMS To understand if, and how, assessed blogs can be used to support student learning, with a particular focus on the development of research skills To look at blogging from an institutional perspective with a view to developing resources that could be used across the University (and beyond) to support the greater use of blogging in the curriculum

METHODS Online, University-wide, survey of teaching staff Interviews with Course Organisers of four undergraduate courses drawn from the institution s three colleges selected to cover a variety of blog formats, Virtual Learning Environments, and class sizes Focus groups with a sample of the students on each course Analysis of student evaluation surveys Consultation with other relevant stakeholders (e.g. IT support officers, administrators, EUSA).

STAFF MOTIVATION Enhance students writing skills Hone their critical thinking skills Connect academic theory with the real world Encourage students to take ownership of their ideas Help to ensure that students are engaging with learning materials either prior to or after taught classes

We really encourage them to develop their own voice so that they're not just summarising the whole of the session in kind of anodyne, [subject-specific] kind of a way We're not interested in [them] just regurgitating what the [authorities say] or what the textbook says. This is about actually trying to get you to think for yourselves

its really lovely to see them begin to develop a voice of their own, and really get to grips with it, and become really quite creative. They really seem to push themselves with the blogs, more than I expected actually. [ ] They set themselves [ ] quite a high standard of work it seems to make them look more actively for material of relevance, [but also] they seem to become more and more willing to look a bit more broadly, for source material. And kind of understanding, I think, how [subject academics] fit [in], and how the work of [subject academics] relates to [other disciplines]. And just looking more broadly for examples from the wider world

CHALLENGES FOR STAFF Unfit software Institutional/disciplinary inertia Public or private No marking criteria Sense of lone-working Time commitment If you talk about different novel ways of teaching you get shot down round here still. [ ] People, sort of, go you can t do that. That s not a traditional...I don t know, I just feel it s still very traditional round here

ECHOED BY STUDENTS Unintuitive software and/or software with restricted functionality (time consuming) Unclear marking criteria

HOWEVER Difficulty selecting their own topics Being concise is challenging Regular submission requires sustained commitment All acknowledged that these problems had contributed to their learning Capacity for independent thought Improved writing technique More motivated work ethic Applied knowledge of the whole course content rather than just selected parts of it

STUDENT ENGAGEMENT It renders something that's so hard-core academic into something you can relate to. And if you can relate to it that means you can learn it better, if you can learn it better it means you can perform your best Like I leave and I talked about it with people. [ ] I've literally never done that. Even if I've enjoyed a course, I've never fully felt I don't know, like it's impacted the way I think fully. And I think the blogs definitely have helped that

PERSONAL INTERESTS The majority of the time I stick to what I'm given. It's like you have reading this is what you are given, this is what I need to pass my exams. But with this one you have to actually go search for the information yourself University assessments feel like they just want everyone to be the same. Here's your mark criteria, you've got to adjust, no matter how you feel, how you think, what your perspective is, where you've come from or whatever. This is what you've got to do, all 200 of you in [X subject]

WRITING SKILLS It really made you think this is my point, this is what I want to say and what's the best way I can say it I feel like it's also given me confidence to this is not blogs for the future, but in writing essays in a way. I don't know why. It's made me feel like I can engage with things and just [ ] so helpful for other assessments it made me a lot more aware of how different the writing styles are, the academic and informal ones

COMMUNICATION It makes you think, wait, what are the basics, again, how can I actually tell somebody about that. Because that's, I suppose, that's what science is about, it's about communicating stuff There's no point in doing research, if you can't tell people about it

CRITICAL THINKING now when it comes to writing essays it'll be like okay, I know how to really argue [ ] usually I would read something and I would just be trying to learn the facts and the background. Whereas when it came to reading stuff for the blog I was like [ ] looking for the big arguments, like the talking point [looking] for the things that are a bit that could be argued either way

KEY MESSAGES A way in which to enhance student engagement and active learning Creative learning environment Heightened engagement Meaningful skill development Personalised learning experiences Finding their own voice

KEY MESSAGES Appropriate and dynamic support (academic colleagues, computing staff, departmental administrators) Opportunities to share good practice Access to relevant ICT training/advice and a responsive rather than prescriptive approach to software provision Adequate time allocation Cross-disciplinary, cross-institutional debate about what constitutes best practice in relation to assessed blogs

FIND OUT MORE Christie, H. and Morris, N.J. (2019) Using assessed blogs to enhance student engagement Teaching in Higher Education https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2019.1662390 Morris, N.J.,Christie, H. and Barber, J. (2019) It s one of the first times I felt fully engaged : developing student engagement using blogging as a form of assessment Journal of Geography in Higher Education https://doi.org/10.1080/03098265.2019.1612862 Grade related marking criteria for assessed blogs https://open.ed.ac.uk/grade-related-marking-criteria-for-assessed-blogs/ Teaching to the blog how assessed blogging can enhance student engagement LSE Impact Blog https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2019/10/25/teaching- to-the-blog-how-assessed-blogging-can-enhance-engaged-learning/