blog-based courses in higher education: experience from tallinn university
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Blog-based courses in higher education: experience from Tallinn University
Hans Põldoja
Blog-based courses
Course format
• Course blog + learner blogs
• Additional Web 2.0 and social media tools (Twitter, SlideShare, YouTube, …)
• Open enrollment
• Open educational resources
• Assignments through blog posts
• Feedback and discussion in comments
Challenges in blog-based courses
• Coordinating and following the course activities
• Creating and sustaining the learning community
• Designing content and activities
• Feedback and assessment
Challenges in blog-based courses
• Coordinating and following the course activities
• Creating and sustaining the learning community
• Designing content and activities
• Feedback and assessment
Personal introductions / About pages
Learning contracts
Blog rolls
Challenges in blog-based courses
• Coordinating and following the course activities
• Creating and sustaining the learning community
• Designing content and activities
• Feedback and assessment
Publishing course content
• WordPress pages for lecture notes
• SlideShare for presentations
• YouTube for videos and screencasts
• Mendeley for research publications
• Dropbox for resources that cannot be shared in public web (scanned book chapters, etc.)
Designing assignments
• Assignments combine practical and theoretical learning goals
• Assignments encourage reflection
• Assignments allow each learner to come up with an original solution
Student posts as content
Different learning paths
Basic knowledge badges
Basic knowledge on
learning objects and repositories
Basic knowledge on authoring tools
Basic knowledge on
computer-based
assessment
Basic knowledge on
new technologies
Basic knowledge on copyright of
digital learning
resources
Basic knowledge on
quality of digital
learning resources
Content package author
Assessment test author
e-Textbook author
Advanced knowledge on
learning objects and repositories
Advanced knowledge on authoring tools
Advanced knowledge on
computer-based assessment
Advanced knowledge on
new technologies
Advanced knowledge on copyright of
digital learning resources
Advanced knowledge on
quality of digital learning
resources
Blogging assignment 1 Blogging assignment 2 Blogging assignment 3 Blogging assignment 4 Blogging assignment 5Group assignment on developing a digital learning resource
Blogging assignment 6 Literature review
Describing the advantages and
disadvantages of learning objects approach
Searching for learning objects from learning object repositories by metadata and licenses
Creating simple content packages, tests and e-
textbooks, and describing these with metadata
Following copyright principles for digital learning resources
Evaluating the quality of a learning resources using an evaluation framework
Using one authoring tool to create a more
comprehensive digital learning resource
Analyzing the current issues, research studies and trends in one sub-topic related to digital
learning resources
Learning outcomes
Assignments
Advanced knowledge badges
Skills badges
Challenges in blog-based courses
• Coordinating and following the course activities
• Creating and sustaining the learning community
• Designing content and activities
• Feedback and assessment
Commenting
Liking
Summary posts
Open Badges
Conclusions
Benefits of using blogs
• Supporting learners to develop and express their ideas
• Supporting collaboration and group work
• Getting feedback from others
• Enriching the learning environment
• Promoting new educational practices
• Motivating learners
Example data from a course
• 15 weeks
• 15 learners + 1 facilitator
• 162 blog posts (incl. 22 from the facilitator)
• 239 comments (incl. 44 from the facilitator)
• 81 trackback links between the blogs
Related publications• Põldoja, H. (2010). EduFeedr: following and supporting learners in open blog-
based courses. In Open ED 2010 Proceedings. Barcelona: UOC, OU, BYU. http://hdl.handle.net/10609/4861
• Põldoja, H., Duval, E., & Leinonen, T. (in press). Design and evaluation of an online tool for open learning with blogs. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology.
• Põldoja, H., & Laanpere, M. (2014). Exploring the Potential of Open Badges in Blog-Based University Courses. In Y. Cao, T. Väljataga, J. K. T. Tang, H. Leung, & M. Laanpere (Eds.), Lecture Notes in Computer Science: Vol. 8699. New Horizons in Web Based Learning (pp. 172–178). Cham: Springer. http://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13296-9_19
• Väljataga, T., Põldoja, H., Laanpere, M. (2011). Open Online Courses: Responding to Design Challenges. In H. Ruokamo, M. Eriksson, L. Pekkala, & H. Vuojärvi (Eds.), Proceedings of the 4th International Network-Based Education 2011 Conference The Social Media in the Middle of Nowhere (pp. 68-75). Rovaniemi: University of Lapland.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Hans Põldoja Lecturer School of Digital Technologies Tallinn University Estonia
[email protected] @hanspoldoja
http://www.hanspoldoja.net http://www.slideshare.net/hanspoldoja