Blogging in an online course: a report on student satisfaction among first time bloggers, ELearn 2003

Abstract: Decision Making for Information Professionals was a ten-week, online masters-level course taught during summer 2003 to twenty-nine students geographically dispersed across North America. Weblogs were introduced as an additional communication tool to the course’s threaded discussion forums and chat room. Assessment data was collected at the course’s conclusion examining the students ’ experiences, attitudes, and overall satisfaction with the weblogs. This presentation will report on that assessment data, provide the instructor’s observations on the students ’ use of the course weblogs, explanations for possible barriers to their acceptance, and recommendations for successful implementation. Conclusions drawn from this information should be helpful in determining if using weblogs as a communication tool in a given online course has potential. Note: the use of the words weblog(s) and blog(s) are used interchangeabl