Blogs are a specific type of social networking tool which is presented as a website with regular entries including commentary, descriptions and links to digital resources such as videos and images. Using the blog activity in a topic ideally consists
of 5 stages.
The blog tool in FLO (OU blog) is intuitive for users. However, you may want to prompt users (ie students) what to blog about, either in the Introduction or somewhere else in the FLO site.
1. Plan
In order to get the most out of your blog you can:
Create a blog
View participation
Grade
2. Build
Now you have planned your blog you can now create your blog:
Click
In the week/module where you want to add the blog, click
Select OU blogand
click Add
You will be taken to the Adding a new OU blog screen where you can set the parameters of your blog
Give the blog aNameand Introduction
If desired, use the Individual blogs drop-down menu to select individual blogs. If individual blogs are not required, leave this menu at the default no (blog together or in groups)
Click
The blog tool in FLO (OU blog) is intuitive for users (there is a 'New blog post' button. Once clicked, the user can use the HTML editor to add/edit their post entry).
3. Administer
To administer the blog you can view how users are participating, as well as set up a grade for the blog.
View the participation of a user
Click into the module from the topic homepage
Click Participation by user
To limit participation by date, click enable and select dates. Click Update.
Results will display below. Click details beside user name to view that user's posts and comments.
Use tabs to toggle view between posts and comments
Grade a blog activity
Open the blog and click on the Click Participation by user button
Select a grade from the drop-down menu in one of the following two locations
In the display all users view, select a grade for each student from the drop-down menu. Click Save changes
OR
Click on the details link beside the user name. Select the User grade tab, select grade then click Save changes
4. Review
Having used the blog activity in your topic, you can now ask these questions:
Was it an effective activity (did it achieve what you wanted it to?)
Did students benefit from using the blog
Did students give you feedback about blog use (eg using the feedback activity)? Did they have problems with it?
The answers to these and other questions may help you refine the activity in the next iteration of your topic, or you may decide to use another tool.
and
click Add
