HOW DO I… CREATE AND USE BLOGS
Office of Distance Education & Educational Technology
College of Human Sciences, Iowa State University
November 2012
[ See more tips at http://www.hs.iastate.edu/tips/ ]
[ Blackboard help http://help.blackboard.com/instructor/index.htm Search “blog”]
What is a blog?
The word blog is short for web-log. As defined by Blackboard help (see link above):
“A blog is your personal online journal. Each blog entry you make can include any combination of text, images, links, multimedia, Mashups, and attachments. Blogs are an effective means of sharing knowledge and materials created and collected by the participants in a course. You can post entries and add comments to existing blogs. Use your blog to express your ideas and share them with the class.”
Blog consists of:

Entries: which can be text, images, links or attachments posted by author

Comments: responses to Blog entries made by others
There are three types of blogs:

Individual: each student is provided with their own space to publicly share reflections and thoughts to receive comments from others

Course: all users are allowed to share their thoughts in this space, everyone can view and comment, all entries are posted on the same page, grade assigned to individuals

Group: allows students within their groups to post on their work, other students are only able to
view and comment on other group’s blogs, grade assigned to all group members (not individually)
Why use a blog?
“Blogs are an effective means of gaining insight into students' activities and provide a way to share the knowledge and materials collected and created by the group with the rest of the class.” Blogs are a good way to encourage on-topic posts and comments.
They can serve as an online equivalent of an in-class student presentation activity.
Blog examples

Examples of how it can be used in a course/when you might use a blog o Teacher blog – for reflection/modeling o Personal reflection/observations o Summarizing assigned readings

HOW DO I… CREATE AND USE BLOGS
How is a Blog different from a Discussion or Journal?

Blog is like a book (single layer) where everyone writes on their own page, but can read and comment on other people’s pages.

Journal is like a book but students cannot read other people's pages (only instructor can read all).

Discussion has a starter message followed by replies (multi-layer), which form a conversation
"thread". Authorship is diffuse (this is “everyone’s” discussion), so can be much less on topic.
o A forum is a space that contains all the threads on a specific topic/activity and the total conversation within a forum can be graded as a single activity.
o Each forum is normally a distinct activity and can be assigned a point value.
How do I create a new Blog activity?
1. Click Course Tools > Blogs> Create Blog. A blog template opens.
2. Give the blog a name and enter student instructions (optional).
3. Set up blog criteria.

Blog availability: Yes/No (Will not show if availability is set to “No”).

Blog Date and Time Restrictions: Enter date and time you want the blog to display to students
(Display After) and then be hidden from students (Display Until). You need to checkmark the date/time boxes as well as enter data into them.

Blog Participation: choose either o Individual to All Students - will create a blog for each student, but visible to all students o Course - can be updated by anyone enrolled in the course
 Allow Anonymous Entries and Comments – use this feature if you want students to be able to post anonymously

Blog Settings: o Monthly/ Weekly – organizing entries by chosen time frame o Allow users to Edit and Delete
Entries – students may edit or delete their own entries o Allow users to Delete Comments
– students may only delete their comments, not posts

HOW DO I… CREATE AND USE BLOGS

Grade settings: o No grading – use this feature if you do not wish to grade the blog o Points possible - use this feature to enter the amount of points the blog will be graded. IMPORTANT: If you set up a blog as a gradable activity, you cannot go back and change it to non-gradable once submissions are posted!
You may also create a blog link within your course content pages (see image, below). From this page you can choose to create:

Link to the Blogs Page (a list of all course blogs)

Link to a specific Blog activity
How do I grade a Blog?
Method 1:

Grade Center > Needs Grading> click the student submission you wish to grade

The grading menu appears on the right side of the screen, with the student’s blog post in the middle of the screen. Click the “Edit Grade” button.

Continue by clicking another student’s name.
Method 2:

Click on the blog link. The grading menu appears on the right side of the screen. Click on a student’s name in the right lower menu to display his/her blog posts. Click the “Edit Grade” button.

Continue by clicking another student’s name.

HOW DO I… CREATE AND USE BLOGS
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Can a student post multiple times in a blog?
Yes, students may post as many times as they want within a blog they have permission to post within. If the blog is specified as Individual to All Students then the only person posting within that blog will be themselves. (see image, right)
2. Can a student comment on other people’s blogs?
Yes, students may comment on other’s blogs. Both student and instructor can view these comments. (see image, right)
3. Do student comments show up when instructor grades?
Yes, instructors may view comments on each blog while grading student’s blog entries.
Instructors are also able to comment on blog entries while grading!
4. Can you “publish” a group blog for the whole class to see?
Yes, all group blogs are visible to all users.
5. Can students comment on group blogs? entries.
Yes, all students may comment on group blogs. However they are not able to post new blog
5. Can an instructor reset a blog so that a student or group may “redo” it?
Instructor can delete comments within Blogs, making it a “blank slate” again, or you may choose to just delete the whole blog and recreate it. I don’t believe there is a reset button….

Can an instructor open it up for a single student?
Hover over the blog you wish to reopen for a student. Click adaptive release, type in username. Set date to open/close for that student, the blog must already be closed however. Then must Edit the blog (by hovering over it, just like for the adaptive release) to change the blog release time to match with the adaptive release time.