News Blogs in Distance Education Programs Free

This article discusses the implementation of a news blog that was created to improve informal communication between students in a professional graduate program at a midsized Southeastern university. The program serves a graduate student body of approximately 350. Over 90% of the students attend the program part-time. The average student is 35 years old and is female. More than half are distance-learning students who take classes via the Web or at remote locations through the program. Remote classes are typically held in distance education classrooms at two regional campuses that are 175 and 90 miles away, respectively, from the main campus where the administrative staff and full-time tenure-track faculty work.

The department would like to facilitate greater informal communication among its students. The rationale for wanting to facilitate greater informal interaction is twofold. First, with more casual communication between the students in the program, there will be a greater sense of community and students are likely to have better experiences within the program. Second, the program would like to facilitate more professional networking between students within the program. The more chances the students have for informal communication, the more likely they will be able to create professional relationships that will last their entire professional career.

This program is like many distance education programs, where the “distance” poses a problem for effective informal student-to-student communication outside class-based situations. The university currently provides all students with email accounts, and the department hosts two informational e-mail distribution lists as well as a job announcements list for students within the program. Yet, students report difficulty communicating with other students for several reasons.

First, not all students read e-mail sent to their university e-mail accounts on a regular basis. Since most of the department’s students are part-time and distance students, many have several different e-mail accounts, such as accounts for their full-time work and/or their family. Second, not all students subscribe to the departmental e-mail distribution lists. Currently, only 40% of the department’s students are subscribed to at least one of the departmental e-mail distribution lists. The department has strongly encouraged students to subscribe to at least one of the e-mail distribution lists, but there is still a low proportion of current students subscribed. Third, the varied methods of course delivery also create difficulties for communication between students at different locations outside of class. Courses are typically conducted on closed-circuit television, offered via the Web, offered as traditional face-to-face classroom-based classes, or some combination of the above. With a wide variety of instructional deliveries, students opt for communication practices that are appropriate for the semester based on the courses they are currently enrolled in. As a result, student news and informal communication may not spread to those at the distant sites and vice versa. Thus, the department has sought an alternate form of communication in an effort to increase the sense of community amongst all members of the program. Fourth, distance plays a role in students’ ability to participate in organized professional networking opportunities. For instance, the department has a student association. This organization meets two to three times per semester at the main campus and affords students the opportunity to network and communicate at informal receptions. Most of the students who live outside the area of the main campus do not attend the receptions as a result of the distance.

The department is aware of the difficulties that distance and part-time students face while attempting to network with others in the profession. This is why we sought a method of communication that would foster a sense of community that extends the invisible boundaries of individual classes and encompasses the entire program. As Tu and Corry (2002) state, “communities play an important role in e-learning because effective learning occurs where there is active social communication and interaction.” Lock (2002) states that communities in general are loosely structured, interactive, and “fluid in nature.” With this in mind, we were looking for something that would allow communication that was relaxed and informal, yet informative in an effort to remove any sense of isolation that some distance students report. Additionally, we were looking to add to our current communication channels, we did not want to change communication methods that currently work for some students. We also wanted to open up the current community so that others outside the current student population may learn about the community and possibly become a part of it. We believe a higher level of social presence is needed in the program in order to expand on the current community and foster a deeper sense of community amongst students and to encourage professional networking. As the department facilitates a deeper sense of community among its students, the hope is that, as alumni, they will continue to stay connected with the community and thereby improve program quality.

We decided to create a news blog because they are a blend of e-mail, self-publishing, and Web sites (Oravec, 2002; Umbach, 2004; Lank-shear & Knobel, 2003). Blogs are the unedited, published voice of the community they serve. This voice is what we wanted our students to have in order to increase the current sense of community.

We found that one benefit of blogging is the potential to foster communication. Woods (2005) contends, “the rapid advent of blogs has not only added a new communication channel, but has changed the entire communication model for reaching internal and external audiences.” According to Ferdig and Trammel (2004), blogs “represent the potential to promote interactivity, provide opportunities for active learning, and improve . relationships.” Ferdig and Trammel (2004) state that “the use of blogs provides opportunities for diverse perspectives, both within and outside the classroom.”

Much of the literature concerning blogs fostering communication relates to the business and corporate world; however, we found that much of this literature can apply to distance education programs as well. Altom (2002) states that, due to time constraints and interorganiza-tional lack of communication, “the bulk of the underground knowledge is still untapped.” Thanks to blogging, Altom argues, “[they] allow people a chance to share information within an organization.” Roush (2005) states that “blogs are used by... workers for debate, free association, and collecting input about projects.”

Other benefits of blogs are that they can contribute to a sense of community, highlight individual personalities, are informal, and easy to use. In regards to contributing to creating a sense of community, blogs help students get to know each other on a deeper level and help provide students with networking opportunities and contribute to building learning communities beyond the classroom (Baim, 2004; Oravec, 2003). Block (2001) emphasizes that blogs are unique publications that “are a part of an Internet society that values attitude, community and breezy informality.”

A review of the literature on the use of blogs in educational situations found that most of it discusses uses of blogs within a class-based situation as opposed to educational programs using them as a communication tool between students outside class-based instruction. Blogs have been used for journaling purposes (Godwin-Jones, 2003) and to support instruction as an accompaniment to a course Web page (Downes, 2004). They are also used to organize class discussion, class seminars, or to provide summaries of readings (Downes, 2004). Facilitating collaboration is another way in which blogs have been used in education (Poling, 2005).

One of the major benefits of blogs is their ease of use (Carver, 2003; Downes, 2004; Goans & Vogel, 2003). Users have the ability to post 24/7/365 from any location with a Web connection (Goans & Vogel, 2003). The ease of use also increases a bloggers’ ability to easily collaborate with other bloggers (Carver, 2003). Other benefits include the ability to archive and search content as well as browse, due to the nature of tagged posts (Goans & Vogel, 2003).

We were also looking for a communication tool that would provide networking opportunities for our students. The literature indicates the importance of networking for success throughout any profession. “Networking is an exchange of information, ideas, leads and suggestions that support professional growth” (Levin, 2003). “A primary function of networks is to facilitate boundary-spanning cooperation, coordination and communication” (Gilchrist, 2004). We felt that creating something boundary-spanning and cooperative would assist students in developing their professional network.

Agre (2003) writes of the many forms of communication one can engage in online. He states, “Underlying all of these disparate activities, though, is the activity of building and maintaining professional relationships. Electronic communication is wasted unless we use it to seek out, cultivate, and nurture relationships with other human beings” (2003). Throughout the literature, the message is clear: networking is a vital element of success in professional endeavors. “The importance of networking in bridging the theory-practice gap cannot be underestimated. Developing links within your field can offer many opportunities to disseminate good practice and share ideas for improvement” (Roberts, 2004).

It is clear that the structure of blogs, the benefits, and the potential uses for the technology make the use of a blog a viable choice for the department, given the communication needs of the community that is widely dispersed and extremely busy. The blog provides an opportunity for students in the program to bridge the practice-theory gap discussed above. However, Slagell (2004) cautions “just as information does not turn into knowledge unless you do something with it or put it to work, networking is not beneficial unless you track and maintain your contacts and follow up.” The blog has the potential to provide an avenue for this follow-up. As graduates leave the program, the blog will continue to be a resource for the growing LIS community, which will present opportunities for even more networking between students and professionals.

In an effort to improve informal communication and information provision, we decided to start a blog for the department. The mission of the blog is to provide a forum for professional networking through the posting of news and information related to the department and the field. We created the news blog in order to generate the informal dissemination of current news and information related to the field and to facilitate communication among those in the community. The news blog is, in a sense, intended to be an interactive online newsletter that is updated as news and information becomes available to the blogger(s). The blogger is the representative voice of the students in the community and they initiate the communication, while others in the community can react and respond to the postings. Information is posted on the days the graduate assistant works in the department’s computer lab on the main campus, or whenever relevant news items occur.

The blog has been in operation for two semesters. When the blog was initiated, the graduate assistant who manages the information on the departmental Website authored the blog as well. The graduate assistant was selected to write entries in the news blog for the following reasons: (1) he was a student, (2) he was connected to the happenings within the department due to his job, and (3) he was present on the main campus almost daily. The intent was to have him post information and news to the blog, allowing him free range of the topics so that the information would come from his perspective, that of a student in the program, and be written in his own voice. The plan was to slowly add additional students as bloggers. These students would be enrolled in classes at the other locations to expand the perspective of the news blog as well as enhance the community aspect.

We conducted a formative evaluation two months after the blog was initiated. The feedback we received provided evidence that there was support for the blog as well as provided suggestions for methods to improve the blog. The suggestions included publicizing the blog more, posting more frequently, adding more bloggers, and the need to facilitate more discussion. Based on the feedback we received, we decided that at the beginning of the following semester we would step up our efforts to include additional students as bloggers. This should solve the problems of infrequent information updates as well as requests to add more bloggers who are able to post.

At the end of the first semester, we were disappointed to see that as of yet we had not received many responses to postings. This could be due to the fact that the blog is meant to disseminate information and news rather than express the blogger’s opinions. Another more compelling reason could be that, at the time, individuals need to sign up to get a username in order to post comments on the blog. Many people do not like providing personal information on the Web and might be reluctant to sign up to post comments, even if they would like to. Or, it could simply be that the news blog needs more time to develop. With the addition of new bloggers, we believe we will better represent student news and informational needs for all of our students. Additionally, we felt that with more bloggers, the level of creativity and diversity of postings would increase and, hopefully, the student audience will be more intrigued and more likely to post comments to the blog. The fact that we started with only one blogger located on the main campus proved difficult for providing more information to those at the other locations. Problematically, the blogger at the main campus knew about news around the main campus but did not know about happenings at the other sites. This is the original reason we decided to implement the blog, to improve student-to-student communication between the sites.

The original blogger also felt somewhat constrained by the news format. His experience was, for a blog to be effective, more expression of personal opinion is necessary. Additionally, the blog was implemented in the middle of a heated national election campaign. The blogger feared that any mention of the election might offend half of the audience leading them to believe the blogger, the Department, or the University was endorsing a particular political ideology, so he was reluctant to mention any type of campus activity involving politics.

During the second semester of the blog, we had an entirely new group of bloggers who brought their own perspective on news and information that is relevant to LIS. The original blogger had graduated and the graduate assistant who replaced him as the manager of the departmental Website also replaced him as “lead blogger.” We also added a blogger to represent the students who take classes at one site and an officer from the department’s student organization, who posted only once. We asked another student from the main campus to join the blogger team. This person agreed but never posted. We also attempted to recruit a blogger to represent the other off-site location’s perspective, but those efforts did not produce a willing participant.

Another change that was made during the second semester of the blog was that the blog was set up to allow anonymous responses to postings. We decided to implement this change because we believed more students were likely to post if they were not required to sign up for a blogger account, or add their name to their posting. However, this does introduce the problem of anonymity breeding improper postings. We did not have any incidences of students posting inappropriate comments; however, we did receive a number of anonymous postings. This may not ultimately add to the networking community, as members are unidentifiable.

During the second semester of the blog, we were able to successfully advertise and discuss a new program we implemented for students, practical technology training sessions. After advertising the program, numerous people responded and we discussed the new program via the blog. Because the blog is an open forum, students from other programs in the school were able to read the blog to find out about the program as well. This success is very encouraging for advertising and discussing future programs.

Near the end of the second semester, we did another formative evaluation and found that the most favorable aspect of the blog was that it provided one location for system-wide information. The results of the second formative evaluation were much more favorable than the first evaluation, which suggests that the blog is becoming a favorable form of communication within the department. The suggestions we received for improving the blog were almost identical to the first formative evaluation, which included promoting the blog more, posting more frequently, adding more bloggers, and the need to ask more leading questions in order to facilitate discussion. Thus, we added another blogger and have made a concerted effort to facilitate discussion.

In summary, the blog is still developing, improving, and evolving. We feel that we still need more postings and more fanfare to promote the blog, but we believe that the blog is slowing gaining ground and that it is a useful communication tool for many of the students in the community.

The following are our recommendations for implementing a news blog for distance education programs.

It is important to have several voices included in the news blog. This helps create the informal information dissemination and provides more opportunity for interaction between students. Also, only have students post news or comments to the blog, don’t allow faculty or staff to post. The news blog should be the voice of the students. Additionally, we recommend that students at different points in the program be employed as bloggers due to the different informational needs that the students have at different stages in their academic career. Finally, we found that it is important to have students who represent the different groups that arise in distance programs. This provides the multiple perspectives that are needed for this communication tool. An added benefit to this is it will allow for more frequent postings. Unique perspectives and informal communication are what makes blogs the success that they are.

It is important to provide the blogging students with guidelines for what they can and cannot include in their postings. Due to the extremely public nature of blogs, there is a risk that students will post information to the Website that the administration might not find acceptable. This includes posting information that is copyrighted or protected (Downes, 2004); or, posting content that is libelous or slanderous (Downes, 2004). However, by providing students with clear guidelines for what can and cannot be posted on the blog, these risks can be avoided.

To help students stay on track with their postings, there should be a clear purpose for the blog and students who post to the blog should make sure that they stay true to the blog’s overriding purpose. Encourage students who post to the blog to write in a conversational tone and to use their own voice.

The blog will not be used if people do not know about it. When we first started the news blog, we made an announcement on all departmental e-mail distribution lists and we posted a link to the blog in a prominent location on the departmental homepage. We still received feedback that we did not publicize it enough. It is important to get the word out to all the students that there is a news blog, where they can get information, and participate in a discussion with others in LIS community if they choose. Consider making flyers, posting them in your department and passing them out at off-campus class meetings. Also, consider asking professors to announce the creation of your blog at the beginning of their classes. Looking back on our experience, we believe this would have helped publicize our blog tremendously. For a blog to be successful, Altom believes that “blogging is best rolled out with some fanfare, and with volunteers across several departments,” thus allowing more voices to be heard. In a corporate setting, “employee blogging is promoted aggressively” (Roush, 2005). We believe that we did not promote the blog aggressively enough, and will expend extra effort to promote it more in the future.

Any form of new communication takes time for people to adopt and accept. Thus, our recommendation is to keep blogging. It takes time to develop a blogging audience. Busy students might not respond to every post a blogger makes but, given time, we believe we will develop a more active audience. Send reminders about the blog to the communities’ other communication outlets in order to generate interest in the blog, and provide links to the blog in prominent locations on the department’s Websites as well as within online course management tools. We found the constant reminders to be helpful and others, such as Poling (2005), have found this practice to be helpful with initiating interest in the blog. If you have something meaningful to say and you say it in a positive and friendly way, people will appreciate it and join in on the conversation.