Designing a Collaborative Blog about Student Success

The term "web log," or "blog," was first coined in 1997 by Jorn Barger (Blood). Blogs have been used in education as online journals, discussion platforms, course websites, and alternatives to mainstream media publications (EDUCAUSE, 2005). Two of the more common blogging platforms, Wordpress and Blogger , are relatively simple to use, requiring no knowledge of HTML to post entries. One of the many advantages of using blogs is that they can foster interaction among peers, thereby building community (EDUCAUSE, 2005; Richardson). For further explanation of how blogs work, Common Craft has created an easy-to-follow video entitled Blogs in Plain English. According to the EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research's 2010 Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, which surveyed close to 37,000 college students in the United States and Canada, 36% of the students noted that they contributed to blogs on at least a monthly basis; 11.6% of the students were using blogs in a course they were taking at the time of the survey, 37.6% of whom were using blogs collaboratively as part of the course; 15% of the students read or contributed to blogs via an Internet-capable handheld device; and 37.3% of the students noted that they liked to learn through contributing to blogs, wikis, and websites. The primary author has used blogs in honors courses since 2005 to post online discussion questions, course announcements, and project photos as part of a course blog (see Johnson) as well as to prompt students' personal reflections on their own individual blogs. The purpose of this article is to describe the most recent blogging project in an honors course--a collaborative student-success blog written for and by honors students. COURSE BACKGROUND The student-success blogging project was conceived as the primary project for the course Honors Professional Development: Community Outreach for sophomores in the University of Florida Honors Program. This course was the third in a series of four professional development courses available to honors students starting in their freshman year. Students first had the opportunity to take Introduction to Honors Professional Development, a one-credit first-year experience course focusing on an action plan for involvement in undergraduate research, study abroad, internships, leadership, and community service as well as workshops on resume development and interview skills. Assignments included weekly online discussion topics, faculty interviews, community service and philanthropy projects, activity papers, reflections from the various workshops, and a final action plan. With six sections of the course offered, close to 150 first-year honors students typically take the course during their first semester. Students who took the Introduction course during their first semester were invited to apply for the second course, Honors Professional Development: Leadership Development. Twelve students were selected for the initial leadership course. While the Introduction course focused on acclimating freshmen to college and campus involvement, the leadership course more thoroughly defined the leadership goals and refined the skills needed to accomplish these goals. The small size of the class was beneficial to the students, allowing them to develop strong relationships with one another and get more personalized feedback on accomplishing their goals. The intimacy of the class also created a sense of responsibility and accountability among the individuals; when students presented their goals as part of weekly status updates, they were expected to follow through on the goals and let their classmates know the results. In the Leadership Development course, each student was required to create an individual blog. Students developed at least ten blog posts throughout the semester about their efforts to get involved with research, internships, leadership, and other activities. …