Impact of a course blog on HE practice and development of learning communities

A blog was introduced as an element of the PGCert Teaching and Learning in HE course at UCLan. The blog was intended to support the development of and assess reflection on practice and individual development. However, the intentional creation of a learning community became an equally defined aim. The blog postings from three cohorts have been analysed to determine the extent to which these aims were achieved. Blogging encouraged deeper and more varied reflection than occurs in single pieces of written reflection. There was also evidence of a direct influence on practice, with staff introducing blogging as a tool with their own students. Whilst an active learning community was established, this was transient, and has not been sustained after staff completed the course. Nevertheless, the experience has led to the emergence of learning communities in other locations. Introduction I first encountered the notion of blogging in an educational setting in June 2009 when a psychology colleague suggested it as a way of encouraging reflection, adding that ‘writing something makes you feel better’. Churchill cites Selingo (2004) as highlighting the popularity of blogs amongst teachers because they 'require little effort to create and maintain, and enables them to give fast feedback' (Churchill 2011, 150). Several studies have found blogs to be a positive impact on learning, e.g. Tsai (2010) with trainee science teachers, Hramiak (2010) with UK trainee secondary teachers. Churchill himself found that 83% Social Media for Learning in Higher Education Conference Proceedings 2015 2 of students in a post-graduate class 'agreed that blogging facilitated and contributed to their learning' (Churchill 2011, 152). There seemed therefore good educational reasons for a blog being part of the curriculum of a professional development course, in this case the PGCert Learning and Teaching in HE (hereafter referred to as the PGCert) at UCLan. A blog was duly introduced to the PGCert in 2011, the initial intended purposes being to encourage participants to reflect on their practice. Over time there grew a desire to more purposefully create a learning community, and the blog was seen to be a vehicle to achieving that. In this case study I show how it was formalised into the curriculum, I explore the learning benefit to the participants, using quotes from postings, and I reflect on my own experience as facilitator. Blog as assessment tool As with all programmes, the learning outcomes of the PGCert have been reviewed over time, but have essentially retained the same principles. The relevant ones for this case study are:  Carry out critical reflection on your own professional progress and plan for future professional development over the long, medium and short term.  Actively contribute to a community of practice  Demonstrate engagement with professional ethics and values espoused by the University and Professional Bodies, regarding inter-alia inclusivity, quality assurance and enhancement Until 2011, the focus of the teaching team was on the first of these, personal self-reflection and identifying ongoing areas for development. We had, perhaps subconsciously, been trying to increase the emphasis on the cohort as a learning community, and to this end we introduced action learning sets into the timetabled workshops, and introduced an option of a blog for a ‘reflective’ assignment. The first blog tool we used in 11/12 was a customised platform from the University’s learning technology group, with the option to share the blog with other participants. In 12/13 we moved to using the blackboard blogging tool, and the blog became a shared space, although there was again no stipulated requirement to respond to blog postings from other participants. In 2013/14 the blog, still on blackboard, was extended to cover both the final 20 credit modules, with a requirement that for each module there be 5 postings and 5 responses to the postings of others. In this year and the next a group from the UCLan Cyprus campus were part of the PGCert cohort. A blog cartoon was also added to the module information pack! Social Media for Learning in Higher Education Conference Proceedings 2015 3 Finally, in 2014/15 we introduced the use of Google+ as the platform for the second module, with the same requirement for a minimum of 5 postings and 5 responses. Educational practice Other studies have analysed complete blogs e.g. Yang (2009) looked for evidence of critical reflection amongst trainee EFL teachers, who posted comments after each classroom session. With these in mind, I have interrogated the blogs from recent cohorts (from 2012/13 onwards), and found three main themes from participants’ postings: a. Reflection on development. Staff have recognised and reported how the process of blogging has helped with their learning, and in some cases with personal development; b. Development of practice. In several instances staff had, or were planning to introduce blogs with their own students; c. Development of community. Many staff referred explicitly to how a community had been formed through the blogging process. These cohere with other reports, and align with the learning outcomes of the course. In Yang’s analysis of the content of EFL student teachers’ blogs, four categories were found which were similar to those identified by Ho and Richards’ earlier analysis of teacher journals (1993): theories of teaching; instructional approaches and methods; evaluations of teaching; self-awareness of strengths and weaknesses. The first theme from the PGCert blogs (reflection on development) aligns with the fourth category of Yang, while the second theme (development of practice) aligns with the first two of Yang. The third theme fits with the concept of communities of practice originally espoused by Wenger (1988). These are now explored in turn. Reflection It was apparent that use of the blog as a writing ‘tool’ did encourage a deeper level of reflection than had been evident through the previous formal piece of reflective writing. In 12/13 one colleague wrote I have found writing a blog does help one to focus on what it is we have learned, and ask questions like: what did Social Media for Learning in Higher Education Conference Proceedings 2015 4 we know before we started the PGCert? and what have we learned along the way? if we hadn’t been writing the blog then how could we discover first hand that this is learning in action? This is a nice instance of where the more informal nature of writing a blog encourages a deeper level of reflection. Other instances of thoughtful reflection were found in the 13/14 cohort. One wrote: I also want to reflect on a response D (tutor) wrote about in the blogmy ‘perfection ism problem’. This has since helped me prioritise my workload and break tasks down into what is the most productive use of my time. Another participant (13/14) reflected on his own procrastination, and then wrote For me, I guess the importance of this reflection is that it has helped me to appreciate that my students may require more guidance about time-management. This was further echoed by one of the participants from Cyprus who concluded the main advantage has been the development of a culture of reflection, one where we as educators do not take things for granted but instead accept the dynamic nature of learning in higher education. In contrast to the previous requirement of a single written piece of reflection, the multiple entries of a blog allow for reflection at different points through the course, and on different incidents in the daily teaching role. Although much of the research in this area, of on-line platforms encouraging reflection, has been with trainee or ‘pre-service’ teachers, the findings do reflect the experience of the PGCert blog. Investigating the web logs of trainee teachers, Bolton and Hramaik (2012) used the term ‘e-flection’ to describe reflections that are both evolutionary and on-line. Several authors conclude that involving the perspectives of others enables the person practicing the reflection to become more critical about their reflection. This was definitely seen with the PGCert, where the exchange with the tutor(s) ‘posting questions and asking for further reflection’ (Yang, 2009, p.17) clearly prompted further (and deeper, more ‘critical’) reflection. This is also in line with the conclusion of Rocco (2010) that ‘Making reflection public seems to have had a positive impact on the quality and style of reflection and interactions’. Feedback from the tutor was important here to identify to the participant that critical reflection was occurring. Since the blog was on-going though, this feedback was formative in nature, allowed for further development of critical reflection in subsequent blogs, and thus constituted a powerful instance of assessment for learning, as advocated in ‘A marked improvement’ (HEA, 2012).