Assessing peer support and usability of blogging in hybrid learning environments

Abstract

Blogs provide contextualization of the information which is vital to the process of peer support. Through dialogues initiated by blog authors and followed by readers, blog platforms build a viable base of shared experiences and mutual relationships. We employ blogs as interactive learning tools for communities of practice in higher education. Content analysis based on empirical data is used to gauge the blog technology's potential for encouraging interactions between students and the degree of reflection and peer support exhibited through educational blogs in hybrid learning environments. Investigation of the implications of students' academic achievements on learning preferences is conducted to further assess the usability of blogs with particular reference to educational settings. We conducted content analysis for two consecutive semesters of Programming for Web-based Applications in the fall 2007 and the spring semester of 2008. Results reveal that students offer peer support in the online discussions between class members but they may not demonstrate reflective interactions. The usability study shows a statistically significant difference in learning preferences among students of varying academic performance.

Keywords:

• blogs
• e-learning
• social learning
• peer support
• usability
• evaluation