An exploration into the impact of blogs on students’ learning: case studies in postgraduate business education

Abstract

The research draws from four case studies to investigate the impact of using blogs within postgraduate education. The study explores how postgraduate business students engage with blogs, whether students’ learning preferences correlate with their degree of contribution and how student participation relates with overall achievement. A mixed methods’ approach is adopted using both qualitative and quantitative data. The findings indicate that blogs can contribute to students’ collective and reflective learning, and emphasise the importance of active feedback from the lecturer. Challenges pertinent to using blogs include the choice of assessment strategies and understanding postgraduate students’ goals and expectations. Statistical analyses revealed significant correlation between students’ degree of contribution and their achievement. No significant correlation was observed between the degree of contribution and students’ learning preferences.

Keywords:

• collaborative learning
• collaborative technology
• blog
• postgraduate education
• mixed methods