DR SONYA ANDERMAHRUNIVERSITY OF NORTHAMPTON

E-assessment in English using Blogs

Why Blogs?

Blogs introduced as part of the assessment on the first year module ‘Writing the Present: Post-War and Contemporary British Literature’ since 2007-8.

Rationale: lack of essay writing and research skills among first year students

Blogs designed to equip students with skills to learn and write effectively

The Assignment

Utilising the blog tool, the assignment comprises of 6 online tasks rather than a free-form diary:

Complete a MLA bibliographic exerciseProvide first impressions of a textReflect on a seminarLocate and review a paper secondary sourceLocate and review an online sourceSelect a passage for close reading

Skills-based Tasks

Each task designed to develop a particular skill, e.g. research, technical, close reading.

Regular, consistent posting on range of different texts encourages students to read more, manage their time, and do more reflection

Benefits and Disadvantages

Benefits for tutors: immediate access to students’ work; ability to ‘drop in’ on their blog

Benefits for students: ‘manageable’ tasks and regular, focussed feedback on each piece

Downside for tutors: labour-intensive, frequent marking; ‘primitive’ editing tool

Downside for students: relatively low word count restricts what they can say

Issues/Problems Experienced

Level of formality and getting the register right

Word lengthEditing/formatting – difficult to mark, no

word countMissing deadlines depresses grades

Do the Blogs improve skills?

High level of satisfaction among students – tasks not too challenging, ‘transparent’ skills

No clear sense of improvement in overall writing skills: some students’ work improves, others’ doesn’t. As with other assessments, the better students do well, the weaker ones still struggle.

However, they do learn to find sources and how to reference!