“Blogging is a great way to increase student interaction with the class materials as well as current events. Students will also get to hone the skill of blogging which is becoming more and more important for the digital economy.”
–Dr. Aim Sinpeng, Instructor in Political Science
Back Story
I used blogs in 2 courses: Politics of Cyberspace (POLI328D) and Security Studies (POLI360), both 300-level Political Science courses.
How did you use UBC Blogs in your course and what made you decide to do this?
I used the Blog as the course website and for online engagement (student blogs and Tweets).
What has been the result?
Very positive. I had on average 4.8/5 in my teaching evaluation of both courses with many positive comments from students on blogging and how it helped them learn the skill as well as getting engaged with the material. I think that Twitter has been less successful. Having the Course online through UBC blog has made it very easy for me to update my materials.
What are some of the challenges you’ve faced and is there anything about your approach you would improve or change?
Little interaction among students – they didn’t comment on each others’ blogs. I will probably make one of the assignments a review of others’ posts.
Do you have any advice for instructors hoping to implement this in their course?
Blogging is a great way to increase student interaction with the class materials as well as current events. Students will also get to hone the skill of blogging which is becoming more and more important for the digital economy.
