The Use of Blogs for Teaching and Learning in UK and US Higher Education

Abstract

Within the last decade there has been a significant increase in the range of Social Media tools that have become available. This has led to a significant increase in the use and popularity of Social Media within many aspects of everyday life, particularly within the UK and US.

One of the areas in which there has been a rise in the use of Social Media is within Higher Education (HE). Within HE there have been reports that Social Media has been successfully utilized for teaching and learning, particularly in the case of blogs. Despite reportedly successful usage there has to date been relatively few empirical studies which have explored whether the use of blogs within teaching and learning leads to an increase in perceived learning by students. This research study therefore provides an empirical study of perceived learning by students when using blogs within teaching and learning in UK and US HE.

This research study adopts a post positivist research approach and a quantitative research design method. Questionnaires have been utilised in order to explore student views of perceived learning when using blogs as a tool for HE teaching and learning within the UK and US. This study provides a framework for student use of blogs within HE teaching and learning and explores whether the use of blogs in this way leads to greater levels of perceived learning amongst students.

The results of this research are analysed using PLS-SEM and have shown that the successful use of blogs for teaching and learning is complex. The results have demonstrated that students do report higher degrees of learning from using blogs within teaching and learning, however, this is influenced by the perceptions students hold relating to digital technology, teaching and learning, previous experience and expectations of blogging.

The results of this study have implications for both HE teachers and HE students and provides a framework which can be used to help ensure the successful use of blogs when utilised for HE teaching and learning within the UK and US in the future.