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Preparing Students for the Blog Experience

One important consideration outlined in the literature was the need to ensure that students have the requisite skills for successful implementation of a blog.  Ladyshewsky and Gardner (2008) state that students in their study identified a need for blogging to be introduced earlier in the curriculum.  The students also indicated that it would be beneficial to have the opportunity to create their blogs while still at the University. 

In addition to the recognition that students must be acquainted with the use of blogs before using them in a context, several authors emphasized the importance of preparation for reflection.  Beatson and Larkin (2010) maintain that reflective practice is not an innate ability but rather is a skill that students must be trained to implement effectively.  Larkin and Beatson (2014) provide a comprehensive guide to fostering reflective skills that advocates for providing workshops throughout an academic term which introduce students to reflective practice and progressively scaffold their ability to think reflectively.  

They focus their reflective curriculum on what they identify as the 4Rs Model of Reflective Thinking with the 4RS representing:  reporting and responding, relating, reasoning, and reconstructing.  They indicate that the on-campus workshop model provides the opportunity for progressive guided practice in developing the ability to reflect effectively before having to apply that skill in completing critical analysis in a reflective assessment.  The workshops provide the opportunity for students to benefit from both faculty guidance and the support of other students by engaging in group activities (Larkin & Beaston, 2014).  Wolf (2010) states that in her study, the students were provided with a Blogging Guide in order to support the blog activity along with an orientation seminar prior to the placement.

Guiding the Blog Experience

In addition to highlighting the need to adequately prepare students prior to using a blog; authors consistently identify the importance of supporting students and guiding their blog reflection while in the workplace context.  Beatson and Larkin (2010) indicate that it is important to provide specific triggers and prompts in order to encourage effective reflection on practice.  Wright (2011) reports that students in her Twitter project were provided with seven topics as recommended content for their reflective entries. 

In addition to providing prompts for reflections, the need to establish guidelines and standards was stressed in many of the studies reviewed.  Ladyshewsky and Gardner (2008) identified a sample blog entry as a support recommended by students.  

Authors stated that both students and academics recognized the need to set standards for the minimum number of posts required in order to ensure student engagement (Ladyshewsky & Gardner, 2010; Wolf, 2014; Wright, 2011).  

Both Ladyshewsky and Gardner (2010) and Wright (2011) also stressed the need to set deadlines for contributions to ensure that reflection was an ongoing and formative activity.  They expressed a concern that students would not develop their reflective ability as effectively if all entries were posted at the end of the work term.

Challenges

While the studies reviewed provided compelling evidence for the promise of blogs as an effective reflective tool, they identified some challenges that must be considered when implementing this type of assessment.  One issue addressed by Wolf (2011) was the faculty time commitment required to provide the consistent formative feedback needed to guide student reflection.  

She indicates that monitoring student blogs and completing blog-related administrative duties presented a considerable commitment which required the dedication of more resources than initially anticipated. 

Wright (2011) indicated that a limitation identified by students was access.  The project she described involved students who were completing a teaching practicum.  Many of the students indicated that they were not able to reflect in situ as the schools had policies preventing use of mobile devices during school hours.  This was noted as an impediment to the spontaneity and ubiquity offered by the ability to use mobile devices for reflection.

One final issue identified by Wolf (2010) was a concern raised by both academics and students in her study about participating in a blog existing in a global forum.  She states that academics felt that their project was under increased scrutiny given that the blog was available publicly.  Some students expressed that the accessibility of their reflections caused them to be more conscious of how their feedback would be perceived and potentially restrained the scope and depth of their reflection.

COOP Implementation - COOP 290 Setting the Stage

The students will be introduced to blogs and the use of blogger.com in the pre-employment seminar (COOP 290). Currently, the students complete a number of assignments that require them to explore the supply chain career, themselves, and to set goals.  These assignments include skills assessment exercises, a report on an employer event they have attended, and a career plan.  These assignments will be replaced by a blog.  The students will be required to complete a minimum of four entries.  For COOP 290, only the instructor will have access to each student’s blog.  The rationale for this approach is that students may be more restrained in their early attempts at reflection if they know their blog will be viewed by their peers.  .

One class period will be scheduled in a computer lab.  During the lab class, the students will be provided with an orientation to blogger.com and will have the opportunity to set up their blogger.com account.  The reflective assignments will be introduced in this session as well.

In addition to the introduction of the blog in COOP 290, students will also be provided with instruction with respect to reflective practice.  The 4R model and workshop structure outlined by Larkin and Beaton (2014) will be used as a guideline to develop class activities to assist students in establishing sound reflective practice.  The classes dedicated to reflection will correspond with the blog assignments in COOP 290 in order that the students will have the opportunity to apply the reflective skills they have learned in each class.

COOP Implementation - The Work Term Blog

The studies described in the literature presented many options for the design of a blog activity.  Students can use individual blogs that they make accessible to all their peers and faculty.  An alternative presented is to divide the students into teams and confine collaboration to the students in the team.  A final option presented is to establish one blog for the class that all students contribute to.  

For the COOP work terms, students will establish their own blog as this will encourage their focus on the role of the blog in facilitating their individual reflection on their learning experience.  At this stage, it is proposed that a decision about whether to have students make their blog accessible to all students or divide students into teams who will share their blogs will be determined on a term by term basis.  The reason for that decision is that the number of students completing a work term each academic term can vary considerably.  For example, in the 2013-2014 academic year, COOP registration numbers were as follows: 18 students in the Fall term, 14 in the Winter Term and 53 in the Spring/Summer term.  In this instance, during the Fall and Winter terms it would seem that in order to encourage active critical analysis it would be appropriate to grant access to all blogs to all students.  In a term with 53 students enrolled, it may be more prudent to divide the students into teams who would share access to their blogs only with each other.  This would make the review of the blogs of their peers a more manageable activity for the students.

Students registered in work terms will meet in a computer lab for registration.  Given that for many students a considerable amount of time can have passed since they completed COOP 290, part of that session will be a review of the use of blogger.com.  The students will access their blogger.com account or re-establish one if they have deleted their account and set up their work term blog.  This session will also allow the students who will be completing a work term to meet each other so they are introduced to the people they will be collaborating with in their blogs.  In the introductory session, the requirements for the blog assignment will also be set out.  As well, students will create their first blog entry which will ask the students to introduce themselves and analyze their expectations for the work term. 

The students will be required to complete a minimum of five posts.  The first will be the post they complete during the registration session.  The other four posts will be due at the end of each month of the term.  Each post will have a theme provided by the instructor that students will be asked to reflect on in order to focus their analysis.  In addition to the five assigned posts, students will also be required to contribute a minimum of two substantive comments to the blogs of other students.  Faculty will provide feedback for each post in order to assist students in improving their reflective ability.

COOP Implementation - Discussion

In evaluating this proposal, there are some key issues that faculty must consider.  The first is the caution highlighted in the literature with respect to faculty time commitment.  Currently, the academic work is evaluated by the COOP Coordinator which is a 0.5 role with responsibility to: coordinate placement, teach COOP 290, and oversee the administration and assessment of academic work completed during work terms.  In order to provide the thoughtful formative feedback required to guide student reflection, it is likely that the recruitment of additional faculty participation will be necessary.

As well, faculty will have to assess whether blogger.com is the most appropriate program for students to use.  The analysis presented in the literature presents a strong case for its merits.  In particular, its public nature would potentially provide the opportunity to incorporate the participation of members of the supply chain profession (such as COOP mentors and program alumni) in the community of practice as well.  However, the advantages of the use of a public forum must be weighed against the disadvantages.  One important factor to consider is the fact that students complete their work terms in varied workplace settings.  The support of employers for the use of a public forum will need to be assessed.  It may be necessary to consider implementing more control over the access granted as employers may be reluctant to have students discuss their workplace experiences in their companies in a public forum.