Blog Tool
The Blog Tool provides an online forum, diary or journal. An instructor can allow the entire class or selected individuals to access the blog and add new entries and comments.
Why might I want to use the tool?
With the Blog Tool in Blackboard, the blog can be shared only between members of the class or it can be configured to be shared only between the individual student and instructor or between specific student groups and the instructor.
Blogs in courses can be used for:
- Reflective journals
- Peer review and feedback
- Critical thinking and creativity
Using group or course-wide blogs fosters lively discussion of course topics and concepts. When engaged in written debate, students are motivated to sharpen their critical thinking and rhetorical skills.
Types of Blogs in Blackboard
The Blackboard Blog Tool provides two types of blogs: the Central Course Blog and group or individual blogs.
The Central Course Blog is useful when you want everyone in the course to post to the same blog. Group and individual blogs can be created in any Blackboard content area when you are dividing the students into groups for blogging or when you are setting up different blogs for different assignments and class activities.
The Central Course Blog
The Central Course Blog for the entire course is found within the Tools area of your course. Instructors need to configure and make the blog available via the Control Panel. See instructions on configuring the central course blog.
Group or Individual Blogs
Each Blackboard course site has one Central Course Blog but can also have many individual or group blog sites. To create, configure and access individual or group blogs that are within a Blackboard course or organization Content Area (such as Course Documents, Course Information, Assignments), see instructions on creating and configuring group or individual blogs.
More help
You can get more ideas about designing class activities with blogs and other Blackboard tools by talking with a consultant from the Center for Instructional Technology; email cit@duke.edu to set up an appointment.
For more information on setting up and using the Blog Tool in your Blackboard course:
- See the step-by-step online documentation at Journal LX.
- Click on the question mark icon at the upper right corner of each blog page to open the Users Guide for Journal LX.
- Refer to the Quick Start Guides.
