Weblogs

Leveraging Course Leveraging Course Communication using Weblogs:Communication using Weblogs:

A Report on Students’ SatisfactionA Report on Students’ Satisfaction

Leveraging Course Leveraging Course Communication using Weblogs:Communication using Weblogs:

A Report on Students’ SatisfactionA Report on Students’ SatisfactionHend S. Al-Khalifa, PhD

Information Technology DepartmentCollege of Computer and Information Science

King Saud University, [email protected]

Outline

• Web 2.0 area

• Weblog

• Experiment

• Results

• Conclusion

Web 2.0

The New Internet –Web 2.0

The New Internet –Web 2.0

• Dynamic Services vs. Static Content.• Interactive & Customized Web

applications: RSS; Blogs; Wikis; etc.• User-Tagged Materials

– Del.icio.us - Social Bookmarks Manager http://del.icio.us/

– Flickr – Photos http://www.flickr.com

The New Internet –Web 2.0

Social

Weblogs

What is a Weblog?

• A personal set of entries, usually structured in reverse chronological order, published in a web-based log or journal.

Blog Anatomy

Archive Pages

AdditionalPage

Link to comments/Feedback

Categories

What are blogs good for?

1 2 3 4

Comm

unica

tion

Reduc

ing

emai

ls

Posting information on the web without web

design or programming

knowledge

Circulating documents/files/photos

Who is blogging?

• Individuals

• Companies

• Scientist

• Teachers

• Every body

Experiment

Experiment Setup

• A group of 105 female students studying a course in Operating Systems (OS).

• The main purpose of the Weblog was to: – Students’ inquiries (e.g. homework, exams, etc.)– Course announcements and course materials

dissemination (e.g. canceling/postponing lectures/tutorials, uploading slides, assignments, etc.)

– Collecting students’ opinions and feedbacks.– Sharing information (e.g. posting useful links).– Encouraging students’ interactions among them

selves and between them and their instructor.

A snapshot of the OS Weblog

http://cs332.wordpress.com

Results

Questionnaire

• A questionnaire consisted of 7 questions

• The initial sample consisted of 105 students of whom 12 did not complete all of the survey.

Question 1

Question 2

Question 3

Question 4

Question 5

Question 6

Conclusion

Conclusion

• It is evident from the results that most students accepted the idea of using Weblogs in classroom communication.

• I highly encourage using it for classroom interaction!

Thank you!Thank you!

www.hend-alkhalifa.com