Community Building
A graduate program in nursing has been making the transition from the physical classroom to strictly online. Building community is very important to the nursing program and this professor felt that by using a blog, it facilitated building community around students who were only meeting online. Prior to the course being offered online, students made presentations in class about their experiences working in a health care facility. Now they reported on their experiences on the course blog, and asked questions or shared common experiences with one anoher through the blog's comments feature. The blog becomes the central place for students to express their first experences as nurse practitioners. One goal is for the students to make their blog presentations more speech-like and more visual by incorporating images of their facility.
Below is a screenshot showing how the professor and two students validated another student's concern.
This professor noted that because the program is now online it is incumbent on the College to identify new ways for students to derive a social benefit from their educational experience. The blog helps connect these students and may lead them to “feel like a Wildcat.” This may have an important long-term use as well, because if these students identify with the college and university they may become donors in the future.
Posting Assignments
In another online nursing course, the instructor used the blog to post case study assignments. He created the case studies and the students posted entries that comprised explanations of the course of treatment they prescribed. Classmates then add comments, suggest alternative courses of action, or ask questions. This instructor designed his use of the blog to promote critical thinking and asked students to make insightful comments. Where appropriate he asked them to include citations to substantiate an observation. For example, if a student questioned another’s use of a particular drug he wanted to see a reference to the scientific literature that supported use of a different drug. The instructor also used the blog to add his “expert” answer. He commented that he felt the blog experience helped the students feel part of an online community and more connected to each other.
