The Open University (OU) Blog and Wiki activities in the Collaborative Learning Environment (CLE) allow for learner-centered, inclusive, and collaborative activities that promote positive student performance outcomes. Let’s explore these tools in more detail.
OU Blog
A blog (abbreviated from “web log”) is a website where an author or multiple authors post on a regular basis. Blog entries (posts) are displayed in reverse chronological order (that is, the most recent post displays highest on the page). Authors can embed hyperlinks, images, videos, and podcasts in the content of the post.
While you have the option of adding a discussion forum to your course, the OU Blog activity is more flexible. It allows you to set up a single blog for an entire class or individual blogs for each participant. Blogs can also be set with visibility restrictions so only certain groups can view them. They also allow for comments, and you can grade blog posts in a few ways. Here are some ideas for an OU Blog:
- Scavenger hunt / project display
- Private journal
Here are some examples of shared blogs that other students can access and comment on:
To learn more about the OU Blog activity, refer to this Help Center article.
OU Wiki
The OU Wiki activity allows students to create a collaborative document by building pages together, similar to pages on Wikipedia.
The OU Wiki can be used to create a community of practice and a shared learning space within a face-to-face or hybrid course. Using wikis for assessment provides students an online space where they can share their knowledge and help them develop enduring skills in multi-modal literacy.
The OU Wiki activity provides a variety of features for instructors such as:
- Saving pages as a template
- A set release time for editing
- Getting statistics on an individual student’s participation
- Ease of grading and providing feedback, including the instructor or grader’s ability to annotate pages
Here are some potential uses for an OU Wiki:
- Create a study resource for exams
- Post group project-related documents research, drafts, outlines, notes, etc.
- Create a course encyclopedia
- Brainstorm ideas
- Group project management
To learn more about the OU Wiki activity, refer to the Help Center article.
