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ABSTRACT
The use of classroom blogs in higher education serves to engage and motivate students as well as to help them build a professional online profile and connect with fellow classmates. Although many studies have focused on the implementation and benefits of blogging in education, few have investigated best practices in design, which can have a critical impact upon success. In this study, we proposed a success model for classroom blogs considering the impact of system quality, information quality and user aspects to the net benefit, with an emphasis on user experience design. Finally, we evaluated this model by studying a classroom blog used by 146 college students over the course of 3 academic quarters.
Keywords: Web-based learning, Educational software, Web design and development, Learner-centered education, User satisfaction, Critical success factors
1. INTRODUCTION
A decade ago, Prensky (2001) pointed out that college students have become "digital natives" who grew up immersed in the uses and etiquette of computers, digital cameras, cell phones, text messaging, video games, Internet surfing, and the like. As laptops and smart phones have become more affordable and powerful since then, students' acceptance to new information technologies has only accelerated. They are the early adopters of blogs, wikis, social bookmarking, podcasting, and are frequent users of social network and multimedia sharing web sites like MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube (Anderson, 2007; Zhang, 2009). With these Web 2.0 services and applications, students are used to finding vast amounts of information quickly. Students are shifting their role from passive listeners and consumers to active learners and contributors. The students' digital embrace and the blooming of Web 2.0 technology present immense opportunities to educators who are seeking innovative ways to teach. In this study, we are interested in finding out how educators use classroom blogs to engage and motivate these digital-native students, and what makes classroom blogs successful.
2. BLOGS IN EDUCATION
2.1 Overview
The connection between social software and learning can be supported by the application of constructivism and social learning pedagogy in higher education. Constructivism and social learning theories (Bandura, 1976; Bruner, 1974; Piaget, 1950; Vygotsky, 1978) state that knowledge is constructed based on personal experiences and hypotheses of the environment which are continuously tested by the learners through social interaction; therefore...