1. DR SONYA ANDERMAHR UNIVERSITY OF NORTHAMPTON E-assessment in English using Blogs

2. Why Blogs? Blogs introduced as part of the assessment on the first year module ‘Writing the Present: Post-War and Contemporary British Literature’ since 2007-8. Rationale: lack of essay writing and research skills among first year students Blogs designed to equip students with skills to learn and write effectively

3. The Assignment Utilising the blog tool, the assignment comprises of 6 online tasks rather than a free-form diary: Complete a MLA bibliographic exercise Provide first impressions of a text Reflect on a seminar Locate and review a paper secondary source Locate and review an online source Select a passage for close reading

4. Skills-based Tasks Each task designed to develop a particular skill, e.g. research, technical, close reading. Regular, consistent posting on range of different texts encourages students to read more, manage their time, and do more reflection

5. Benefits and Disadvantages Benefits for tutors: immediate access to students’ work; ability to ‘drop in’ on their blog Benefits for students: ‘manageable’ tasks and regular, focussed feedback on each piece Downside for tutors: labour-intensive, frequent marking; ‘primitive’ editing tool Downside for students: relatively low word count restricts what they can say

6. Issues/Problems Experienced Level of formality and getting the register right Word length Editing/formatting – difficult to mark, no word count Missing deadlines depresses grades

7. Do the Blogs improve skills? High level of satisfaction among students – tasks not too challenging, ‘transparent’ skills No clear sense of improvement in overall writing skills: some students’ work improves, others’ doesn’t. As with other assessments, the better students do well, the weaker ones still struggle. However, they do learn to find sources and how to reference!