Adding activities (data declaration form required)

Blog

You can include course-wide blogs (where everyone in the course posts to the same blog), group blogs or individual blogs.

You need to think carefully about using a blog in your course. Questions you might consider include:

Do you plan to update it regularly with new posts?
To what extent would you allow learners to comment?
Would you allow learners to write blog posts too?

You might want two different kinds of blog for your course: a reflective blog for each learner that only the learner and tutor can see, and a group blog where all the learners can publish a post and comment.

If your course will not be tutor-supported, a blog might not be an appropriate tool to use.

To add a blog, switch editing on, go to your course’s homepage and click on the + Add an activity or resource button.

This will give you a screen full of options. Click on the Blog icon to open the New Blog page.

Enter the name of the blog and a short introduction to it in the Blog name and Intro fields.

There’s a variety of settings for creating an assignment, each with a help icon that includes more information.

There are further options listed under General that manage comments and visibility, attachment rules, and the number of posts that appear on a page.
Advanced options includes options managing usage statistics, changing the name of the blog and importing posts.
Tags manages tags that are both predefined and created by learners.
Contribution time period allows you to set rules about when posts can be made and if commenting is allowed.
Grade includes options if your blog is part of your course’s assessment and requires grading. If you select ‘Teacher grades students’ in the Grading drop-down list, you can then select the type of grade: if you choose ‘Scale’ you can then choose type of scale; if using ‘Point’ grading, you can then enter the maximum grade available for this activity. Grading can only be used if your course is going to be supported by a tutor.
Ratings include options managing whether your blog will be rated by learners. Rating can only be used if your course is going to be supported by a tutor.
Common module settings includes availability and language options, and is also relevant if your course uses groups.
Restrict access includes the option to add restrictions, if for example you only want your assignment to be available after a certain date, or after a learner has completed another action.

Click on the Save and return to course button.