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.