Assessing Peer Support and Usability of Blogging Technology

Blogs provide the contextualization of the information which is vital to the process of peer support. Through dialogues initiated by blog authors and followed by readers, blog platforms build a viable base of shared experiences and mutual relationships. We employ blogs as interactive learning tools for communities of practice in higher education. Content analysis based on empirical data is used to gauge the blog technology´s potential for encouraging interactions between students and the degree of peer support exhibited through educational blogs in hybrid learning environments. Investigation on the implications of students´ academic achievements on learning preferences is conducted to further assess the usability of blogs with particular reference to educational settings. Findings also include observations and user survey that are also used in a triangulation strategy for the use of multiple methods and data sources to produce a reliable evidence base for this study. Results reveal that students demonstrate reflective interactions and offer peer support in the online discussions between class members. However, the usability study shows a statistically significant difference in learning preferences among students of varying academic performance.