Online writing tools, usch as blogs, can be helpful tools to enhance students’ communication skills and increasing their
students’ investment in learning. These are good spaces for informal or formal student writing and are often an excellent balance between the rigor and structure of a formal written assignment, and the freedom to experiment with ideas and arguments.
Articulate clear rules before you start. It is important to clearly communicate the expectations for the blog before you begin, students will need to know why and how you want them to blog.
Consider spending time on the importance of writing style and grammar. Using a blog is a useful vehicle for providing students with feedback on their writing so that their skills can improve.
Students should be familiar with rules about posting and commenting. Students can often interact with the published content so a comment section allows students to share thoughts and opinions. It's also a good idea to teach students how to comment effectively.
Interactions in blogs can be used as a teaching moment to discuss plagiarism. A blog can also be used to discuss copyright-laws surrounding images and how to find and use copyright-free images.
Blogging can replace other forms of writing. For instance, instead of having students turn in a reading response paper each week, an instructor could ask students to post their responses to the reading on the blog.
Adapted from Teaching with Blogs (Vanderbilt University)