Examining Patterns of Participation and Meaning Making in Student Blogs: A Case Study in Higher Education

This article reports on the use of blogs in an online course over multiple semesters and analyzes the participation and meaning making between course participants. The authors used a combination of social network analyses and discourse analysis to show the patterns of participation and the types of meaning making over two iterations of the course. The authors identified that patterns of participation were consistent with the course design and that blogs offer a viable medium to engage students authentically in Web 2.0 practices and to support meaning making and collaborative learning. Based on the data, recommendations are made for integrating social media in formal course designs.