1. Create an OU Blog Activity in your class 

The OU Blog activity allows you setup a blogging activity, typically for a specific purpose. You may have more than one instance in a course if, for instance, you have different aspects you wish your students to write about

2. Configuration

The Individual Blogs setting offers 3 options:

• No (blog together, or in groups)
• Separate Individual Blogs
• Visible Individual Blogs

Either Separate or Visible Individual Blogs is appropriate in this case, as we want each individual student to have their own blog. If you want students to be able to read other student's blogs choose the Visible option, otherwise choose Separate to restrict it to just the student and staff.

If you select No (blog together,  or in groups), you can allocate students into groups and each member of a group will share the blog.

3. Grading

Typically you will want to grade this sort of activity, however blogs by default are not graded.

To change this access the Grade section and choose an option from the Grading setting. 

There are 3 options:

• No Grade
• Teacher grades students
• Use ratings

Teacher grade students is the traditional model where the teaching staff would review each student's blog and award a grade.

In cases where a peer-led grade may be desired Use Ratings allows the students to rate the blogs and this will determine the awarded grade.

You can now save the settings and you have configured a blog as a teaching / learning activity in your course.