Augmenting learner autonomy through blogging

Blogs have developed in two major ways: as a personal diary online and as a technologically enhanced multimedia diary that can be manipulated to suit the user's needs. This paper investigates one such blogging programme in India vis-a-vis its effect on autonomy. As a part of their curriculum, the students were asked to create their own blogs. The majority of students being unaware of blogging, a qualitative analysis of the reflective reports showed that it helped the students to be more aware of developing interaction within the virtual space. It also made the students more autonomous since they had to create and edit their own blogs to make them attractive enough for others to visit. The assigned topics also ensured that within the strict assessment necessities of the Indian university evaluation system, the students did not feel that they were doing something 'extra' that was outside their regular curriculum.