The Educational Usefulness and Use of Blogging in Higher Education: Male and Female Iranian Undergraduate Students’ Views

چکیده مقاله

1000 undergraduate and graduate university students studying in social sciences, engineering, science and art at three universities in Kashan, central Iran were randomly selected for the purposes of the survey. The participants’ familiarity with weblogs written in English and Persian, their views about the usefulness of weblogs as an instructional tool in higher education and their actual use of weblogs were studied using a 20-item Likert-scale questionnaire developed for this purpose. The findings of the study showed that weblogs are actually used less than it is believed they should be. Significant gender-related differences were also observed in relation to the values and uses of weblogs. Male university students were found to be more familiar with weblogs; however, female students had a higher opinion of the educational usefulness of weblogs and actually used them more than their male peers. Based on the relevant literature and the findings of the study, it is suggested that the stakeholders of higher education both gain and promote more knowledge of the educational potentials of weblogs and try to overcome possible social factors limiting their use in higher education.