Students on the International Foundation Programme Understanding Society module were tasked by Sam Grierson to write 1,000-word Moodle blogs on a subject of their choice related to food. Students were given a large degree of freedom over the subject of their blog as long as they could demonstrate how it related to the topic. This worked particularly well given the wide range of interests among a diverse range of international students. Topics included animal rights, food safety and veganism. The Moodle blogs were used as an assessment tool that was both formative and summative. Students were encouraged to write in an informal style, use a wide range of reputable sources outside of just journal articles and think about hyperlinks, use of images and formatting. After submitting their blogs to Moodle, Sam tasked students with reading and commenting on each other’s blogs and responding to the comments on their own blogs. They then provided a summary statement and submitted the whole piece as a summative assessment.

The main aims of the Moodle blog were to increase student engagement, help students develop skill sets that they could take forward in their undergraduate journey and demonstrate to students the authenticity of this task and how blogs could be used in an academic context.