An Investigation of Students' Perceptions of Learning Benefits of Weblogs in an East Asian Context: A Rasch Analysis

In the 1980s we witnessed the dawning of the Information Age. Today, the use of information technology has become an integral part of our lives. Education is no exception. With the introduction of Web 2.0 tools such as weblogs, students are presented a new platform for interaction and exchanging ideas. A review of the literature however reveals few empirical studies examining the relationship of the use of weblogs and student learning. Furthermore, despite the growing interest in research on blogging, researchers continue to overlook cultural variations when enumerating students’ learning benefits through blogging. As such, the purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that are of specific benefits of weblogs in student learning in an East Asian context. To determine this, principal component factor analysis was performed using standardized residuals rather than the non-linear raw scores. The findings revealed four factors, namely, efficiency, deliberation, de-personalization, and collaboration that explained students’ perceptions of the learning benefits of blogging. (159 words)