An Academic Blog for Students

Abstract

Beginning this fall, all incoming students in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania will keep blogs of their academic interests and development. Unlike typical blogs, the Penn blogs will not be public. Access is limited to the student, the student's advisor, and, under certain circumstances, authorized university officials. Penn has a long-standing practice of requiring students to complete questionnaires to help guide their academic careers, and the popularity of online forums such as Facebook prompted university officials to introduce the blog format for the questions.Students will be required to make a small number of entries. Beyond that, they can keep the blog as current as they choose. The blog entries will be part of a student's academic record and cannot be changed later. The introduction of the blogs follows a pilot program last year involving 300 freshmen.

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