Abstract:

This article examines the use of blogs by students in higher education institutions (HEIs) in Mauritius as a learning tool. Blogging has proved to be a successful medium for reflections and interactions among students in many contexts. This study looks into the extent to which students use blogging for online interactions and the reasons why they tend to blog or not to blog. Online survey questionnaires were administered to 600 students from three public HEIs offering courses in blended mode, namely the University of Mauritius, the Open University of Mauritius and the Centre for Open and Distance Learning of the Mauritius Institute of Education. The response rate was 72.2%. 24 students and 8 lecturers from three HEIs were selected by using purposive convenience sampling for focus group discussions and individual interviews respectively. The survey revealed that only 29.3 % of students use blogs in their learning and that 40 % of them have never used blogs. It was found that students in Mauritius have a cultural inhibition to share their views, feelings, experiences and knowledge among themselves online though they use social networking sites, the curriculum is too structured, they are cognitively overloaded with too much information through e-learning and lecturers are not prepared to adopt blogging as a teaching tool. 

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