Two Years of Blogging

Some reflections after two years.

In seventh or eighth grade, I hand-wrote “Dear Reader” articles during study hall. These page-long articles were modeled on newspaper op-eds like the “Dear Abbey” column. I never published these anywhere, and I don’t think I ever showed them to anyone, but I was interested in writing, and I believed these articles would be the start of my professional writing career.

Later on, I continued to write on a regular basis, but I diversified the format. In the early days of the internet, I wrote long emails to individual friends, I sent weekly group emails (newsletters!) to students in college clubs, and I even created a website on free hosting platforms such as Tripod or Lycos. I also enrolled in creative and professional writing courses, and I have kept private writing journals (now mostly cloud-based or on my phone) for many years.

In my academic work, I often wrote response essays as part of a course, and I kept up this habit on my own. These academic pieces have sometimes grown into conference presentations, discussions with faculty, and more formal pieces of writing. I also expand my reflections into weekly email newsletters for faculty.

Two years ago, when I started a new job as an academic administrator, I decided to expand my writing into a blog. I felt that I was beginning something special in my career – a more public position that extended beyond my day-to-day work – and I wanted to have an online platform that would serve as a “home” for my work, a place to tell my tell my story, a source of information for readers, a jumping-off point for larger writing projects, and a way for others to contact me for networking and consulting.

The Struggles

Language, Style, Formality. A blog is supposed to be casual and personal. Unlike an academic report, it is supposed to present the individual voice of the writer, and it often has a unique point of view that is often based on personal experience. I am not sure I have succeeded in doing this. Occasionally, I have written about my readings, my scholarship, my travel to conferences, but mostly I write about academic topics (such as assessment and online instruction), and much of my goal is to provide information and instruction instead of entertainment, even though I greatly enjoy this material on a personal level.

Even in these topics, I try to keep the language conversational, and I try to incorporate stories and a personal tone. I also try to avoid long paragraphs and technical academic terminology. But I don’t think of the blog as primarily a source of entertainment (in the way I do of my other writing platforms). If you would like to see an even more of a personal writing style – instead of an informative-based approach – let me know, and I can try to incorporate more of my own personality into the writing.

Topics. The title of the blog suggests that it will provide personal reflections about higher education. I have tried to stay within the boundary of higher education by writing about academic conferences, assessment, instructional technology, teaching, academic scholarship, and other content related to universities and colleges. But I have also tried to avoid writing about the specific conditions of my school, mostly for reasons of confidentiality. I also try to write about topics that are ever-present in academic discussions and don’t necessarily depend on my own private experiences. But this approach has sometimes made the blog feel less personal than it could have.

Nevertheless, I sometimes wish I could write about more personal topics that go beyond higher education, and I sometimes wonder if I should broaden the blog to focus on my own experiences (personal and professional) instead of a topic-specific blog on higher education. Let me know if you would like to read that kind of personalized writing. For now, I am planning to use this blog for academic topics and to use my other platforms (social media, email newsletters) for more personal topics.

Quality. My blogging has been influenced by the style of other academic blogs such as The Chronicle and Inside Higher Ed and by individual blogs I read on a regular basis. My blogging is also strongly influenced by Tim Ferriss, who argues that blogs and podcasts should be serious pieces of work that can provide content and be informative for a long time. With this approach in mind, I try to provide content that will not only be read but will also be studied, bookmarked, and used later on. Eventually, I think this blog will provide resources for teaching and assessment that can be used for many audiences and for many years.

With this goal in mind, I promote quality in two ways. First, I ensure that the information is accurate and useful. I ensure accuracy by consulting best practices and scholarship, and by describing activities that have worked for me. I also provide specific examples of how the information can be applied, and I use tools like spreadsheets and tables to make the material concrete and easy to adopt. Sometimes this information gets down “into the weeds” of a topic, but I believe that readers benefit from specific examples that illustrate both the process and the challenge, rather than a broad-level, generic explanation.

I also promote quality through graphic design elements. I try to select and create quality images that provide meaning, and I think carefully how the information is laid out, how it looks on the screen, and how it sounds. I was definitely experimenting with the writing during the first several months, and WordPress recently changed its platform, and that took some getting used to as well. It’s also difficult to find free images online, and it takes a long time to produce quality images and handouts, and sometimes this process delays the writing as well. But I am committed to providing an aesthetic and useful reading experience and not only an informative one.

Subscribers. It’s challenging to grow the blog with subscribers who regularly read the content and submit comments. In the first several months, I would post a blog article, and I would be excited to get two or three readers who were not me. But this lack of subscribers often made me question whether I was using my time productively, whether I was having an impact, and whether it was really “worth it.” It is worth it. The blog is online and will always be available for readers later on, and I found that the blog adds a talking point with friends and coworkers. Much of the joy of blogging also comes from the process of writing, and I am not willing to give that up. Recently, I have been sharing my blog posts on social media platforms, and I may eventually try a few strategies to grow subscribers. But the main goal for now is to produce quality content and not to worry about the numbers.

Finalized Projects. One of the goals of the blog was to write content that would eventually grow into a workbook, eBook, or resources for consulting. I have created a few resources (now available in the Resources area), but I have mostly been working on these projects in private, and I have often moved on to new topics of interest. I hope to be able to complete these projects and share them soon.

The Successes

Creative Outlet. The joy of blogging comes from the act of writing, which I have always enjoyed. The blog provides an outlet for thoughts and information I would like to share, and it has become a source of “identity” for me. I now present myself as a “blogger,” and I add that description to my social media as well.

In the past, people believed that knowledge gave them power. That may still be true, but I don’t believe that you get more power by hording knowledge. Knowledge that belongs to one person is hidden, and it often gets lots. Instead, I believe that knowledge should be shared, and that you gain prominence and influence by providing access to knowledge and by translating knowledge into actionable information. My goal in blogging is to provide this actionable information that will be useful for years to come.

I also blog because it’s a great source of joy and personal satisfaction. In both creative and academic writing, I feel that information that is inside of me is burning, and I have to release it in some public way. Even if no one carefully reads the material, I feel that I have done my part to share it, and I feel a great sense of accomplishment and purpose by sharing that material.

Networking. A blog is still considered a somewhat formal writing platform (at least more formal than social media), and I feel there is a level of interest that comes from having a blog. People are willing to read it, follow it, and make it a part of their lives, and this has been a very rewarding feeling – to know that I am a part of someone’s intellectual journey. People are also interested to learn about blogging, so the blog is always a source of conversation when I met new people. I have also made collaborative partnerships with others by asking them to contribute to the blog, and I feel that I can provide a venue for promoting other people’s voices.

Bigger Projects. Although the blog has not helped me finalize bigger projects (like books and journal articles), it has helped me explore a variety of topics, and it has also helped me develop many of these projects, so I feel that the blog has helped me advance my thoughts both in depth of content and also in breadth of material. Hopefully, soon, I can share more of this material.

Thank you for following me during this two-year adventure. I am still excited to blog, and I love connecting with others and sharing my academic story. Thank you for the support you have shown me.