clipped from blogsforlearning.msu.edu

One of the advantages to the single course blog is that it provides another place for students to ask questions, and those questions remain public. One alternative is to ask students to comment each week in the comments of the course blog. At first, this may seem as onerous as allowing them to post, but that is not necessarily the case. If you look for large-audience blogs outside of education, it is not unusual for some posts to attract hundreds of comments. If a large number of comments are expected, one of the various Slashdot-style plugins that allow viewers to rank up or down comments on the page can be an interesting and useful addition.