AnnenBlog: Class project becomes tool for sharing news, making connections

Anyone who thinks that class assignments can be impractical and disconnected from real-world experience has probably not seen AnnenBlog, a class project developed by four graduate students for a communications class at USC's Annenberg School for Communication.

Through AnnenBlog, communications management students Johanna Holan, Tze Wei Leong, David Schlosberg and Eddie West have been providing their fellow graduate students a venue to share information and news about a wide range of topics. From tips on the hottest places to go in LA to prospective jobs and internships, site visitors can create blog entries and share information about anything.

Most recently, posts about what classes to take next semester and which professor to pick are popping up. Holan said professors are even providing feedback for student-generated discussions. This sense of community, according to Holan, is exactly what students need.

"Other than meeting in class and with project team members, we hardly have a chance to network with students of other classes and share our academic journey. We hope that AnnenBlog gives communication management and global communication students this platform for discussion," Leong wrote in an e-mail. "We are currently still testing the site and building in more content based on what fellow students would be interested in," she added.

"Early signs are very encouraging," wrote Eddie West, also in an e-mail.

Holan said posts by regular guest bloggers and student discussions are growing rapidly and that over 200 people have posted to the site so far.

"It’s definitely in our long term plan to have AnnenBlog grow into something that is maintained on a permanent basis, and we hope in the future, more people [will] volunteer to take on more responsibilities and manage the site as well," Leong wrote.

"With ASCMA, the Annenberg School for Communications Masters Association, sponsoring AnnenBlog, AnnenBlog will be a featured website for ASCMA and will be maintained in the future," Holan said.

West indicated that after he graduates, he also hopes AnnenBlog will continue as a student-maintained site that Annenberg and USC will introduce to prospective students as an outreach tool as well as a source for alumni to remain ties with the USC community.

"I think we are all envisioning it as a space that should and will constantly evolve to help meet the Annenberg community's online communications needs," West wrote. "It's an open source effort to create an open source communication space!"

But for now, the founding four's focus is to create more awareness for AnnenBlog and to invite more faculty as guest bloggers.

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