It can be hard to find motivation when writing papers for college courses, but for students in professor Ron Green’s Media Arts Programming class, there was an added incentive to do well in their writing: a public audience.

Students in his history of art course were required to attend the fall’s Media Arts programs at the Wexner Center for the Arts.
 

During the first 10 minutes of each class period, students wrote responses to the film or talk they had attended. The best responses were published on a public site, the Wexner Center Media Arts Seminar Blog.
 

The Wexner Center’s Director of Media Arts, Bill Horrigan, initially proposed the idea for the blog. The site was set up and promoted by the Wexner Center’s Assistant Curator of Film and Video, Chris Stults.
 

“It seemed like it would be valuable to bring the students’ discussion into a public forum since the screenings were originating outside the classroom,” Stults said.
Professor Green said it allowed students to add a publication credit to their professional resumes.
 

It also provided a method of community outreach, an important consideration for a land-grant university, since it connected advanced undergraduate work to the public sphere, Green said.
 

Though the idea of a public dialogue motivated students in the beginning of the quarter, its influence waned for some.
 

“For those students who did well early and got published, the incentive declined slightly, but for those who hadn’t published early, the incentive to improve was very strong and very effective. The result was a good spread of publications among the seminar participants,” Green said in an e-mail.
 

The public response was inconclusive.
 

While Web site hits increased over the quarter, only one comment was left and it was on the first post.
 

It never reached the sort of dialogue between students and public that was hoped for, Stults said, adding that it can take thousands of people to visit a blog before a substantial amount of commenting develops.
 

Though Stults says it might not make sense for every type of class, both Green and Stults are optimistic for the future of public writing forums for students.
 

Because arts coverage in print is increasingly disappearing, outlets like the seminar’s blog could help fill the role of traditional arts coverage, Stults said.
 

Daniel Guarnieri, a fifth-year in film studies, philosophy and art, was published twice on the blog. His essays covered the recently released French film “35 Shots of Rum” and a talk given by Robert Beavers, an experimental filmmaker.
 

Guarnieri feels the blog introduced a new dynamic to the class.
 

“It makes the class feel more relevant,” Guarnieri said. “If I write something I care about, I want more people than just the teacher to read it.”
 

Guarnieri hopes the practice is continued in the future. “It’s a great thing,” he said.
To see how the blogging experiment worked out, visit wexseminar09.wordpress.com.