Guidelines for Using Blogger for Teaching and Learning

Blogger is available through Google Workspace for Education. As an Additional Service, Blogger is governed by Google's consumer licensing structure which has privacy implications. This document provides information about the terms and conditions of use, along with guidance on privacy settings and more. The Computing Services Help Center does not provide support for Additional Services.

Intended Use at CMU

Blogger is Google’s tool for individuals and/or groups to create and deliver content via a blog format. For teaching and learning purposes, blogs are one way to help students develop skills as a reflective practitioner and to provide practice for students to build communication and analytical skills. CMU Blogger sites should never be used for the purposes of advertising.

Privacy Concerns

It is important that instructors and students be aware of Google’s terms and conditions for using Blogger at CMU, as it is an Additional Service and is NOT covered by the university's Google Workspace for Education licensing agreement. Additional Services are subject to Google’s consumer app terms and conditions. Therefore, Blogger may NOT be used to share or store any sensitive university information or files considered Private or Restricted. All data uploaded should be considered as Public, which means the information is intended for Public access. For more information see the ISO's Guidelines for Data Classification.

Because Blogger is not protected by CMU's agreement with Google that governs our use of the Core Apps for Education, we recommend the following to ensure additional privacy measures are in place:

Privacy settings

• Limit access - if Blogger is being used for a course, restrict access to only registered students and the instructional team in the course.
• Monitor the Information You Share - if Blogger is being used for a course or student assignments, instructors should not grade or comment in any way that might indicate grades on student sites.
• Adjust the settings
  • Set comment moderation to Always - this will allow blog owners to control the content that is posted to their site.
  • Enable Comment Moderation - this will limit comments to only those reponses that the blog owner would like to display.