Why blogging didn't work for me before...

I've had to blog before for class and I ... didn't.
Actually, my classmates stopped long before I did, and when I figured out that if the prof held it against us she'd be holding it against EVERYONE, and them moreso than ME, then I stopped.
(Let's face it, I'm a self serving bitch about grades.)

BUT, why didn't it work? And why am I writing now?

Before, I had to respond to every reading, and also we were required to read everything that everybody else wrote, leave comments, respond, respond, respond. We had writing prompts and discussion questions that had to be answered as well from time to time.

It felt very required and rigid and silly, to be completely honest, and it wasn't something that interested any of us because somehow it had been made boring.

When I took a training class this summer, mostly online, I absolutely hated it. I had to write discussion questions each week on a discussion board, and respond to X number of people. However, 3 of X number of people were Deans from other departments who didn't feel like they had to follow our due dates, so we'd all end up responding to them late--which made our responses late in turn. "Why haven't you responded to enough people?" Well, I don't know, maybe because half of them haven't posted yet!

I yearned for the certification I was earning, and so I was often up posting past midnight to make a deadline.

I was not a happy little student.

And, of course, that sort of online "You must write this much, you must respond this much" system is EXACTLY what I'm required to er, require, in hybrid/blended classes. Crap. There are state guidelines about replacing seat time, and if I don't do it, the school could be sued and I could lose my job. Wonderful.

But I hate those sort of required assignments, I really do. And I don't want to require blogging in THAT WAY in a course here either.

So what sort of ways can students be motivated if they aren't required to respond to certain questions, or even to specific readings, and aren't required to read other people or leave them notes? I'm just INTERESTED here, so it works. But what if I weren't???