At the time of the upgrade we applied a slight change in the terminology used to help clarify the available tools for staff.  Blackboard provides two types of blog tools with different functionality. Please see the new names for these below, along with an explanation of what each does:

Shared blogs (formerly called blogs) allow students to see each other’s entries and comment on them. They are designed for collaboration in writing and reading blogs. If you have a shared blog inside of a group then other groups will be able to see the other groups’ blogs.

Private blogs (formerly called journals) are for private reflective journals.  By default, only staff members and the student writing the blog will be able to see the entries and comment on them (though there is an option to allow others to read the blogs if this is desired). If a private blog is set up inside of a group, then that group’s blog content will only be visible to the group members and the tutor. Other groups will not be able to see this content.